Fresh from criticising the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Government when she was a member of the opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP), Tyra Trotman is now singing the praises of the once-maligned BLP which she says has embraced her with open arms.
She castigated the DLP as not liking women and young people, and said the party as once known
was now dead.
Trotman, a former chairperson of the Young Democrats and who resigned from the DLP last September, was speaking on the BLP platform at Ashton Hall, St Peter, on Wednesday night in support of Chad Blackman, who is contesting the St James North by-election.
“Good evening Barbados Labour Party family,” shouted Trotman from the podium in Corbin’s road, to the soundtrack of the by-election theme song “We going big, we going big. Go big or go home.”
“I am truly humbled by the grace that this party has shown me, but most of all by the grace that Honourable Prime Minister Madam Mia Amor Mottley has shown me. During my tenure as chairperson for the Young Democrats I publicly criticised some of the policies and decisions by this Government, but despite my criticisms I was welcomed by Barbados Labour Party with open arms at the conference last year in October before I was a member,” she said.
The attorney said the same could not be said of the leader of the other place who, she charged, in the face of criticism, allegedly locked out members.
Trotman, quoting late South African president Nelson Mandela, declared: “It’s a great error for any leader to be over-sensitive in the face of criticism.”
She said the “old guard at George Street cannot seem to let go, they ostracise, they humiliate and cast aside any young person who shows any sign of leadership; forcing candidates on you which you, the public, have rejected – not once, but twice”.
Trotman said she was “warned countless times, the DLP [doesn’t] like women. They have a bad history with women. They don’t like young people. I wanted to give Barbados the opportunity to have a reliable opposition if they chose so. But you must not vote for them just because you want an opposition. Dem ain’t ready. A weak or misguided opposition is more dangerous than none at all”. (JS)
