IT IS VERY CLEAR that the Government is intent on ignoring all the vital economic signs and is preparing to do whatever it takes to have a chance in the next general election.
The minister of finance is now putting a case for the return of economic growth (1.6 per cent) in 2016, after eight years of decline. He speaks of an improvement in the fiscal accounts that gave birth to the printing of extraordinary amounts of money.
He attempts to explain the poor performance of the foreign reserves during the height of a winter tourist season that was supposed to record-breaking. He trivialises the mounting debt that in relation to national income is the fourth largest in the world.
What he cannot brush aside is the emotional state of the collective Barbadian. The political journey of this Government started in 2008, when promises were made to make Barbados better. It continued in 2013, when evidence was already available to show that things were worse. Every reason, other than to look at the man in the political mirror, was suggested as the cause for decline.
A clear strategy was devised to separate the economy from the society. In the philosophical world that Prime Minister Freundel Stuart lives in, economic figures are mundane. For him, they do not speak to the condition of the human being. The real intellectual mind does not obsess itself with such routine. It prefers to dabble in the past and put context to the future, without reference to economic data.
Even in the place most known for nurturing our emotional state, it is recognised that the well-being of the individual cannot be separated from the provision of a meal, a bath or a bed. To provide these basic amenities in a typical household, it is appreciated that income must be earned.
It is in the pursuit of earning such income by individuals that the Government’s chance to get revenue is properly determined to meet its basic needs. In this sense, the running of a household is akin to that of a government.
If either entity wants to do more than the basics, it must plan. The planning involves having something left after the basic needs are met. It is called saving. The focus on such saving was and still is the essence of the proper fiscal strategy to deliver on the political philosophy of democratic socialism. At its core, this philosophy translates to giving equal opportunity, especially to the most vulnerable.
The notion that the earning of income in a household or the raising of revenue by a government can be ignored, in the pursuit of improving the human condition, is pompous. However, it is equally recognised that the proverbial hat must be hung where it can be reached. Of course, like a household, a government must live within its means. To do otherwise is to court disaster, which is precisely where this country has been unfortunately led.
The irony of all that is transpiring in Barbados is that Errol Barrow set the tone for managing a post-Independent Barbados in 1971, in his Budget speech. He outlined his belief in the role of government, but cautioned that it had to be sensibly pursued.
Barrow stated that “my confidence in this approach . . . has been more than fortified by the steady, relentless growth of our economy and the accumulation of surpluses, which has assisted in defraying part of the cost of our capital expenditure during the same decade”.
There are three things to note from the quotation above that are very relevant to today’s Barbados. In the last nine years, the Government pursued relentless economic decline through its policies to stifle the consumption of Barbadians in protecting the foreign reserves. On the current evidence, this strategy produced a smaller economy.
Over the period, the Government accumulated massive deficits on its current account. So rather than defray cost, it caused astronomical growth in the country’s national debt. Yet, the country’s road network and infrastructure have deteriorated. The strategy has therefore failed, but unfortunately, it has compromised the hopes of the current and future generations of Barbadians.
What is perhaps most frightening is the institutional decay that has attended the economic mismanagement and social degradation. Institutions that were once revered are now reduced to accomplices of a leadership that treats mediocrity as success.
Barbadians are now expected to forget the last nine years. The last-minute rush to form a think tank comes more than two years after the suggestion by the Opposition Leader.
• Dr Clyde Mascoll is an economist and Opposition Barbados Labour Party advisor on the economy. Email: clyde_mascoll@hotmail.com