Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has urged members of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) to head back to their communities and work with the people.
Giving brief remarks during a BLP 87th anniversary church service yesterday at the Garden Church of God, Reid Road, The Garden, St James, she said the party was separate from the Government.
“This party, therefore, however it is constituted or represented in whatever community and whatever parish, has a responsibility now to ensure that we work with ordinary persons in pursuit of what the Charter of Barbados requires of all of us, active citizenship. There is too much in our democracy and in democracies across the world where persons sit back and wait for others to act or to do the heavy lifting,” Mottley said.
Of primary focus should be working with the various institutions, community, cultural and sporting groups to try to reach the young people, the Prime Minister stated.
She made reference to 13-year-old Shawnathon Chase, of Silver Hill, Christ Church, who was fatally shot last Tuesday night while watching a netball match on the hard courts in his community.
“The Government is doing a great job in dealing with our senior citizens. Government is doing a great job in dealing with our disabled citizens, but the Government alone cannot deal with raising our young people and our young children – our parents, our godparents, our aunts, our uncles. I said it this week when, regrettably, regrettably, when we saw a young life taken from us with such promise.”
Mottley said in addition to the physical food they were given, the children
also needed spiritual nourishment to know the difference between right and wrong.
“And to that extent, it means starting them and anchoring them in Sunday school or in whatever religion that they belong to, and being able to have that moral grounding and that spiritual grounding.”
She said there must be a recognition that people came from different religions, but the focus must be on the fact that young people “up to 16, 17, 18 need to be given that anchoring”.
In a message to parents, she reminded them that the ultimate decision as to whether a child went to Sunday school or not rested with them and not the child.
“And until we accept that as the primary responsibility, we’re not going to see change in this country,” she added.
Members of the Cabinet and the wider BLP were among the congregation, including President of the Senate The Most Honourable Reginald Farley, Deputy President The Most Honourable Elizabeth Thompson, Minister of Health Senator The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott and party elders like Sir Richard Cheltenham.
The BLP was founded on March 31, 1938.
(SAT)
