Barbadians had to debate the issue of the former Opposition Party walking out of parliament in response to what they alleged were unfair rulings by the former Speaker of parliament Ismael Roett during the Hardwood no-confidence motion. Much has already been said and written about whether the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) controlled parliament was partisan throughout the whole affair. BU have written voluminously about these matters. There is no doubt that the BLP sought to manipulate and frustrate the debate of the Hardwood Affair. History will determine to what extent it played a part in the downfall of the former government.
That’s not the point of this blog!
There was much debate by the public about how they viewed the behaviour of the Opposition Party. We remember the shouting and the verbal wrestling between MP’s. The Speaker fought a mighty battle to maintain ‘order’, or did he? Some felt that the way they dealt with the Hardwood no-confidence motion outside of the parliament was an insult to the Speaker’s chair and to the parliamentary process which Barbadians hold sacrosanct. Others felt that Thompson and his fellow MP’s were within their right to exploit what the system offered them on what everyone knew was close to a general election. In fact, many of Thompson’s supporters offered the argument that after being accused of being a passive force for many months leading up to the general election, by his action of exploiting the rules of parliament, he exposed a side of his personality which caused Barbadians to sit-up and take note.
Again, just as the parliament ended last year so it seems to have started. There has been fireworks galore this week at the start of the estimates ‘debate’. We will not bore our readers with the details, because we think there has been too much grandstanding and huffing and puffing. To summarize what Barbadians are witnessing is a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) under the leadership of a youthful and hungry Mia Mottley ‘pissing’ to mark their boundary in the early psyche of Barbadians. Mia knows that with a world recession on the loom she has a good chance for a shot at Prime Minister in five years.
But what of the behaviour we are witnessing in the Lower House these days? Is it that the people who occupy the Speakers chair are not respected and hence we are seeing a willingness by MPs to react to the person and not to the rank? In the same way that we see a Senator entering the Upper House with his hair plaited in corn rows, are we seeing a more aggressive style of debate which mirrors the changing times we are living in?
We sit in front of our TV sets and witness MPs in the parliaments in Eastern Europe and Asia swearing and throwing fists in the heat of parliamentary debates. Why is it that the sensibilities of Barbadians are being touched when our MPs appear to be a little aggressive during debates? We have news for Barbadians; it will get increasingly more so because the style of debate is no longer centred in the body of knowledge which the MP possesses. It will become more and more about the management of the PR machinery to maintain the individual’s popularity and pecking order within the party. No longer will the Lower House be a place where a young person who is interested in acquiring knowledge, not only of politics but current affairs be encouraged to visit. It has all been replaced by ‘fast food’ debate. Some of us still salivate at the epic debates which the late Errol Barrow, Tom Adams, Bree St. John, the fiery Harold Blackman, the verbosely eloquent Don Blackman, the still living Ritchie Haynes and Brandford Taitt of the more recent vintage. To hear the politicians of our past lambasting their opposition counterparts by the artful use of knowledge and language is a political fest which our current generation has been robbed.
This blog was inspired by the family barber. We agreed with his animated discussion today that it is hard to separate duck from fowl in our House of Assembly. They all appear to have no sense of what history demands of them when they enter that August chamber. No wonder we are seeing no respect for tradition in the dress of some of the occupants. No wonder at a national tribute to a Barbadian recently our Prime Minister can be glibbly referred to ‘like a boy in the place’ and we have a university staffer rushing to defend the mediocrity. No wonder our youth continue to emulate non-Barbadian role models.
We don’t know if we can go as far as our dear barber by agreeing with his observation that a higher standard of debate can be found in most rum shops!
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.