Tonight Prime Minister David Thompson faced the nation one year after assuming office. Barbadians may well feel satisfied that compared to previous governments the Prime Minister has been accessible to the Barbados media. As a footnote, most glaring was the absence of CBC Head of News Richard Cox. The nights event was moderated by CBC’s Michelle Arthur
Here are our thoughts about some of the issues raised during the press conference.
Economy
We were not able to discern that there is a clear-cut strategy mapped to manage the Barbados economy through the anticipated economic crisis. The Prime Minister although he referred to some projects in construction, housing and a few other initiatives to be started shortly, we are not happy with the wait and see approach. We don’t have to be an economist to know that there is a lag period which would impact the rollout of economic policies. Our gut suggests that the Prime Minister is holding a few cards close to his chest.
Corruption
The Hardwood matter and the progress of government investigations into corruption was discussed. Without regurgitating the details our conclusion is that the government is moving on. Any expectation by Barbadians which were fuelled in the last election that former government ministers et al would have found themselves before the law courts or prison may have become a distant desire. Prime Minister Thompson’s position has now changed to: he is not the police and is not in a position to prosecute matters. While this is true Prime Minister the tenor of your responses on the questions of corruption seems to have changed in the opinion of the humble BU household. After listening to the Prime Minister expound on this matter a sense of déjà vu overwhelmed us – business as usual it seems to be.
Immigration
The Prime Minister admitted that a major shake-up is on the way for the immigration Department. He declined to go into detail on the grounds of national security but he did confirm that an amnesty will be coming, especially for immigrants effected by the negligence of government i.e. misplaced files containing applications etc. He confirmed that the change in immigration policy will affect Guyanese most because they represent the biggest immigrant group in Barbados. Again we sense some shenanigans will likely occur on this matter. Our advice to the government if we were able to give it, this is not a matter for politics, the quality of life which Barbadians have come to enjoy is under threat. We concede that it is a messy matter and your sub-committee needs time to properly draft a rigorous and effective policy, we sense the patience of Barbadians maybe running thin on this one. The administrative issue which the Prime Minister referred to which is slowing work permit processing needs to be communicated to James Paul MP and Minister Benn who have alluded in the media to work permit challenges which is affecting efficiency in the agricultural sector.
Other
The issue of confusion on the byways of Barbados was addressed. The PSV issue appears to be active consideration. The sluggish progress on CSME rollout and a few other mundane matters.
Conclusion
Overall the Prime Minister appeared very comfortable in his role and very easily fielded the simple questions lobbed the local press. It seems that he utilized an aggressive posture when he had to interact with veteran journalist David Ellis of VOB. Perhaps he recognized that Ellis provided the biggest threat of those present and it was his deliberate strategy to place Ellis on the defensive.
We applaud the Prime Minister for making himself available to the PEOPLE, our hope now is for the local media personnel to leverage Thompson’s willingness to make himself available by exercising different strategies to source more meaningful information from the Prime Minister. In this regard we suggest the format of the press conference be changed.
Let journalists jostle for the eye of the Prime Minister to ask questions, the current format makes the exercise too passive and easy for the politically savvy Thompson to negotiate.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.