Weekly Column

Two myths exploded in the face of the Government this past week. Myth Number One: They had no choice in their pricing policy of fuel products. Myth Number Two: Their 100-day Manifesto promises were achievable.

They were so shell shocked that even the Prime Minister had to admit that it was time to move forward. As the young people would opine - Duh! His Government is grappling he pronounced with the challenging realities it inherited. And less we forget, what are those inherited realities. In 2007 Barbados was declared the Number One developing Country in the world; the World Bank said we were the third wealthiest country in the Western Hemisphere, the United Nations declared us the Number One developing country in eradicating poverty, unemployment sank to its lowest historic level of 7.1 percent, our foreign reserves stood at $2.2 billion dollars or enough to cover imports for thirty-five weeks. We could go on but Bajans already know these things.

What the Prime Minister and the other half of the dynamic duo may be grappling with is how to manage the economy in a volatile global environment and so far they have failed to impress. Their energy pricing policy is both stale and counter-productive and more and more Bajans are beginning to realize this. Its not about diesel SUVs. It’s about the Caterpillar engines in our fishing fleet. It’s about the MF engines driving the cane harvesters. It’s about the Mercedes, Leyland and Hino engines getting people to work in the morning. It’s about Reddy Kilowatt’s low speed diesel turbines at Spring Garden and their much smaller Genset cousins providing power and jobs for manufacturing. These are the engines of the productive sectors that the Ministers of Finance should be concerned about. Alas they cleave to a 1991 view of the world where the books all balance neatly while the people and the country suffer.

100 days or not, a few promises that are likely to create more problems than they solve are not going to satisfy the man who can’t afford to run his car or the woman who can’t buy anything more than the bare necessities at the supermarket.

Poor Senator McClean, who despite being up-sized to full ministerial rank befitting her post as Leader of Government Business in the Upper Chamber, was made the sacrificial lamb on last Sunday’s lunchtime radio call-in. Although modesty would not allow her to claim authorship of the DLP Manifesto we learnt that she made an input. She played very close to the pads in her defense of the injudicious 100-day timetable, but a discerning public and an astute Senator Kerrie Symonds found her off stump time and time again. Not even the early intervention by the Government’s chief apologist Mr. Peter Wickham could save Senator McClean from the facts. The Government has simply has not delivered on its promises.

It would have been mildly amusing had it not been so sad when she finally admitted that the 100-day agenda was not possible in a legislative environment. How disingenuous. So why did the DLP promise it in 100 days. Why not 200 or 300? The word is vote-catching pure and simple. And the Prime Minister wants us to trust him and he will deliver. Something is wrong with this picture.

“I will not Lie, I will not Cheat, I will not Steal.” That was quite a show. But its over now and the people are demanding more than the delivery of promises. They are demanding solutions to the rising cost of living. They are demanding some assurance that job losses are not on the horizon. The question is: Can the Prime Minister deliver?