Submitted by People’s Democratic Congress (PDC)

Yes!! Absolutely nothing at all coming out of this year’s Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals that were delivered by the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, The Honourable Chris Sinckler, on Monday, 22 November, 2010, and coming out of the Reply by the BLP Opposition Leader, The Honourable Mr. Owen Arthur, the next afternoon, has suggested that these two political scions and their respective parties – the DLP and BLP – have a proper firm grasp of the severity of developmental crisis engulfing Barbados at this stage.

Truth be told too, neither of these gentlemen, in their insubstantial perorations, would have indicated the stage at which they wished to see Barbados within the next 25 to 30 years, far less uttered a statement on what developmental models, strategies, issues are needed to be engaged now by the government, the social partnership, civil society and wider Barbados, in any possible bid to pull the country out of this vicious developmental crisis, and to ultimately see the elevation of the country in the pecking order of international states.

So, as far as the People’s Democratic Congress (PDC) is concerned, with the very odious, backardist, fiscal budgetary measures that this DLP Government has introduced this year – e.g. the atrocious 2.5% increase in the so-called  VAT, the brutal increase in the so-called Excise Tax on gasoline, and the horrendously ill-timed increase in bus fares from BDS $ 1.50 to BDS $ 2.00 –  on top of the very harsh fiscal measures that it imposed in 2008 and kept in 2009, there is and must be every single possibility – barring popular intervention – that these recent measures, as well as this week’s, are and will presently be helping inevitably to push this little country further towards becoming a second rate so-called Third World Developing country in the said next 25 to 30 years. Right!!! And we have talked about this several times before!!!

Where the Parliamentary Representative for St. Peter is concerned, it is clear that his presentation was essentially divorced from dealing with the Budgetary Proposals. A few instances  in support of this reality are: his lengthy ad nauseum, droolish, dribble on the non-implementation of promised DLP Governmental projects; some outlandish comparisons of the gross government debt of Barbados with those of a few industrialized countries; his very irrelevant ill-timed reference to a perspective of the late Right Excellent Errol Barrow on government debt accumulation; his comments on the archaism of  exchange controls, even as he stated earlier on in his speech that the VAT should not have been increased, but that the government’s shares in the BNB should have instead have been sold to raise the amount that would be brought in by the VAT increase. Whew!!!

Indeed,  most of Arthur’s reply showed that his political thinking is still rooted in the long gone by dominant political material trends of 1980s and 90s, with little or no 21 st century socio-political forwardness having been demonstrated. Also, his massive failure to outline the contours of a likely modern developmental path for Barbados has led us to believe that he would like to see the logical development process of the country stuttered more, and, which by that very token, is, for us, a possibility that we in the PDC would never like to see happen. We believe that  the more progressive Mia Mottley must have been hanging her head in shame at Arthur’s type of failing at this juncture!!!

Well, in the Budget Debate itself, the speaker who best attempted to come to terms with the issue of development for Barbados, but who though in his political oratorical emphases was still very disappointing was the Prime  Minister, Mr. Freundel Stuart.
For, on one hand, whereas the DLP Political Leader lamented that at this juncture there was hardly discussions taking place on notions/theories of development anymore within the region a la William G Demas, and insisted that he was prepared to talk  development within, what we assume, are the councils of CARICOM and other bodies, on the other hand though, we were taken aback when – in his seeking to falsely glorify Barbados’ fiscal position and that of Minister of Finance of Barbados – he sought to validate our position by making illusory references to the certain negative western happenings – re the fiscal/economic positions of Ireland, Greece, Spain, United Kingdom, etc. and the thankless jobs their Ministers of Finance have at this stage.

We were also flabbergasted when – in seeking to justify the evil scourge of TAXATION in Barbados, he referenced his way all back to Caesar’s time ( a time he does not know himself), when he claimed that Caesar spoke about TAXING the world, and when he talked nonsensically about TAXATION being necessary, about how the government of Barbados has TO TAX from time to time in pursuit of certain objectives, and about how the Barbados government has to impose TAXATION to pay the persons it employs.

What also made us cringed was his failure to address the very important aspect of the Lockean philosophy of limited government, as a fundamental philosophical pre-requisite for the rationalization and building of a new state government sector for Barbados.

Well these latter issues, of course, have brought us to the main  thesis of today’s PDC commentary – which is this, that at this stage, the government with its big bloated size and its big brother philosophy, do constitute the biggest obstacle to the development of this country, politically, materially speaking. The government has, in many known ways, become a stymie of the greater freedom and democracy that are necessary to usher in a greater phase of progress and development for this country.

The anti-thesis of this very fact is that the government as it stands now is in no position to lead us out of this very severe developmental crisis that Barbados is currently experiencing, if only because the government continues to be the prime votary of many of these neo-colonial euro-centric westernist dependency/exploitative strategies and policies (TAXATION, INTEREST RATES, INSTITUTIONAL REPAYABLE PRODUCTIVE LOANS, MOTOR VEHICLE INSURANCE, HIRE PURCHASE, etc) that are have been designed to make sure that Barbados and other countries like Barbados move from being so-called developing countries to being so-called lesser developed countries.

As such, the Prime Minister must be told in no uncertain terms that there can be no discussions taking place anywhere in the Parliament of Barbados, or whosesoever else, on modern notions/theories of development for Barbados and the region without at the same time discourse taking place anywhere on the ABSOLUTE NEED TO ABOLISH TAXATION in this country, other countries of the region and the rest of the world, and on the ABSOLUTE NEED TO REDUCE DRASTICALLY BUT PROPERLY THE SIZE OF THE GOVERNMENT  – as major thrusts forward towards ushering greater levels of social and human freedom and development in these parts.

He must be told too – since he failed to address the following crucial aspects in his speech – that the government must no longer continue being an unproductive sector, wherefore – via this said EVIL TAXATION SYSTEM – it has continued to steal about BDS $ 2.6 Billion in income from the relevant citizens businesses per year on average for the last ten years or so, wherefore, it has outrageously spent about BDS $ 3.5 Billion per year on average for the last ten years or so, without earning even a small portion of it; wherefore it continues to borrow millions upon millions of dollars yearly – but with no real existing capacity of its own to repay even as it put itself in albatrossic gargantuan debt situations; and wherefore, it and its workers hardly produce manufacture any goods commodities at all ( other than many houses ) in this country, even though it is clear that it and these workers are eminently capable of becoming owners of their own means of production,  of marketing and selling their own skills services, etc.

Finally, what  the Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals, the Reply, and the ensuing debate, and the peripheral issues about whether government’s so-called expenditures or so-called revenues should have been cut or raised to whatever extents, and the notion that there is a severe fiscal crisis existing within government’s financial accounts, and the useless frivolous debate about whether this government is building a society or an economy, do show is the fact that they pale far far in significance to the fact that these issues themselves can only be permanently resolved if the government becomes leaner and more efficient, respects the property and income rights of others, becomes a productive sector, greater-more earns its own revenues, borrows within its own capacity to repay, and such like.

Indeed, by government continuing to  ignore these fundamental concerns into the very long term shall mean that Barbados will go deeper and deeper into developmental crisis, and may even enter into a stage of de-development with dire consequences for the future stability and prosperity of the country.