BARBADOS IS IN serious crisis, warned Leader of the Opposition Mia Amor Mottley yesterday.
And she called for urgent action to take the country out of the economic and social quagmire it now finds itself.
Mottley was responding to Minister of Agriculture Dr David Estwick’s observation that the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Government’s policies would have largely contributed to the fiscal crisis the island is enduring.
Estwick’s statement came during his presentation to Cabinet on Thursday when he was allowed to present his alternative plan to solving Government’s fiscal crisis.
Mottley, the leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), said she read what Estwick was purported to have told his Cabinet colleagues and wondered how anyone armed with these facts could remain silent and non-responsive.
“The issue now is not so much about David Estwick but about the sobering reality of the 2014 Barbados that he has revealed,” she said.
The St Michael North East representative said her party remained deeply worried about where the country was today and the need for urgent action.
Lamenting that too many people in Barbados were suffering, Mottley said what was needed was for “good men and women with a love for Barbados to stand now in its defence”.
Mottley stressed that Barbadians needed to focus on the message on how critical things were in the country, and not on the messenger.
“Even though we understand why certain special interest groups would have trivialised what persons like Clyde Mascoll, Owen Arthur and myself have been saying for the last five years, we would hope now that with the same message coming from a senior minister of Government, persons with influence would wake up to the reality of the grave economic crisis that confronts us,” said Mottley.
Meanwhile, no comment was forthcoming from the two key people in the DLP and the Government: party general secretary Donville Inniss and Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.
Inniss would only say: “David Estwick spoke as a member of the Cabinet, therefore all queries in respect of his alleged comments in said capacity should be directed to either Dr Estwick or the Prime Minister”. Telephone calls to Stuart went unanswered.
(SP)
