Submitted by Heather Cole
Without him even having to give one Hail Mary, we seem to have given Prime Minister Freundel Stuart a pass regarding the latest scandal in his administration. Mr. Stuart will go down in History as the weakest and most unpopular Prime Minister of Barbados. Among his failures to date are: the un-kept promises made to the electorate for two consecutive general elections, the buying of votes, the economic downgrades as well as the overall handing of the economy, increases in taxation, decline in the delivery of social services and his government’s action of not providing free tertiary education to the children of tax payers at the UWI.
He has not displayed any leadership skills either to his Ministers or to the people of Barbados. His approach does not demonstrate an ounce of responsibility towards the people of Barbados. He is so out of touch with the reality of life in Barbados that he can only be likened to a man who literally fell asleep at the wheel. Perhaps he lives in the wrong time and may have been more suitable to have been living in Medieval England as he enjoys flowery speech.
Then they are the scandals.
Under his leadership the government has been rocked with scandal after scandal making the TV series by that name quite tame. Just when you think it can get no worse, another explosion is seen and heard. The most notable of these have been the Clico scandal, the scandal involving the Speaker of the House, the Coverley Scandal, the Cahill Scandal and now the Mark Maloney and TCPD scandal.
It is a well known fact that the Prime Minister was intimately connected to three of the biggest scandals to rock the island. The first scandal occurred when the Speaker of the House was found guilty by the High Court of stealing a sum of money from an septuagenarian. It was some time during that scandal that the PM used those infamous words that have now become immortalized by every Barbadian. Amidst the allegations, when the story first broke and had not yet reached the Courts, the Prime Minister was quoted in his defense of the Speaker of the House advising him to “get a Lawyer.”
With regards to the Clico Scandal, thousands of Barbadians lost their retirement savings in a Ponzi scheme involving Leroy Parris and other managers of Clico as well as deceased Prime Minister David Thompson and his wife Mara Thompson. Again in this scandal the PM delivered another quote that will remain in living memory for many years to come. In defense of Leroy Parris, he stated that “Leroy is not a Leper.”
The Cahill Scandal involved a group of government Ministers signing an agreement to build a plasma Gasification plant on the 166sq ml island without the approvals of the Town and Country Planning Department, an Environmental Impact Assessment or the usual Town Hall Meetings to involve the public. Despite the public revelation of the signed documents on the Internet, the Prime Minister’s in his own defense in a much publicized quote claimed that “nothing can’t happen unless I say so.”
I cannot recall him stating anything publicly about the Coverley Scandal even the circumstances surrounding the death of young Abijah Holder.
The latest scandal involves business man Mark Maloney refusing to comply Town and Country Planning directives to remove a structure he is currently building. The Prime Minister must have commented. This brings me to the source of this article that we are missing the infamous quotes made by the Prime Minister in defense of or regarding Mark Maloney. These quotes may have again brought him into disrepute. In an effort to avoid being involved in the scandal or his name associated with the scandal or yet again having his infamous quotes on the lips of every Barbadian, the Prime Minister passed the responsibility for the Town and Country Planning Department unto Minister of Energy Darcy Boyce.
The real dilemma here is that the Prime Minister made a very short sighted judgement. While he may have won the battle, he has lost the war. He forgot the Laws of cause and effect. The Prime Minister appears to have created a psychotic monster. We now know because we have seen the evidence twice of his laughing at a young man’s death, ordering plants to be dug up and removed as well as his delusional rants that there is a ruthless, narcissistic personality on the loose. One wonders what he will do next. Does it mean that the Prime Minister himself is afraid to deal with the serial law breaker Mark Maloney? Can this lead to a matter of national security with the rise of a Bajan Mafia who believe that their entitlement puts them above our laws and that they can take out whoever opposes them? Will the rest of the population have to pay bribes to the Maloneys to get simple things done? Does it set it stone that bribery and corruption are now part of the norm for everyday life in Barbados?
One would have thought that the Prime Minister would be cognizant of the fact that Mark Maloney in fragrantly disregarding the Laws of Barbados is sending the wrong message to the rest of the population and that he would have stood up like a real man and do as the song says “I and I created a problem and I must solve it
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