At a public meeting on Sunday, Owen Arthur continued to heap criticisms on the head of our Central Bank.
The Governor’s utterances on behalf of the institution do not square with the views of the Opposition’s manufactured partisan perspective.
The comments of Governor Dr Delisle Worrell are always riveted in empirical data prepared by his technocrats and advisors. These people are the same ones who worked under the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and who are now the targets of attacks.
The politics of vengeance and victimization has continued to steer the political compass of the Opposition. The charade of togetherness among the co-leaders of Owen, Mia Mottley and Clyde Mascoll has not fooled the public! The supporters of the Barbados Labour Party are hoping that Owen behaves himself in public and tempers his utterance towards Mia.
Arthur’s contention of leaving the country on strong footing will not be allowed to form part of our historical political records. The BLP left this country with a litany of financial irregularities which we had to bring to book. Two of the more financially burdensome projects that had to be rescued were the “No Contract” ABC Highway and the United States to Barbados currency Dodds Prisons.
Those who wanted to lock horns are now butting from the same political pen while preaching doom. Arthur and Mascoll have been trying to give the impression that the economic outlook of Barbados was designed by the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and not inherited. However, the people of Barbados know the truth.
There can be no denying that our economic environment was fostered by the rampant unbridled spending of the BLP administration. All evidence points to little regard for fiscal prudence. Co-leader Mascoll’s call for restructuring of the economy is an admission of what we inherited.
The Freundel Stuart Government has been resolute in its agenda of maintaining a strong safety net and keeping public servants employed. We have stayed the course in maintaining dollar parity and reducing the deficit while pushing growth.
On the other hand, Arthur’s solutions, as recorded in his last Press conference, were cut, cut and cut.
“While the Government of Barbados’ investment in areas important to any country’s development – and the advancement of its citizens – such as education and health care are what helped drive this island forward, there comes a time when these resources must be cut back by the state,” he said.
The Opposition Leader added that there comes a time when the Government would have to evaluate how it spends state funds.
“Our position has been that we are reaching that stage in Barbados and that adjustments had to be made to how the state spends, what it spends it on, how it seeks to meet the needs of a society,” he said.
His anthem of cut, cut and cut can only be located in a call for public servants to go home. We have already heard hints of the privatization of several social services and making people pay for essential services. The Opposition knows there can be no cutbacks without sending home public servants.
• Douglas Leopold Phillips is a pseudonym for the Democratic Labour Party.
