Submitted by Anthony Davis
Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite says he sees no reason why Barbados could not have a citizenship by investment programme. “However, speaking in Parliament today during debate on the Companies (Amendment ) Bill, 2016, the St. Philip South MP warned that policy makers should not seek to lure wealthy people to our shores only to have them frustrated by bureaucrats.
Pray tell me, Mr. Attorney General, do you want to beef up the National Security or do you want it to have more holes than a Swiss cheese?
You can’t have it both ways.
You can’t sell our citizenship to every Tom, Dick and Harry for 30 pieces of silver and expect that we will have the type of security needed against the ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, etc.
You want funds to be diverted from the ministries of health, and education. I would suggest that you read the report on page 11 of the above issue of Barbados TODAY under the headline “Seeking a health care cost fix”, and especially the caption affixed to the photo of NIS director Ian Carrington which reads: “NIS director Ian Carrington explaining the dwindling health care budget,” and tell me and the rest of Barbados how you expect funds to be diverted from the Ministry of Health when that ministry has to make do with the paltry amount of funds it is receiving!
The same pertains to the Ministry of Education.
As a member of Cabinet you should know that that is not feasible for either ministry.
All I can see down the road is heartaches for those persons holding Barbadian passports when countries like the USA, Canada, and EU countries deem those holding them as personae non gratae.
How will you distinguish those who really have the interest of the country at heart from those who just want to get their hands on the passport so that they can move freely around the world without let or hindrance?
You already have a problem with vetting those who want to set up business here, because Dean Del Mastro who was out on bail from a Canadian jail came here and set up a solar plant business, and he is certainly not the type of person with whom any Government should be doing business.
This is not the right thing for Barbados, and I agree with Minister Inniss who stated “not in Barbados” about this issue.
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