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ADDRESS BY THE ACTING PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. FREUNDEL J. STUART, Q.C., M.P.
AT THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE
DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY ON
SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010
A feeling of deep humility must be the position of anyone given
the opportunity to address so distinguished a gathering of
delegates to this Annual Conference of the Democratic Labour
Party.
I last addressed an Annual Conference of this party in the year
2005 when it was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The occasion
of my addressing delegates then was that I was serving as the
Party’s President during that year.
1
This year the Party has quietly observed the passing of its 55th
Anniversary, but circumstances which all of us would have
preferred did not exist have dictated that I address you today.
Earlier this year we were all made sadly aware that a treacherous
illness had taken hold of this Party’s beloved President and this
nation’s beloved Prime Minister, the Hon. David John Howard
Thompson.
Prime Minister Thompson has been a part of this Party’s life from
the 1970’s and I suspect that this is the first Annual Conference at
which we will not be benefitting from either his inspiring presence
or his always witty and enlightening contribution. That illness has
now softened his resonance and slowed his mobility.
I hope, I dare say we hope, that your continued prayers and the
deserved rest that he has been taking from his labours will result
in his being back with us in the very near future.2
The absence of Prime Minister Thompson has brought
refreshingly to the fore the level headedness of the men and
women he left in charge of Barbados. The Cabinet has continued
the business of government in and out of Parliament with
confidence, determination and calm. The public has been able to
rely on the uninterrupted and timely delivery of government
services, the extended absence of the Prime Minister
notwithstanding.
I should like to take this opportunity to thank every member of the
Cabinet and all members of Parliament both in the House and
Senate for the unfailing support and cooperation of which I as
acting Prime Minister have been the continuing beneficiary. This
moment called for men and women capable of standing tall at a
great historical juncture. Our men and women in both Houses of
Parliament have stood tall and can lay just claim to the permanent
respect and gratitude of both the Party and the nation.3
You will want to remember at this time also our comrade in arms
the Member of Parliament for St. Michael South East, Hamilton
Fitzgerald Lashley, at home recovering from injuries sustained in
a motor accident that took the life of his driver. We condole with
him on the loss of his very good friend but are happy that fortune
was able to snatch him from the fangs of death.
I should like further to invite your prayers for another stalwart
Cranston Browne whom illness has also slowed. I am particularly
touched by this because he and I were looking forward, on the
13th day of September next, to meeting and having a drink in
celebration of exactly 50 years of friendship. It was on the 13 th
day of September, 1960 that he and I entered the Boys’
Foundation School together and sat in the same form. I wish
Cranston well.
4
Comrades and friends, it is now common knowledge that, for the
last two years in particular, but since about September 2007 when
the first signs appeared, the world has been going through its
worst economic and financial crisis in wellnigh one hundred
years. Commentators have up to now been content to call this
experience a recession by which they mean that there has been a
fall off in GDP born of a fall off in demand for goods and services
which has lasted for more than six (6) months.
I say that commentators have been content to call it a recession
because, chances are that, until it comes to an end and its full
impact and effects are known and evaluated, we will not be able
to accurately and appropriately christen it. The Great Depression
was not so named while the world was in its throes starting in the
year 1929. It was after it ended that analysts were able to settle
the issue of what it was that had really hit the world economy.
5
Whether we call it the Great Recession or a second Great
Depression, there can be no doubt that its painful effects are
being felt both in the rich countries of the North Atlantic and in the
developing world. When President Obama took the oath of office
in January 2009, Americans were losing their jobs at the rate of
750,000 per month. There was also a virtual carnival of
foreclosures resulting from banks and other lending institutions
lending money for home purchases to persons whose salaries
could not support repayment of those loans. The so-called sub-
prime mortgage crisis.
While the fury of job losses and foreclosures has abated, every
present indication is that the economy of the United States of
America is still some distance away from the zone of peril.
6
So far as the economy of the United Kingdom is concerned the
news is no happier. The British economy is experiencing its
deepest crisis since the 1930’s and conventional wisdom in the
U.K. and beyond is that only a series of harsh budgetary
responses can correct this stubbornly troubling situation.
From the middle of the year 2008, the then Prime Minister,
Gordon Brown was exhorting the British people to spend their
holidays at home. No evidence exists to date, that the new
coalition government has ceased to chant that doleful refrain.
The economy of Canada, because of features peculiar to itself
and because of a tendency to policies much more circumspect,
has been able, substantially, to cushion the blows being
persistently dealt by this global downturn.
7
Nothing which I have said on this subject up to now justifies the
claim or conclusion that any decision taken by the government of
Barbados since January, 2008 has led to this economic and
financial crisis. As I have said elsewhere recently, a compound of
lax regulation, wild speculation and raw greed in the wealthier
countries of the North Atlantic has brought the world to this sorry
pass.
As is usually the case, small and vulnerable countries like
Barbados are the first to feel the effects of problems to the
creation of which they have contributed nothing. Today, to that
unfortunate fate, most of the countries of the English speaking
Caribbean have been abandoned.
8
Thirty-five years ago, in a review of the year 1975, a Central Bank
Report stated as follows: “The depressed economic conditions in
the major industrial countries during 1975 exerted a tremendous
drag on the Barbadian economy, the fortunes of which are
especially intertwined with those of North America and the United
Kingdom. The recession in the United Kingdom actually
deepened and towards the end of the year the Canadian
economy was also running into trouble. In the United States clear
signs of recovery appeared only during the second half of the
year.”
That report was prepared at a time when the tourist industry of
Barbados was far less developed than it is now and when the
International Business Sector was a shadow of the sector we
know today. Yet, the Central Bank was saying then that the
fortunes of our economy were “especially intertwined with those of
North America and the United Kingdom.” If with a much weaker 9
tourism sector and a scarcely talked about international business
sector our economy was especially intertwined with those of North
America and the United Kingdom, for more convincing reasons is
it especially intertwined today in the year 2010 when the economy
is so obviously dependent on the performance of these two
sectors.
With the richer and more developed countries of the world,
therefore, Barbados shares the same challenges of debt and
deficit; sluggish growth or sometimes no growth; weak internal
and external demand for our goods and services; and
unemployment. These challenges are not Barbadian creations
but are challenges with which countries across the globe are
confronted with varying degrees of intensity.
10
Economists have not been able to speak with any certainty either
to the depth or likely duration of the present world crisis. When in
the 1950’s that area of economics known as econometrics made
its effective appearance, it was thought that, at last, we had at our
disposal the tools that would allow us to specify the conditions
under which economic events happen; to explain why the events
happen under those conditions; and to construct patterns of
probability and regularity. In other words it was hoped that we
could predict with near scientific certainty, how economies would
behave.
A distinguished Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and author of many equally distinguished
works was forced to comment, not too long ago, as follows:
“Nevertheless, econometrics has not proven capable of providing
either accurate forecasts or conclusively settling economic
disputes…… Given the failures to live up to expectations,,
11
econometrics shifted from being a tool for testing theories to being
a showcase for exhibiting theories. Statistical models were built to
show that particular theories were consistent with the data and,
only occasionally, could a theory be rejected because of data. As
a result, good economic theory became more important than any
data – at least in the minds of economists – and theory came to
be imposed on the data.”
A recent BBC report quoted Her Majesty the Queen as asking in
an encounter with the economists from the London School of
Economics how was it that none of them could have seen the
economic and financial crisis coming.
The longer the challenges now facing the world persist, the
greater will be the threat to the government’s ability to respond to
the needs and concerns of our households and our businesses.
12
Parliament rose on Tuesday last for its summer recess until the
19th day of October, 2010. Thereafter, at a time to be determined
by the government, our response to the effects of these
challenges on Barbados will be shared with the country in a
Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals.
All of this will be preceded by exchanges with the representatives
of labour and capital and a full meeting of the Social Partnership
over which either the Prime Minister or I will preside. The
government contemplates no clear or sensible way forward
without both the input and cooperation of its partners in the areas
of labour and capital.
13
While it is true that, in the heat and dust of this historic crisis some
of Barbados’ macro-economic indicators still seem more flattering
than those of even some developed countries, it is no consolation
to us that in the first half of 2010, overall economic growth
contracted by 1.0% compared to the same period last year; that
unemployment increased to 10.6% over the first quarter which
was a slight increase over the 10.1% in the first quarter of 2009;
that output in construction continued to contract and that demand
for domestic goods and services remained weak.
The most casual acquaintance with Barbadian economic reality
will reveal that the government has always been the largest
procurer of goods and services in this society. If internal demand
for these goods and services is to be maintained, that will depend
to a large extent on what the government does, although , given
the sensitivity of our foreign reserve situation the government
must act with the utmost caution and circumspection.
14
Over external demand for the goods and services we produce a
government of Barbados does not exercise an equivalent control.
External demand depends ultimately on the ability and willingness
of the consumer abroad to buy the goods and services Barbados
has on offer.
Contrary to what opposition spokespersons and other publicists
would have the people of Barbados believe, these issues are not
so abstruse, otherworldly or mystical as to be beyond the
understanding of ordinary mortals. I invite you to take a careful
look at the people who are pontificating on these issues. Do you
really believe that there is something that Mia Mottley or Dale
Marshall or Owen Arthur can understand that any Democratic
Labour Party Cabinet member or parliamentarian can’t? The
brains of Democratic Labour Party Cabinet members and
parliamentarians are organized and unlike the ragbag of political
15
odds and ends of which Ms. Mottley’s utterances are so
consistent a reflection.
In the meanwhile, however, a compelling sense of
appropriateness dictates that I thank publicly our private sector for
the maturity and restraint of which their conduct during this
difficult period has been so shining an example. Similarly, our
citizens many of whom, their hardships and deprivations not
withstanding have themselves been models of patience,
contentment and understanding.
Of particular assistance to the government and, by extension, the
public of Barbados, during this very challenging period as well,
has been our loyal tried and tested public service. It has to be
conceded that much of what we have been able to achieve to
date would have been impossible were we not able to rely on the
well thought out and honestly given advice and the unstinted
16
cooperation of the most able public service in the entire
Caribbean.
I should like, therefore, to thank the public service from its
uppermost rungs to its lowest grades and in all of its
manifestations for its support of the government’s efforts as we
collaborate in the service of Barbados.
We take neither our households, our businesses nor our public
service for granted and will do everything in our power to
minimize the impact of any sacrifices they make in this national
effort.
It is not as though, however, time has stood still during this crisis.
On the contrary the Ministry of Housing and Lands under the able
leadership of Michael Lashley has forged ahead with one of the
17
most aggressive housing initiatives seen in post independence
Barbados; the Ministry of Transport and Works under the Hon.
John Boyce has not only ensured the continued reliability of your
public transport system but has dared to experiment with the
opening of new routes; this along with careful management of the
country’s road infrastructure; the Ministry of Youth, Family and
Sports competently and confidently led by Stephen Lashley has
launched its National Youth Forum and is mobilizing the resources
of our youth for the creation of a more participatory culture; The
Ministry of Community Development and Culture, under the
evergreen Steve Blackett has laid in Parliament our National
Cultural Policy, will be introducing in the near future a Cultural
Industries Bill to give greater substance to the efforts of our artists
and has been re-establishing the relationship between culture and
genuine community development; a whole new ethos of social
care, constituency empowerment and urban and rural
18
development is being unfurled before us through the Ministry that
bears that name under the indefatigable Chris Sinckler; and the
contents of the report of the National Advisory Commission on
Education will lay the foundation for another great leap forward for
the children of this nation through the Ministry of Education and
Human Resource Development under the steady hands of Ronald
Jones; the idea of a cleaner and greener environment along with
a modern and more enlightened water policy continues to be the
focus of the Ministry of the Environment, Water Resources and
Drainage under the untiring Dr. Denis Lowe; the opening of new
tourism opportunities, for example in Brazil, through the provision
of airlift from that source along with the widening and deepening
of our efforts in existing markets define the work of the Ministry of
Tourism under the confident and clear-minded Richard Sealy; the
extending of our diplomatic reach into areas like Brazil, China and
Cuba are to be counted among the achievements of a very
19
industrious and highly respected, Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Foreign Trade, Maxine McClean; the rationalization of the Q.E.H.
for the creation of a patient centred socio-medical culture along
with the modernisation of the legislative framework of the Ministry
of Health and the strengthening of the primary health care system
are the aim of the efforts of the Minister of Health, Donville Inniss
and his committed Parliamentary Secretary, Senator Irene
Sandiford-Garner; efforts at the restoration of the manufacturing
sector to a significant place in the economy along with the pursuit
of the 40% procurement of government services for small
businesses and the fostering of a culture of innovation and sense
of economic empowerment all within the context of the
modernisation of our economic systems are the focus and
preoccupation of Dr. David Estwick and his devoted and loyal
Minister of State Patrick Todd; Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo continues
her work on the modernisation of our labour laws so that
amendments to the Shops Act and settlement of the details of
new Employment Rights Bill have already passed the 20
Governance Committee of the Cabinet; broadening of our
Double Taxation Agreement Treaty Network, the most recent
example being with Panama, and the effort to make Barbados a
more competitive domicile for international business along with
the strengthening of our international transport infrastructure are
the focus of George Hutson; and the accentuation of Barbados’
Food Security and the preparing of Barbados’ agriculture to meet
the bureau of world standards are the focus of Haynesley Benn at
the Ministry of Agriculture.
When Parliament resumes in October, the Office of the Attorney
General should have ready for debate a Prevention of Corruption
Bill; a Transnational Organised Crime Bill; a Money Laundering
Bill; an International Trusts Service Providers Bill; Amendments to
the Companies Act and a Land Titles Proceedings Bill. Ready for
introduction also will be the Financial Services Commission Bill.
21
On Thursday last Cabinet approved a proposal that the right to
receive unemployment benefits be extended from 26 weeks to 40
weeks, the additional 14 weeks to be paid at a slightly adjusted
rate. This facility remains in place in the first instance until the
year 2011. This measure is designed to alleviate the distress of
those who would have lost their jobs and have been experiencing
difficulty in securing other employment.
Now the Barbados Labour Party has, over the last few months,
tried to excite the minds of the people of Barbados on a number
of issues in the hope, not of seeing things improve nationally,, but
that they may secure the political traction of which they are so
frantically and so desperately in search.
First there is the issue of CLICO. When this CLICO issue broke in
Barbados early in the year 2009, the Opposition used it as an
22
opportunity to file a No Confidence Motion in Parliament against
the Prime Minister. In that debate, we were treated among other
things to disclosures about a land purchase made by the wife of
the Prime Minister. The motion was suitably defeated.
Consistently since then, every attempt has been made to continue
a hobby that dates back to 1994 – that of using CLICO as a
partisan political football but with only one side kicking the ball. In
all of this the massive contribution CLICO has made to the lives of
Barbadians has been sadly overlooked.
The government, through the lips of the Prime Minister and
through my own lips, has assured policy holders that our policy is
to ensure that Barbadians who invested in CLICO would not lose
the principal they invested. The Oversight Committee established
by the Government has reported and made recommendations
which are being evaluated by the Ministry of Finance and will very
soon be carried to the Cabinet before the way forward is
23
discussed with Barbadians. That way forward, whatever else it
involves, will ensure that the government’s commitment to
individual Barbadian investors in CLICO is not compromised.
CLICO’s football status will come to an end.
Another issue that has been the subject of animated discussion
over the last few days has had to do with the ending of the
relationship between the Chairman of the Board of the National
Housing Corporation and the Corporation itself. While one always
wishes that these partings could be kept to a minimum and would
be as friendly as possible, hostile partings are certainly not
unknown in politics and are, not infrequently, the stuff of which
party politics is made.
It was gracious of Mrs. Marilyn Rice-Bowen to have agreed to
serve the Corporation in the first place and I should like to take
this opportunity to thank her for putting so much of her valuable
time at the Corporation’s disposal.
24
Who would have thought, though, that Mrs. Rice-Bowen’s
departure from the Corporation would have been used as an
opportunity for Ms. Mottley and her deputy Mr. Marshall to, once
again, put their folly on display.
It was always known that Minister Lashley’s solid record in
housing was a source of continuing disquiet for the Barbados
Labour Party. He has not only promised houses, he has delivered
them. Potential homeowners at Marchfield or Work Hall or
Coverley did not receive imaginary keys but real ones. The
existence of the houses built under this Minister’s watch is subject
to ready proof.
I witnessed the handover of houses at Marchfield, Work Hall and
Coverley. Beneficiaries did not, before accepting their keys, ask
whether the Board knew about the houses or had been bypassed.
They were happy to be able to say “I now own my own home”. 25
This is not another way of saying that the Corporation and
Minister should not scrupulously pursue the highest standards of
corporate governance. After all, this is the way of the Democratic
Labour Party. A dispassionate evaluation of the evidence up to
now made available to me, has satisfied me that those standards
are being met.
On the issue of small contractors, the manifesto of the Democratic
Labour Party commits the Party to making life more bearable and
abundant for the more vulnerable in our society. In this category
are to be numbered the small contractors of Barbados.
The economic climate in which this government has had to
operate ever since coming to office has put particular pressure on
the resources available to the National Housing Corporation.
The difficulty of access to credit from our lending institutions has
posed challenges for our small contractors. But, houses have
had to be built and those businesses with easily accessible 26
resources agreed to partner with the Corporation in joint ventures
to assist it in the drive to house every last person in Barbados.
We have insisted that, wherever possible, small contractors
should be allowed to participate in this process.
We do not believe, that the fate which befell Barack Construction
should befall any other small contractors in Barbados. Recall the
claim that Mr. Barack worked for the Corporation under the
Barbados Labour Party and because he was not consistently paid
by the Corporation, strangled himself with debts privately
incurred, to do the Corporation’s business. The rest is now
familiar but very sad history which this government is committed
to correcting. That explanation is not just credible. It is true.
But it is not an explanation upon which any reasonable
government can expect small contractors to rely indefinitely.
Small contractors and their families have to eat, pay bills, educate
their children and meet all of the other obligations appropriate to
their larger counterparts. Many of these small contractors 27
suffered when we languished in the political wilderness. They
never disappeared from our radar .We will not let our small
contractors down.
One other issue that has agitated the public mind in recent times
is the impasse between the Board and BAMP at the Queen
Elizabeth Hospital. That the government of Barbados is
committed to the provision of a world class health care
environment is an issue which none will contest. This health care
ethos is composed of a preventive dimension and a curative
dimension.
The preventive dimension, the pursuit of which the government
has been promoting in the society, involves the practice of healthy
lifestyles. A most recent example of this was the initiative of the
Ministry of Health to ban smoking in public places – public places
that is as defined by the legislation. This emphasis will not only
continue but will be accentuated since preventive health care is 28
far less expensive than curative health care with its incidents of
hospitalisation, surgeries, expensive drugs, shortened work life
and sometimes ruined family life.
Curative health care poses the question what is the best and most
economical way to restore the health of a person who is sick and
either hospitalised or in need of hospitalisation? At the centre of
this dynamic is the sick person and around him are the doctor, the
nurses and other health care professionals and the hospital and
its administration. Between these three sets of actors there must
be a healthy and collaborative relationship if the objective of an
acceptable level of patient care is to be achieved. Put differently,
and hopefully, more simply, the end is the welfare of the patient,
the means are the health care professionals and the hospital.
Means should never be mistaken for ends and, more importantly,
ends should never be mistaken for means. Yet in all of this,
government has to ensure that conditions at the hospital facilitate
the achievement of as high as possible a level of health care. 29
This involves ensuring that our health care professionals can
carry out their functions with terms and conditions of service that
they find acceptable.
Let there be no mistake about it. Patients know when their needs
are being properly met. This government did not inherit a Q.E.H.
with which the public of Barbados was at all happy. Attempts to
improve conditions there will not always therefore, be in the
nature of a cake walk especially where vested interests are being
challenged. A strong and committed government has to be
prepared for this. It has to be prepared especially for the fall out
that results from functioning in an adversarial political
environment.
If the recent difficulties at the hospital have revealed anything of
value, it is that at present there is no groundswell of public
support for certain sections of the medical profession at the
Q.E.H. This is a problem with which the medical profession will 30
have to deal but the administration of the Q.E.H. must continue its
efforts to create an environment there that ensures that the
average citizen, not awash with money, will not be afraid to go
there if illness overtakes him.
Comrades and friends, before I conclude this presentation it is
important that I say something briefly about the state of politics in
Barbados. The Democratic Labour Party has just completed 55
years of existence. Of those 55 years it has spent about 25 years
in government and by its policies transformed this country from a
village to a nation.
The independence we now take for granted this Party fought for in
1966 against the resistance of the stiff necked and short-sighted
political Bourbons of the Barbados Labour Party. Because I
thought that that issue may have been forgotten by both our
members and the citizens of Barbados, I insisted that it be
revisited by Professor Woodville Marshall in the Annual Errol 31
Barrow Memorial Lecture in January this year. That lecture is
compulsory reading for all of our young aspiring politicians in the
Democratic Labour Party.
When I joined this organisation at the age of 18 in 1969 it was
because I was impressed with its philosophy, with its record and
with its nerve. Errol Barrow and the men and women around him
set the agenda for Barbados and pursued that agenda with
courage, conviction and single-mindedness.
The attempts at distraction then were far more that they are now
and the opposition was composed of political actors far more
intelligent, articulate and clear-minded than what Errol Barrow
would have called the “disgruntled and inept contenders for
political office” we have in Barbados today.
32
My sense is, though, that nowadays we tend to be too easily
distracted. The role of Oppositions is to talk; the responsibility of
governments is to do. It is not the role of Ministers of the Crown
to react to every rash and ill thought out utterance of a desperate
and directionless opposition spokesman or woman. When you
react, the actor is in control. When at a time you choose and
when all of the facts are known and evaluated, you respond, you
are in control.
Do not expect that any B.L.P. Member of Parliament, or member
or supporter will praise the government’s performance.
Governments always have something opposition parties want.
Opposition parties do not have anything that governments want.
If they praise us, they are guaranteeing our re-election which is
inconsistent with their interests. We must steer clear, therefore, of
behaving like marionettes where if our opponents want to see us
do our thing, they only have to pull our string.
33
No government in the history of Barbados has been called upon
to govern in global circumstances as difficult as those which exist
at this time. When the Great Depression happened, Barbados
was a colony of Britain. We were Britain’s headache then. Any
objective officious bystander today will have to concede that we
have been doing well in all of the circumstances.
When Errol Barrow was leader of the DLP in government he was
described by the Barbados Labour Party under Grantley Adams
and later Tom Adams as a “dictator” and a “madman”. When he
led us in opposition, we were described as a “headless and
dismembered opposition” by Tom Adams.
When Erskine Sandiford led us, they said he was not to the
manner born and that the spectacles he wore made him unfit to
be Prime Minister. He was too “stubborn”, they also contended.
34
When David Thompson led us in opposition they said he could
not be trusted; that he had a credibility problem; that he was at
the helm of a “goon squad”; that he was chief of a set of “wild
boys”; that should he get power, he would sell Barbados out to
CLICO because as Mr. Arthur said on the floor of Parliament, in
my presence, Mr. Thompson was a wholly owned subsidiary of
CLICO and Leroy Parris.
When Mr. Mascoll led us, they said that he was unfit to lead
because he looked like “Malik without teeth” and that we were
being led by a child with whom to deal would amount to “child
abuse”.
Since coming to office in January 2008, Prime Minister
Thompson, in 2009 faced a No Confidence Motion over CLICO
and only his unfortunate illness has saved him from the
ungracious and unsparing criticisms of his jealous adversaries.35
There has been no changing of the guard in Barbados. The Prime
Minister and Minister of Finance in Barbados is still the Hon.
David Thompson. He is on leave and I am acting as Prime
Minister as I have done on numerous occasions since January
2008. There is nothing new about this. When in the 1970’s Prime
Minister Errol Barrow took three months leave to teach at Florida
International University, his Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Edwy
Talma acted as Prime Minister. There was no changing of the
guard then either.
Not surprisingly though the Barbados Labour Party has now
turned attention to me. I wish them luck! I was not brought into
politics. I entered it having prepared myself from the age of nine
(9). There is nothing of political value in Barbados that has
escaped my notice or reflection since age nine (9). I am not a
piece of “plasticine” which anybody in the Barbados Labour Party
36
or any of their henchmen or publicists can mould and shape after
their own will.
We are committed to reversing the trend firmly established in
Barbados under the last administration where the white noise of
statistics was used to conceal the deep cleavage existing
between the “haves” and “have-nots”; where an increasing
number of children could not look forward to doing better in this
society than their parents or grandparents; and where politics was
treated as a kind of spectator sport with the masses sitting
ringside cheering on this or that platform or parliamentary
gladiator.
For us politics is about how power can be used to change for the
better the lives of the vulnerable and the voiceless in this society.
37
When you listen to the Barbados Labour Party, the voice in your
head will be saying, in the familiar words of the calypsonian, L’il
Rick, “guh down, guh down, guh down”. When you listen to the
Democratic Labour Party, the voice in your head will be saying
“don’t stop down dey; come up, come up, come up”.
As President Obama observed recently, if you want your car to go
forward the gear you use is “D”. In Barbadian parlance, if you
want your car to “back-back”, the gear you use is “B”.
Ours is the better way! Ours is the way to the stars!
Thank You.
38