Weekly ColumnMia Mottley invited them to the platform as she delivered a surgical prosecution of Michael Lashley’s response to his sacked Chairman, Marilyn Rice-Bowen and to his performance as Minister of Housing.
Truth discovered that Lashley never answered the charge laid by Rice-Bowen that there was no contract in place with the contractor CLICO Property Management for the building of houses at Constant in St. George.
Truth was not fooled by Lashley’s attempt to hoodwink the Members of Parliament and Bajans into believing that ‘a term sheet for a loan’ with CLICO International General Insurance - was any sort of contract, finance or otherwise.
Truth was found in the Minutes of the NHC, presented by Mia, that expressed both the General Manager and the Board’s alarm that despite repeated efforts the contractor had not signed a contract.
Truth and the crowd concluded that Michael Lashley has been grossly economical with the truth.
Fairness determined that it was unjust to acquire a man’s land for development when he had applied to develop the same land for the same purpose for which the Government then gave it to Clico without telling him how much they will pay.
Fairness ruled that there was no equity in the award of NHC building contracts with one large contractor getting seventy-five percent of the work.
Fairness considered it a backward step in the empowerment of small contractors that they had now been reduced to the role of sub-contractors and not given the opportunity to grow their businesses.
Fairness was flabbergasted that 220,000 square feet of our land should be gifted to a big contractor for 99 years at the peppercorn rent of $100 a year!
Fairness questioned why the NHC had not insisted on a rent sharing agreement for the commercial buildings to be built on the gifted land.
Fairness took a dim view of the haste with which the planning permission had been granted for Coverley when other developers just down the road at Searles had been waiting for six years on their permissions.
Truth and fairness both agreed that Michael Lashley should resign his Cabinet appointment and if he failed to do so that Acting Prime Minister Freundel Stuart should fire him.
After all this blue-eyed boy had come to office on the lofty ideals of transparency, accountability and good governance. Bruised and battered, black and blue by fairness and truth, he is being defended by some of his Cabinet colleagues as a paragon of virtue.
He was systematically disrobed by speaker after speaker on the BLP’s platform. When all the layers of public relations had been stripped away we saw a man who had overstepped the boundaries of his authority with the NHC Board; a man who failed to admit to the truth of the charges laid against him by his former Chairman; a man who had misled the Parliament of Barbados; a man who practically gave away the Government’s land to a wealthy contractor; a man who had not lived up to the promise of his Party’s Manifesto to give work to the small man; a man who is not suited to hold Ministerial office.
The Dems defense for such behaviour is that he is getting the job done. We disagree. He has fallen far short of their promise to provide two thousand houses a year. And even so we cannot condone his behaviour for the sake of expediency. If his Cabinet colleagues are so blinded by the light of this forty-watt bulb that they cannot rein him in then they deserve to fall with him.
Errol Barrow backed Fairness and Truth when he dismissed a popular Housing Minister, Joy Edwards. What will it take for Freundel to follow the example of Errol Barrow?
Past Weekly Columns
He is yet to say whether there is a contract with Clico Holdings Ltd as the contractor.
Are they really serious about their Manifesto promise to take the public into their confidence?
The evidence points to the contrary and Barbadians are not pleased.
They feel disrespected, let down and ignored by the Dems self-imposed gag order.
Are Barbadian video companies who have produced the advertisements for the NCF over the years now not good enough to receive their support?
More>>
Women buying their weekly groceries are saying it. DLP supporters are saying it. BLP supporters are saying it.
Even the Central Bank is saying it.
The DLP’s economic policies are a failure!
They have succeeded in sucking the life out of the economy. Worse still they are terrible money managers.
They spent $182 million dollars more on day-to-day expenses than they earned in the first six months of the year.
Even the lowliest huckster with a tray in the market knows that if she spends more than she sells - trouble will soon come a-calling.
No manager in the private sector would keep his job for long if he ran his company this way.
Week by week business are failing and properties going into foreclosure.
More>>
Young people don’t buy into these half-baked, lame duck excuses.
They expect that when you are in office you need to find answers to the problems confronting them and the country at large.
There is something even more dastardly in this statement – it simply is not true.
The economy was NOT in recession when the Democratic Labour Party came to office.
In case Stephen Lashley does not know it, the economy only went into recession in 2009.
More>>
Very little of what this Government promised either before or after the election two years ago has come to fruition.
If NACE has its way, the scholarship will be restricted to areas of study defined by a National Scholarship Committee.
This is a brutal betrayal of our young people aiming for the summit of academic excellence at the undergraduate level.
More>>
CLICO hangs around the Government’s neck like the proverbial albatross. After two years of indecision and half-hearted attempts at bailouts, it is growing putrid and threatening to infect the entire economy.
More>>
Establishing a Board of Management was only the first step. Building and equipping a new hospital is the second.
More>>
Is he aware or concerned that under his watch, some mothers still cannot get child support?
Where is the system he promised to put in place so that even when fathers do not pay up on time, mothers can still get support for their children?
He is now acting Prime Minister and can therefore put such a system in place easily.
She demonstrated that her vision is not hamstrung by party politics, but by a deeper passion to see Barbados progress as a leading twenty-first century democracy.
Miss Mottley made it clear that the BLP’s difficulty with the constituency councils continues to be the manner in which people are appointed to serve by a closed circle rather than putting themselves up for election by the people in their own communities.
She said that there is a very thin line between what is community work and political work and that in order to preserve the integrity of the community work without it being infiltrated with a political bias then the manner of the appointment of Barbadians to serve on the councils is critical to the process.
The people are watching and waiting.
More>>
It is now clear that this fund cannot stand on its own.
Who will be held responsible for the potential losses to hundreds of Barbadians who bought into the hype and invested in CLICO’s EFPA if the company cannot repay them?
The bubble is about to burst.
More>>
As a nation we can all set a better example for our children, but we expect our Government to lead the way.
The performance of the Government has already been found wanting and the example it is setting in several cases is doubtful at best.
Recent events by those who put themselves forward as leaders suggest that sentimentalism and a dogmatic approach have replaced teaching by example.
It is no longer good enough for our leaders to shout and berate our citizens as if they are the font of all morals and values.
They must lead by example.
There are still many more questions than answers in this CLICO mess.
More>>
The solutions she proffered during her speech on Monday once again showcased her vision for taking the country forward.
More>>
And we have little confidence given the Prime Minister’s own incompetence in his own Ministries that have made this difficult economic situation worse for the country.
She warned then too about the rapid decline in our foreign reserves.
Again they scoffed. But we now know she was right.
The deficit was recorded at 8.4% and the Prime Minister eventually had to admit he was worried about the falling foreign reserves.
In his case what is clearly required is a change in focus and attention to detail.
They had no plan.
They have no vision.
More>>
The old saying that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink - was never more aptly applied than to this government.
If the inertia continues it is only a matter of time before the Prime Minister himself will be forced to cut jobs in the public service.
The dangerous thing is that the problems facing us are being felt in every sector of the economy. There is nowhere to turn for a man who has lost his job and has a family to feed.
Will the Minister tell the public what proportion of the annual $6 million budget for camps was spent on catering for the children and who was awarded the contract to supply catering services?
What did it cost per head to feed the children daily and what were they fed? Will the Minister tell the public how much the gala event at the end of the summer camps cost?
How much was spent on catering for this single event and who was awarded the contract to supply the catering?
The DLP does not have the vision or ability to take the programme forward successfully.
The rearrangement of the spending priorities of the Inland Revenue Department cannot include the issuance of tax refunds.
Surely the Prime Minister does not expect right-thinking Barbadians to believe that!!!
More>>
She has already shown that she has a clearer understanding of how our economy functions that anyone on the Government side.
Her analysis of the economy and the shortcomings of this Government’s policies have been spot on so far.
In time our Leader will reveal the details of how she will accomplish her vision.
More>>
They have to be taught.
And what of the rest of society?
These are issues that have been raised in several fora by our leader Mia Amor Mottley - the need to re-build the blocks of civility, civic responsibility and self-confidence on which our communities were founded.
More>>
Only one problem with this hypothesis. The Act specifically refers to the date 1st August 2008. It therefore could not validate any collections prior to that date.
More>>
What Ms Mottley as Chair of the Committee charged with regional security for the event did do was set up a system of pre-travel screening, which worked extremely well.
More>>
As church members try to help their fellow congregants from losing their houses they too are fearful of their own prospects.
Confidence in the government and Thompson’s ability to turn things around is being eaten away by his silence on matters of substance.
The aura of gloom is in danger of becoming a volatile and destructive force.
Fear not friends, in a democracy you always have other options.
More>>
Can you imagine the howls that would have emanated from George Street if such an accusation had been made of the Barbados Labour Party?
The normally garrulous Minister is on mute.
Not even a murmur denying the charge.
Calendar of EventsThe DLP does not care that it is causing us economic hardship. It also seems disinterested that as Barbadians care about our jobs, income and financial security. We also care about our safety and whether we will be able to pay our mortgage, keep our jobs or be safe in our homes and communities. It is frightening that the level of crime has gone up since February this year.
Choose your Playlist for the Audio Player:
General BLP Playlist1999 Election Songs 2003 Election Songs2008 Election Songs