Senate President says Upper House provides necessary check and balance

By Jenique Belgrave

President of the Senate Reginald Farley is knocking the view that the Upper Chamber serves only as a “rubber stamp” for the Government.

Engaging Barbados Community College (BCC) students on the topic The Role and Functions of Parliament: A Reflective Analysis on Wednesday evening, Farley sought to quell fears that with a 30-0 presence in the Lower House, the administration could have whatever legislation it wished passed.

“Remember that part of those who are part of the check and balance in Parliament are your independent senators. And for those of you who may hear the incorrect assertion that some people make that the Senate is only a rubber stamp and doesn’t do anything and can’t do anything, the Integrity Legislation that was put up a few years ago by the Government, where did it fail? In the Senate, because it was a clear indication that several independent senators will not support it, and therefore it was withdrawn before you had the matter of it being quashed,” the former MP pointed out.

“And there are other times where Senators have not supported [legislation], and this is a positive because it means that notwithstanding that the Government has a majority, our system is designed that for simple, straightforward things, you want the Government to be able to get on with its business,” he added.

Giving a breakdown of the almost 400 years of history of the Barbados Parliament to those gathered in the BCC’s Liberal Arts Auditorium, Farley said that young people in particular must be thankful for the role that institution played in the post-1930 period in forming laws to protect the majority of citizens and not just the ruling class.

He pointed to legislation regarding labour protection, trade disputes, workmen’s compensation, education and health as examples of those laws.

“We take them for granted. There are people in Barbados today – students your age, younger or older – who will run from educational institutions as though they are a bull cow without the chain, when opportunities were not there in the past.

“And I think we need to give some honour and give some respect to the efforts of our ancestors who fought to have the kind of expenditure on education and public health and sanitation that we take for granted today. We need to respect it, we need to use it, and we need to build on it because these things were not there as the majority of the population lived in squalor,” Farley noted.

jeniquebelgrave@barbadostoday.bb