OPPOSITION LEADER OWEN ARTHUR yesterday told the woman he and four of his parliamentary colleagues ousted from the leadership of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) that the country and the party needed her.
With Mia Mottley sitting in the general audience at the party’s 72nd annual conference at Deighton Griffith Secondary School, Arthur thanked the former BLP political leader for the service she had rendered to the party and said he thought “the world of her”.
This followed Saturday’s decision by Mottley to withdraw her candidature for the position of chairman of the party, and her accusations that the process to select delegates to vote for that position had been tainted. Arthur did not touch on Mottley’s specific concerns.
However, he said there was no place in the BLP for the forces of destruction. He added there had to be a place for constructive and creative engagement. He noted that there should always be respect for rules and accommodation of dissent and respect for differences of opinion.
“We must also commit ourselves to conduct our affairs in an orderly and disciplined manner, and one which lifts up and burnishes rather than tears down the image of the party,” he said.
Arthur stated that the BLP could not hope to be guardians of the democracy they had created and nurtured in Barbados if they did not promote and practise the basic principles of democracy within the party itself. He stated that the “will of the majority” had to be respected and “must prevail”.
The former Prime Minister said members had to remember that only disciplined institutions could and would be depended on to lead mature and sophisticated societies, especially during times of turmoil. Arthur stressed that there was no place for “institutional indiscipline” in the BLP. He took exception to recent internal disquiet being aired in the media.
“It does this party no credit to have its affairs splashed in the most unseemly way in the public domain as a means by some to have their way. This party has mechanisms in place, which have been tried and tested for resolving any conflicts arising from the management of our affairs – including the organisation of our business conferences such as this,” He said.
St James North MP Rawle Eastmond recently complained publicly about membership recruitment irregularities in his branch. He noted that the list of delegates purporting to represent his branch at the three-day conference contained about 95 per cent registrants who were not from his branch.
But Arthur noted there was no reason why the BLP’s mechanisms for resolution should be avoided while persons took their grievances to the Press as a way of having those grievances aired and resolved.
Eastmond had previously called on the BLP’s national executive council to investigate his case, but this has not been done.
“There can also be no justification for the issue, from any office associated with the BLP, of attacks on its members through any medium, for any reason,” Arthur said, to loud applause.