This government has got its priorities back to front – from the attempted putsch against its silent leader, to the disgraceful apparent decision (not yet made officially public) to pump $50m of taxpayers’ money in the black hole that is Four Seasons, to the unforgivable reluctance to settle the Al Barrack affair – it all points to a government that has lost its moorings.
First, the disgraceful way in which Mr Barrack is treated shows the contempt for which this government has for the individual citizen. What compounds sit is that the same government, on bogus financial and macro-economic grounds, issues guarantees and offers to spend taxpayers’ money as if it is going out of fashion. Government could have settled the Barrack Scandal ages ago by offering the businessman a drawdown facility from the central bank, for example, of Bds$1m a month, part cash and part in settlement of debt, thereby allowing him to pay his debtors, while at the same time steadily reducing the debt. That it has declined to do so is reflective of its institutional arrogance, knowing full well that our courts have limited powers over the Executive and there is very little that Mr Barrack could do about it. Voters should take note.
The alleged plot against the prime minister would be a destructive sign of disloyalty at any time, but just when the nation is crippled by the worst economic crisis in its entire history, makes it nothing short of treason. While ordinary taxpayers were worried about how they were going to pay their next bill, plotters were busy undermining his authority for no real purpose apart from self-advancement and to fuel inflated egos. Is their objection to Freundel Stuart one of policy? If so, what new and different ideas do they have?
It is widely assumed that the Crown Prince is Sinckler, but the damage he has inflicted on the economy, along with his reckless guardianship of national finance, typified by the Four Seasons debacle, should not only put paid to any ambitions he has of being prime minister, but of ever holding high office again. Of course, the latter will not be the case, since the talent pool in the ruling party is very small and members of parliament of even modest ability can be confident of winning a seat at the Cabinet table. Even so, the grim reality is that Stuart failed to provide leadership to his colleagues in government, to his party and to the nation. That he failed to provide leadership to his party is an internal affair for members of that august body; that he failed to provide leadership for the government, and more so to be a voice of reassurance to the nation in these dark times is unforgivable. Maybe his forte is not economics, but then it is not evidentially that of the finance minister Chris Sinckler either.
But, there is a wider public policy brief which Stuart could have taken under his wings; in any case, he is the bandmaster, as leader, not a soloist with a single, if important, brief.
In any case, Stuart has made a number of basic strategic mistakes, including his refusal to reshuffle the Cabinet on Thompson’s premature death; and, in particular, not calling a general election at a time when the Opposition was in disarray over its leadership. It is ironic how things have turned out. More fundamentally, apart from Stuart’s personal and professional humiliation, is the democratic deficit the attempted putsch reveals. An unelected prime minister, anointed by a dying leader, and now presumably a new leader unelected by voters and put in place by a small cabal of his parliamentary colleagues.
What the DLP can now do, putting the interest of the nation before party, is to call a general election so that voters can have in say in whose guardianship it has the most confidence. Holding on to power at any cost, even at hasting the decline of the nation, is the ultimate in power-crazed selfishness. Whatever the internecine warfare ripping the DLP apart, it is the mismanagement of the economy which history will record as this DLP government’s Achilles heel.
They have failed to develop credible monetary and fiscal policies; to reform the public sector; to re-skill the nation that at one post-war point had the best skilled workers in the Eastern Caribbean; it has allowed an invading army of new Barbadians to misbehave with impunity; it has allowed the University of the West Indies to take the mickey out of taxpayers; the list is endless.
It should be compulsory reading for this government to read the 1961 first DLP Budget Speech and talk to some of those who witnessed the radical transformation of the island by Errol Barrow. Although on reflection we may have serious doubts about some of his economic and social policies, at the time they were what was needed in a tired old country.
Party politics aside, as a nation we are going to pay a very high price for this administrative incompetence.
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