Two things are crystal clear: the public have had enough and in their view – the DLP has so betrayed their trust and confidence that it has lost the moral right to govern Barbados. The out-going DLP has buckled to logical public pressure and has issued a directive to the relevant State agency to forgo the lawful collection of acquiring and paying for Entertainment Licenses this Crop Over season. But how could the DLP seek to collect that money when it gave a company it said was “sound” and well-managed” $10 million? How could the DLP collect fees for entertainment licenses when it wrote-off $19 million for a brand-name entity?
This and “OTHER” incidents are proof that the electorate and the taxpayers of this country, will have to rescue the DLP from itself long before 2013, if it is to be prevented from imploding and doing even more severe damage to this country. DLP operatives collectively being paid some $2.4 million for a 28-day-summer-camp, is scandalous, so too news of DLP operatives operating businesses at the Airport but not paying rent for three years and now owing the Government, in some instances, in excess of $150,000 in rent.
When the Prime Minister was in China, the Finance Minister announced that a Statement of Financial and Economic Policies (commonly referred to as the Budget) will come before Kadooment. We now hear that the proposed “Kadooment Budget” will actually happen much later in August. Is this a strategic shift, given that while in St. Kitts recently, the Prime Minister announced that the country will have a new Chief Justice before the beginning of next month? Or, is the Budget being timed so that a now badly deflated DLP – can salvage something for its base because it is struggling badly to go into its Annual Conference, which starts on August 19th, on a high.
Whatever the reason, Barbadians must remember that having endured unnecessary economic pain since the 2008 Budget, and despite repeatedly pleading for relief ever since – any such relief now given by an extremely weaker DLP – will constitute what former Prime Minister Thompson referred to as: “Political Hush Money.” Citizens of this country must also be aware of the advice given by Mr. Barrow in his “Mirror Image Speech” ‘not to allow politicians to bribe them with their own money.’ And so, given the recent poll (which confirms what the people had known for a long time) the electorate is showing the DLP the “RED CARD” but it remains defiant; power-hungry and desperate.
It was not long ago when the DLP said it wanted more time. On that occasion I asked: “more time to do what.” We now hear that through the up-coming budget, the DLP intends to reduce the deficit and get the foreign exchange earning sectors firing. This is curious, especially since the Medium term Fiscal Strategy (MTFS) presented to the country by the DLP long before the Moody’s downgrade – was designed to do precisely that. According to the DLP, its Medium Term Fiscal Strategy (MTFS) was intended to put the Barbados economy back on track. The Moody’s downgrade is therefore irrefutable proof that the DLP’ economic policies are not only not working but they will not work and if allowed – the the DLP will continue making a bad situation much worse.
In the MTFS, the DLP gave a commitment to: “to reduce the overall fiscal deficit and generate a balanced budget by 2014/15 and a surplus by 2015/16, while keeping economic growth to acceptable levels by focusing on the foreign exchange earning sectors. This will ensure a reduction in the debt ratios to sustainable levels.”
But, even without the Moody’s downgrade, it was crystal clear that the out-going Democratic Labour Party Government had failed to: “ensure domestic and external confidence, in the ability of the Government to manage its resources in an efficient and balanced manner.” The point is: everything the DLP does from here – up to the time it calls elections – will be pure “time-wasting.” And should the people allow anymore time-wasting and bench-warming, the job of cleaning-up the mess the DLP continues to make – will become even more difficult (but not mission impossible) for a competent Team BLP.
You can expect that despite the perilous state in which the DLP has placed our public finances, it will roll-out the gravy-train in the up-coming budget. Do not be surprised when it adjusts the Excise Tax downwards because that $80m BNOC debt has been significantly reduced. Do not be surprised when it reduces Road Taxes, which was a double-burden to pay, for the same ABC Highway, it also borrowed $165 million for. It was announced in the 2008 Budget that the increased road taxes would raked-in $44 million in a full calendar year. Do not be hood-winked by any adjustment in the Land Tax rates or bands because I have been calling for that for more than six months now.
The long and short is: be on your guard! The DLP will attempt to use the up-coming budget, not to “ensure domestic and external confidence, in the ability of the Government to manage its resources in an efficient and balanced manner,” but to bamboozle you and to soften up so you would say: ‘man there is a global financial crisis but this government still giving we an ease!’ My advice to the country is: “Trojans trust not the horse. Whatever it be, I fear the Greeks even when bringing gifts.” Do not let a DLP, which knows that it cannot win the next general election – brain-wash or bribe you with your own money. All such recklessness will achieve, as you would have seen from the DLP’s 1990 fiasco – is to put Barbados again in the hip-pocket of the IMF, which might have already taken-up residence at Bay Street, by stealth.
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