Submitted by Neil Holder, leader of the BIM
The Barbados Integrity Movement (BIM) has issued a challenge to the leaders of the two established political parties Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and Opposition leader Mia Mottley to a national debate.
Neil Holder, Leader of the BIM
Reference is drawn to an article of April 1st, 2018 at pages 22A & 23A written by Mr. Barry Alleyne.
Our concerns are the fact that the representative of the Barbados Integrity Movement (BIM) and Candidate Neil Holder has been omitted from any mention in the stated article.
Furthermore, while it is widely known within the constituency that the Candidate Neil Holder which represents BIM is ever present, he is also the political leader of the party!
We find this purposeful omission to be of a political nature and therefore does not hold fast to professional and objective journalism expected in 2018.
Of further concern is the fact that the constituency of St. Michael West starts at Hindsbury Road and proceeds onto Roebuck Street, Country Road, Passage Road, Westbury Road, President kennedy Drive, Spring Garden, Deacons Road, Goodland Main Road, Bridge Gap, Black Rock, Eagle Hall, Bank Hall Main Road, Sobers Junction onto Hindsbury once more. This means that the sample of the constituency taken by the said journalist Mr, Barry Alleyne has been confined to less than 1/4 of the constituency.
In this regard, it appears very inconsistent with what may be deemed as best practices for adequate and objective journalism for future election coverage. Much is left to be considered!!!
The fact remains that earlier this year the Nation Newspaper also carried an article which referred to the Political Parties that will contest the 2018 General Election where the same Journalist again omitted to mention the Barbados Integrity Movement. However in that article, the said journalist made reference to the Candidate for St. Peter as the representative of the New Barbados Kingdom Alliance (NBKA) even after a public announcement that Apostle. Lynroy Scantlebury had merged the NBKA with the BIM to be recognised as the BIM for all future intents and purposes!
We find this behaviour to be grossly erroneous and disingenuous by nature and therefore devoid of INTEGRITY!
We are therefore demanding a public apology from the Nation Newspaper in this regard.
The following Voice Note was received from Neil Holder the leader of the Barbados Integrity Movement. His audio feedback about observing the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) engaged in a ‘loud’ electioneering tactic during the season of Lent in a country regarded by the many as being Christian minded (BU’s interpretation) is likely to be controversial.
Our greatest challenge of recent has been that of finding positive leadership! We have lost our way when our very leaders and those reposed with the responsibility of taking charge of our great nation are found to be feathering their own nest at the pain and suffering of the masses. How can we exercise good conscience when our beloved country is rife with allegations of vote buying and bribery?
Disrespect for high office is demonstrated when a singular individual can defy the laws of our beloved country by erecting an illegal structure and yet though served notice by the authorities, continue in good stead having made public utterance that they will push the laws to the fullest extent!
Was Errol Barrow’s vision that of two (2) Barbados, where one law serves the Medes and the other law the Persian?
Read full text of statement HERE.
Neil Holder, Leader of BIM
Barbadians have given the Democratic Labour Party Administration the benefit of the doubt since the inception of the South Coast sewage issues that every effort was diligently exhausted to ensure that this problem would have been quickly rectified. It is apparent that this problem has now escalated to reach CRISIS level which is unprecedented in the 50 plus years we have been an independent nation.
Read FULL Text of BIM’s Statement – The South Coast Sewage Crisis
7/08/2017 – 11:08PM 12 people reported to be shot and at least one dead others critical
8/08/2017 – 12:01AM QEH reports 20 people treated for gun shot injuries
8/08/2017 – confirmation  a 6 year old grazed by a bullet
July 2nd, 2017
STATEMENT
Further to a story carried on the back page of the Sunday Sun – July 2nd, 2017 informing of the Initial Findings of the FTC regarding the decision of the DLP Government of Barbados to sell the BNTCL to the SOL Group!
BIM sincerely congratulates the FTC in its role as the regulatory agency acting for and on behalf of the people of Barbados. BIM has been tireless in the fight to bring our findings of the proposed BNTCL sale to the SOL Group into national focus citing that the fundamentals of the proposed sale would be detrimental to all Barbadians.
The FTC has demonstrated to Barbadians that beyond the muscular display of the ruling government in the Ministers of Energy and Finance’s collective attempts to fleece this potentially injurious transaction upon the people of Barbados that in its mandate which was legitimized by an Act of Parliament; the FTC is and will act without fear and favour to bring equity and justice to bear.
BIM wishes to thank all Barbadians wo supported us in signing our Petition to Halt the Sale of the BNTCL to the SOL Group in the interest of protecting the future of our petroleum sector from the possibility of another monopoly. In this regard as outlined by BIM in its findings during the limited time given to investigate and peruse the available documents, the sale transaction in our opinion appeared to be only beneficial to the SOL Group.
Our discovery that the throughput rate would have immediately been increase by 35% at the conclusion of the sale have only been solidified in the report of the Sunday Sun of 02/07/2017 where it was outlined that this initial increase which was agreed to by the DLP government was not acceptable to the FTC.
It is unimaginable that our very government would have agreed to a transaction that would have been by its very intent financially hazardous to its citizens in favour of private commercial interest.
This brings into focus the very fact that we have to be extremely vigilant in all decisions made by the DLP administration which seems to have an insatiable and reckless thirst for entering into financial commitments and contracts without proper Due Diligence and regard for it will affect our citizens. BIM is concerned that the local Credit Union movement has not expressed an interest in part or full ownership of the BNTCL thereby protecting the petroleum industry in Barbados against monopoly and unfair business practices.
It is against this backdrop that we are calling for the sale of the BNTCL to be equally divided into three (3) owners representing the two (2) major petroleum interest being RUBIS and the SOL Group with the third party being potentially the Credit Union movement.
This approach will cement fair play in the industry and guard against indiscriminate price gouging and unfair competition. We call on all Credit Union members to support BIM in the engagement of their leadership to enlist their respective organisations in the potential ownership of the BNTCL which is perhaps the only consistently profitable state-owned operation.
We are disappointed however that none of the current opposing political parties (the BLP, CAP, Solutions Barbados or the UPP) have joined in this cause of national significance to bring to the public’s awareness the potential dangers of this proposed sale.
Once again, we wish to congratulate the FTC for its fair, prudent and justified decision not to agree to the sale of the BNTCL to the SOL Group at this time.
Respectfully
THE BARBADOS INTEGRITY MOVEMENT
Neil Holder
Political Leader
BU must congratulate Niel Holder of the political party BIM for keeping the proposed sale of BNTCL SOL in the public space. Unfortunately the average Bajan can care less and for some of us who have concerns we will have to pray that the FTC Commissioners find reason to explore the sale on behalf of Barbadian consumers as to the fairness of the transaction.
See a petition document sent to the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) by Niel Holder of BIM.
Dear Ms. Sealy,
Having previously noted receipt of your correspondence of earlier today in reply to our (BIM) Open Letter to the FTC on several matters, one of grave concern being the redacted documents for the Public perusal at the offices of the FTC as well as lack of pertinent details in the thirteen (13) page “Summary Document”.
We note that this is the eve of the FTC’s stipulated date (March 8th, 2017) to receive public comments or submissions regarding the subject of the proposed sale of the BNTCL to the SOL Group a single potential purchaser of the sole National Petroleum product storage facility in the country.
In our letter we outlined and expressed our concerns that the FTC has not made the following information available to the Barbadian public:
In the absence of the above listed queries and against the backdrop that such information is pertinent to ALL Barbadians weighing in on this matter of National interest and concern in that the BNTCL remains until sold an “Asset” owned by the People of Barbados; and until such time as the FTC makes such information a Public Document, there can be NO closure to this matter!
What is the FTC evaluating and against what information?
What informed decision can the People of Barbados make in the absence of FACTS?
We the People of Barbados herein demand that the information requested above be presented to the public domain through the FTC for our edification and discussion with no less than four (4) Town Hall Meetings being held to discuss the effects of such a sale to a single party thereby creating a “MONOPOLY” and unfair competition in the Barbados Petroleum Market which will redound to increased pricing of the said petroleum products to Barbadians.
In this regard, we demand that the FTC acts with alacrity to address the stated concerns with clarity and equity in the remit of the FTC Act mandating the powers of the FTC to represent the interest of the People of Barbados.
We look forward to your providing the People of Barbados and Electorate with the stated information requested herein within the next seven (7) days of today’s date.
Any divergence from the above will be a miscarriage of justice and at best failure to inform and protect the very populace for which the FTC was mandated and legislated through an ACT of the Parliament of Barbados.
We attach a copy of our Open Letter along with our evaluation of the “Summary Document” for your careful consideration with our many queries and concerns thereto attached!
Respectfully
Neil a. Holder
POLITICAL LEADER
Click to read Barbados Integrity Movement’s Open Letter to the Fair Trading Commission re: BNTCL and SOL
Grenville Phillips II leads Solutions Barbados, one of the many third parties in Barbados
– Barbados Underground
When the late Lloyd Best, the noted Trinbagonian intellectual, first used the parenthesized phrase in the caption in 1982, it was clear that he was referring to an alliance of Opposition groupings formed to unseat the then governing administration. As he intoned then; “when the bell rings, and when we are summoned once more into the lists of history for battle with the enemy for an alternative future for Trinidad, Tobago and the West Indies, we of the Party of parties will be in a position to offer the electorate one united, effective, solid and indeed impregnable Government”. He meant a party comprising separate parties.
We purport to use the phrase in a different sense today. Given the number of parties claiming to be willing to contest the upcoming general elections, the national poll could conceivably also be termed a party of parties. Whether emboldened by the closeness of the result in the 2013 version, or jaded by the alternation over the last six decades of the two major parties, many people have clamoured for a “third” party, an expression that speaks locally not to the mere ordinal, but to a viable alternative grouping.
It is not that there has been no prior effort in this direction. The National Democratic Party, a splinter group from the Democratic Labour Party and led by the late Dr Richard Haynes (as he then was) presented a platform in the 1990’s that resonated significantly with the electorate but managed to secure a single seat only in two campaigns. History will record that even prior to this there were efforts by other groups at the hustings, although none appeared to possess the sustainability or stomach for the long fight.
Such efforts would have included, in the last general election, a grouping that would fit precisely Mr Best’s usage of the term, but again success of any sort was negligible; with most candidates forfeiting their deposits to the state treasury.
For the forthcoming poll, there are no fewer than three parties vying for the approval of the electorate. Each is so far at varying stages of readiness but we are prepared to concede that these are relatively early days yet. Neither has there been any indication that these three are prepared to become a “party of parties” in the original sense of that term.
What is at least remarkable is that none of them appears to present an ideological alternative to the present duopoly, seemingly content to appeal to current popular disenchantment with the major parties.
Their chances must also be assessed in light of the modern electoral culture in Barbados, where trade in the franchise is an existing reality, even though, admittedly, both regrettable and criminal. Are these parties prepared to buck this trend and be beyond reproach or will they simply be sucked into the vortex of illegality?
Another relevant consideration is the absence hitherto of any hint of constituency organization by any of the newcomers. It is accepted that elections are won by the party with the greatest number of seats. At the same time, however, that number is achieved in thirty constituency contests and not in a single national plebiscite.
Most difficult to overcome however, will be the innate Barbadian resistance to change. A people that has instinctively voted for one or other of the major parties for at least two generations is not likely to alter that mindset on a mere whim.
We may conclude therefore that the new parties, third , fourth or otherwise, will have their work cut out for them if they are to make any impact at all on the various ballots.
There will thus be a party of parties in our sense of the term. Not everyone is likely to leave smiling however.
