Back in my previous life as a politician, I had difficulty, on occasion, responding to those cynics who suggested the two main political parties in Barbados were the same. There was actually a period in the 1980s and early 1990s when it was difficult to differentiate between the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party, given the similarity of philosophies and approaches of respective leaders.
I recall sitting with the late Rt. Excellent Errol Barrow and hearing him commenting positively on the policies of then Prime Minister, the late JMGM “Tom” Adams. Indeed, political animal that I have always been, I wondered sometimes whether Barrow really wanted Tom’s job back, because he spoke more as an elder or a teacher, than as an opponent.
I recall also, meeting with Adams and hearing him acknowledge a “good delivery” or “a quick one, outside the off stump” from Dr. Richie Haynes. Adams too was very yielding to the political skill and guile of Barrow. He often times referred to how Barrow handled situations as Prime Minister, suggesting for the most part that Barrow’s approach was the preferred template.
The same ran true for the era of Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford as Prime Minister and Sir Henry Forde as Leader of the Opposition. Both distinguished gentlemen had immense respect for each other and they each played by the rules and dictates of ‘putting country above self and party’. Even Owen Arthur, before he became giddy with power, and David Thompson, as Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition respectively, pursued and conducted the business of the country with a civility and a maturity that explained why up to that point Barbados was a leader in the eyes of the region and the world.
Now today, in steps Mia Mottley as Leader of the Opposition and its summer and winter between the two political parties in Barbados and moreso between the government and opposition. Mottley has brought unprecedented bitterness to the office of Leader of the opposition. In the now immortal words of her former and soon-to-be leader, she has turned politics into a “blood sport”, where she gives no quarter and asks none.
Mottley has not agreed with or supported a single measure or initiative of this near two year old administration. Even in non-partisan matters such as the Ryan Brathwaite homecoming, she adopted a contentious and adversarial posture; boycotting the event, ostensibly because she didn’t get her invitation on time.
Then in most bizarre fashion, Mottley called a press conference to state her opposition to fingerprinting of persons entering and leaving Barbados. Big deal! Of all the issues of concern to residents of this fair land, that is what Mottley was most concerned with and distressed over. Fingerprinting is a universally accepted component of heightened security. It’s an issue of national security. A Prime Minister-In-Waiting, should never go on record as opposing such, because, that person could one day be the “Commander in Chief” and such would and could be expected of them. There are no votes to be gained from opposing, merely for the sake of opposing.
I wrote last week about the ludicrous objection by the Mottley-led BLP to popular schemes such as the elimination of bus fares for school children and the provision of holiday camps. This Opposition is so out of touch that it returned last week chastising the Minister of Transport for complaining about the reduced number of buses on the road. The BLP actually blamed the introduction of free travel for school children on the challenges the Transport Board is having in putting a desired number of buses on the road each day. Big deal! The buses are not placed on the road for show. They are placed on the road to serve the needs of the travelling public and Prime Minister David Thompson is saying school children are an integral part of the travelling public.
I do not know if politicians on the other side are talking to each other, but this opposing for the sake of opposing is becoming offensive to many, including persons who are not supporters of the government. Somebody should tell Mottley that she will never get Barbadians to oppose the removal of bus fares for school children. She will never get a majority of Barbadians to oppose holiday camps. These are futile political battles!
You simply will not win public support that way. If every time the Prime Minister speaks you predictably follow with a dissenting opinion, you sooner or later become so nauseating, that no one wishes to hear you.
Almost every Sunday, for the past year or so, Mottley has journeyed to a school hall somewhere around Barbados, peddling a message of gloom and doom for the Barbados economy. Anyone hearing Mottley in October of last year or in the months that followed would have feared that by now the Queen Elizabeth Hospital would have closed its doors and that public officers would have been owed three to four months’ salary.
Each week, Mottley paints a “grimmer and grimmer” picture of the economic landscape of Barbados. Indeed she and her nemesis are trying to out-forecast each other. There is never a bright spark. Think of it, Dear Reader. When was the last time you heard anything positive or uplifting emanating from the Leader of the Opposition? There is never a ray of hope. There is never a single initiative of the government worthy of credit or praise. Each week, we are told we are on the precipice. Disaster looms. Yet, social program after social program is rolled out by the government, much to the benefit of the most vulnerable in our midst.
The reaction of the opposition is to claim that such social programmes are unsustainable and will not lead to growth. Well, I do not consider myself competent to lock horns with the economic gurus of the BLP, but what I would say is that we had 14 years of “economic geniuses’ at the helm, and the gap between the have and the have not in Barbados grew wider.
Fourteen years of boom and the communities that were in poverty 14 years ago are still in poverty today. The persons that were marginalized from the economic mainstream 14 years ago are still feeling marginalized today. That is why the new government has established constituency Councils. That is why it has sought to revamp and reform the Urban and Rural Development Commissions. That is why it has streamlined and consolidated several money handling institutions, especially those charged with funnelling aid to small and medium sized enterprises. That is why it has embarked on a program of passing at least 40 per cent of government procurement through the hands of the small man.
All these attempts have been made by the David Thompson administration to tear down the walls that stood in the path of the ordinary man and woman progressing, and all one has gotten from Mia Mottley and her party, barring a few outspoken Members of Parliament, is criticism and ridicule. Mottley sounded quite disappointed a few weeks ago at the news that unemployment was contained to single digits. It was as if she was praying for her 15 per cent unemployment prediction to come true.
I started this article by referring to the difficulty one had 20 years ago differentiating between the two main political parties. Today, thanks to the strange politics practiced by the Leader of the Opposition in particular, the difference is obvious.
It is obvious to the thousands of Barbadians who once again feel a part of this great country, and who are benefitting from the enlightened social policies of the new administration. Such policies, we are told, would be discontinued by the Mia Mottley-led BLP.
What a pity!
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