OPPOSITION SHOULD PUT ALTERNATIVES

You hear it from time to time, the BLP offers no alternatives. DLP official and official defenders use the argument. They go so far to say that if the Bees were in power things would have been no different. Nothing in the history or experience of Barbadians supports this claim. Every Barbadian knows it is always different when B’s are in power, they experience it in tangible and positive ways. That is not to say perfect, sufficiently good to improve the lives of Barbadians, all Barbadians.

An opposition cannot govern from the sidelines. If citizens vote for the group they want to govern their affairs, why would they want the opposing group to provide the solutions the elected government needs? There is something contradictory and unsettling about opinion-makers subconsciously planting such thoughts in the populace that the opposition must bring the solutions. Barbadians preferred choice must be respected. The Opposition technically has no responsibility to provide solutions which they do not have the power to implement or which will be ignored by those who do. But the dire straits and dangers called for our input, and we shared them repeatedly for 8 years.

The Barbados Labour Party through Owen Arthur, Mia Mottley, Clyde Mascoll and others have repeatedly stated the following, see if you remember these:-

1. Restructure the debt – room to support the growth sectors to lead us out of disaster. Use Jamaica model. An option I suggested – go early to the IMF before desperation limits your negotiation space and obtain reasonable loans. Instead all IMF requirements used without a loan arrangement. Medicine which was implemented badly with no benefit. Now we are peddling non-investment grade bonds to our people.

2. Let tourism engine pull the economy out of danger- give them meaningful funds to do the job; reduce their costs – DLP raised light, VAT, property tax, removed luxury food inputs of hotels’ from the VAT exempt basket; six months after no access to Sandals concessions. But, building 500m sugar factory whose earnings plummeted to under 30m.

3. Ease taxes to boost consumers spend – 75% of our economic activity comes from spending sustaining tax revenues and jobs.

4. Protect int’l business -new products, adjust legislation, intensify promotion. DLP removed promotion money from Invest B’dos; slow with legislation, business facilitation; and responding to threats.

5. Privatise state assets to pay down debt to reduce payments – more fiscal room to protect social services. Allow ordinary Barbadians into ownership, broadening the wealth base.

6. Stimulate the economy using counter-cyclical measures because you cannot tax your way out of recession – DLP persistently have taxed us into oblivion with more to come.

7. Form a joint Parliamentary committee to address the problem of the debt; to discuss new ways to manage delivery of social services so growth prospects of country not compromised. The response to our efforts was captured in this phrase ‘you had your time, we do not want to hear anything from you' (Sinkler, Inniss, Jones, Boyce).

We are in a time of crisis, deep crisis, and it is apparent to the simplest Barbadian that this Stuart-led DPL government is inept, and making bad worse. Our people are frustrated and frightened. They have every right to be. The BLP has always stepped up to the plate in this time of crisis to help this land we love so well.