The recent CADRES poll commissioned by the Nation newspaper has generated the usual debate, especially given the peculiar circumstance created by the Prime Minister’s illness. At the top of the discussion for many Barbadians has been the insensitivity of the part of the poll which dealt with identifying a successor for Prime Minister David Thompson. BU is on record to admitting not being a fan of political polls. In our opinion political polls can act as opinion shapers.
Disappointing in the current discourse when assessing the government’s performance to date has been its inability to rollout several pieces of legislation – Freedom of Information, Integrity Legislation and the New Immigration Act. Barbadians who followed the last political campaign may recall that the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) built key messages around delivering the mentioned pieces of legislation as a matter of priority on assuming office. Although Attorney General Fruendel Stuart has been heard to promise that the legislation will be forthcoming soon, there is a feeling that delivery has been long in coming.
BU continues to be concerned especially in the case of the New Immigration Act. The Town Hall meetings which were held to discussed the Green Paper exposed a loose immigration structure which needs to be fixed pronto. The business of preserving our national security should be a priority for a sovereign nation in the current climate of rampant cross-border crime. Bear in mind tourism is our business.
Why does the Attorney General need so much time to draft the amendment to the Act? If one is to measure the work rate/productivity coming out of the Attorney General’s Office by the number of items brought to be debated in parliament – seems they have not* been busy campers!
On the subject of what most sane Barbadians see as the need to amend our loose immigration laws, BU was intrigued by recent comments in the press attributed to Sir Hilary Beckles. Beckles continues to to obfuscate the immigration issue by his rants that Barbadians of all the Caribbean islands have been the most migratory. Why is it these academics continue to misrepresent how most Barbadians feel about the immigration issue? Yes we had a few people who have been extreme in their views on the subject but Beckles should not use rhetoric to hide the substantive concerns of Barbadians. A search of BU blog using the word ‘immigration’ should highlight those concerns. Sir Hilary why did you not attend the Town Hall meetings to hear first hand how Barbadians feel on this issue? Is it that your mind is already made up to believe Bajans are xenophobic? If you had attended the Town Hall meetings you would have heard the Chief Immigration Officer, Permanent Secretary and other senior officials all express concern about the need to tighten our existing immigration legislation. One must question the motive of Sir Hilary who insist on prioritizing one side of the debate which promotes Bajans as being xenophobic.
Our parliament continues to be closed at a time when there is obvious work to be done. If we were to fairly grade Attorney General Fruendel Stuart’s performance he would get ‘requires significant improvement’. Surely the productivity of the AG must be measured based on the volume of draft legislation generated!
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