As we canvass throughout Barbados, we normally receive favourable comments. However, I noticed that every once in a while, a lady will note that she will listen to all, but when it comes to voting, she knows who helped her. I look forward to those types of comments.
Who helped her were the people of Barbados. Who allowed her to purchase land at $2.00 per square foot were the people of Barbados. Who provided welfare to pay her outstanding utility bills were the people of Barbados. Who got a reduction in her land tax bill were the people of Barbados, not her political representative.
Our elected politicians are supposed to represent the interests of all people in a constituency, not just of those in polling districts that gave them majority support. When performing the role of disbursing government services, they should do so in the name of all Barbadians, not themselves and their political party.
Being in the political arena provides one with a different perspective than being on the outside looking in. It is common knowledge that Government services are generally very poorly managed.
The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) maintains international standards. One of these standards is the customer-focused quality management standard ISO 9001, which facilitates the efficient delivery of high quality goods and services to the benefit of the public.
Barbados has been a corresponding member of ISO since our Independence, and a full member since 1999. Therefore, the ISO 9001 standard has been available for our politicians to implement for the past two decades, and I have been encouraging its use for the past 18 years. But our politicians seem to prefer a poorly managed system.
The only beneficiaries of poorly managed public services appear to be politicians, because it keeps them relevant in Barbadian communities. If Government services were well managed, then there would be no reason for persons to request help from their political representatives. People would simply enjoy the efficiency in which high-quality public services were delivered.
Both established political administrations appear to have managed our public services to an appalling level of incompetence. It seems intentionally designed to frustrate, to the level of desperation, users of such services. If politicians direct desperately needed public resources to people whom their policies have made desperate, then has the vote of such desperate people essentially been bought?
The Barbadian public should not have to beg their political representatives to help them access public services, and hope for their benevolence. Solutions Barbados is offering to implement the international management standard that both the BLP and DLP appear to have rejected. We are aware that we will essentially be working ourselves out of a job for the benefit of the public – which will be our duty and privilege.
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