Arthur remembered for ‘bettering poor folks’ lives’

Hamilton Lashley, who served in Owen Arthur’s cabinet has described the late former leader as a man who held the community close to his heart and introduced social and economic policies to better the lives of poor Barbadians.

In a tribute to his former boss who made him the first-ever Minister of Social Transformation, Lashley said the former Prime Minister was a creative and astute leader who made sure that the poor in society were not marginalized.

Lashley recalled that Arthur first appointed him to his administration as Director of the Poverty Alleviation Bureau in 1988.

Eleven years later, when the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) won the 1999 General Election, Arthur offered him the Social Transformation ministerial portfolio.

Lashley said: “It was an awesome undertaking. A lot of his aspirations, and what he had dreamed in terms of stopping poor people from being poor, all of it was embodied in that one Ministry.

“But of course he had objections from within his party, in relation to appointing me to head that Ministry. I want to use this occasion now, to thank him very much for that opportunity because what it did is it raised the profile of the community of Pinelands, that I came from.”

Over 20 years later, though under another name, the ministry has turned out to be one of Arthur’s greatest accomplishments, Lashley said. This raised Barbados’ profile as the number one developing country globally.

He said: “Creating that ministry paved the way in the Caribbean for countries like St Lucia and Antigua, and St Kitts and Nevis, to introduce similar ministries and of course those ministers came to Barbados to copy the system at the Ministry of Social Transformation.

“The Pope at that time (praised) the ministry tremendously.

“The point is that the Ministry got international acclaims and regional acclaims.

“And then, he always kept our present Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, right up under his wings and he had confidence in her ability as a leader. He mentored her a lot while she was a member of the Cabinet.

“And then over the years he had good Cabinet members who helped cement his legacy which will go down as historic in our country. After leaving the Ministry of Social Transformation, he appointed me to head the Poverty Eradication Unit and the Millennium Development Goals which was over at the Garrison at the time.

“Remember Barbados was a signatory to the Millennium Development goals and he asked me to lead the chart to make sure that Barbados set a programme to accomplish this task.”