BLP legacy: set up the National Training Board to provide youths with skills training and work experience; started the financial services sector; built the new and modern General Post Office at Cheapside; and established the National Sports Council.
People who had the tolerance to closely follow the proceedings of the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) recent 56th annual conference should have better understood why Opposition Leader Owen Arthur was forced to describe the 2011 Budget as a “nothing” measure.
For since it is generally accepted that a political party and its highlighting annual conference are expected to be the breeding ground for ideas, intellect and visionary leadership that flourish in its policies and programmes, then we have an illuminating insight into why Chris (“Unclear”) Sinckler’s Budget was so clearly badly starved of the rich thinking and proposals that had been greatly hoped for by a suffering and demoralized public and a malnourished business sector.
That is why based on the extensive media coverage of the three days of speechmaking at George Street, the public could not help but conclude that not only was Owen Arthur exceeding accurate and charitable in his assessment of the Budget, but that the same label would have to be attached to the gathering, henceforth to be known as the “Nothing Conference”.
Despite being generally badly let down by both the content and style of the Government’s presentations to the Budget debate, especially by such prominent personalities as Sinckler and Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, the ever hopeful public had nevertheless been yearning for a much improved performance by Stuart in particular, given that it was the first time he was addressing the conference in his own right as Prime Minister and president of the DLP.
But once again the country’s hopes were cruelly smashed.
Traditionally, its leader’s address is considered as the major highlight of the party’s annual conference. So to say that Stuart’s presentation fell flat would be to imply that it got off the ground and thereafter fell. But it could not have descended since it never ascended.
Thus what the party faithful and by extension the public got through CBC’s broadcast of it in full was more of the same of what he and his colleagues had just served up in the House of Assembly. Not the slightest hint of his long sought after national vision and nothing at all that was inspiring and encouraging.
Just more of the Barbados being the helpless victim of the international economic situation.
The public badly wanted to hear Stuart’s authoritative views on matters of concern and of which little or nothing was said in the Budget debate. Such as charges that BNOC had recklessly gambled with oil “futures” causing us to be paying more for gasoline, diesel and electricity when prices are falling internationally, bearing in mind that the energy sector is part of Stuart’s portfolio.
Not to forget the still rising cost of living and problems with the Barbados Drug Service.
Meanwhile, the question is if the non-presentation of the DLP’s 30 candidates as promised had anything to do with dissatisfaction over the selection of some. Apparently not even Stuart’s speech settled the controversy with petitions of objections, along with more letters to newspapers being threatened.
