IT IS CLEAR TO ME that the Freundel Stuart administration is looking for a scapegoat for its eight-year-long and continuing abysmal economic performance, and has decided that Dr DeLisle Worrell is to be that scapegoat.
Let us be very clear about this: in the real world of politics, neither a board of management nor a minister of finance fires a governor of a central bank. Rather, any decision of this magnitude would have to be taken by the prime minister and his Cabinet of ministers.
Thus, we should perceive the plan to fire Central Bank Governor Dr DeLisle Worrell as one of the Freundel Stuart administration as a whole rather than as a decision of Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler.
This decision only makes sense if it is recognised for what it is – a desperate attempt to conveniently dump all of the blame for Government’s shameful economic failure on the shoulders of a “disgraced” Worrell in the run-up to a general election.
As all Barbadians are aware, Mr Sinckler and the governor have been hand-in-glove partners during the entirety of Dr Worrell’s tenure. So if there is a reason – on objective grounds – to fire Dr Worrell, that reason must extend to Minister Sinckler as well.
You simply cannot separate the performance and record of Dr Worrell from the performance and record of Mr Sinckler. So if Dr Worrell must go, clearly Mr Sinckler must go as well. (But that is only if one is making an objective, non-partisan analysis of the situation.)
The fact that no decision was taken by Mr Stuart to fire Mr Sinckler suggests that the decision to fire Dr Worrell was a purely “political” decision aimed at providing a convenient scapegoat for the DLP’s failed economic policies.
Barbadians should not permit themselves to fall for this threadbare Machiavellian political trick.
The current DLP administration has thoroughly disgraced and exhausted itself. It has demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that it has no answer whatsoever to the myriad of problems facing our country. It is long past time for Barbados to be released from this dysfunctional governmental administration.
What Barbados needs is not a new Central Bank governor. Rather, we need a new Government.
– DAVID COMISSIONG
