Democracy under threat- Thorne claims

Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne on Tuesday delivered a stinging rebuke of this country’s leadership charging that the Mia Mottley-led administration was moving away from the democratic principles on which Barbados was built.

Charging that the government has reigned over a period where the rising cost of living was eating away at the dignity of families and where constitutional malaise was the order of the day, the opposition leader painted a picture of a nation tarnished by criminal activity and where there is a crisis of confidence in those who lead.

Offering his reply to Monday’s Budgetary Proposals and Financial Statement, Thorne ripped into the government, suggesting it was engaged in “an orgy of self-congratulation” while the country is being “ravaged” by a culture of moral decay that is afflicting the youngest members of society. According to him, there is evidence of corruption in this country which may not always be related to financial gain but can also be manifested in an abuse of power in the dishing out of “advantage” in an unjust manner.

Thorne referenced the ancient Greek philosopher Plato’s statement: “show me a democracy and I will show you a tyranny in the making” to characterise the operations of the government. He said that the sitting government had created an atmosphere where the greatest myth is that there is a democratic, “good” government.

“Quite often in life when we cannot make sense of the events around us, we create a myth to ward off the fear and uncertainty that we feel when we do not understand the political happenings around us . …When we cannot reconcile phenomena and we feel afraid and uncertain we create a myth for psychological comfort,” he suggested, while vowing to speak the whole “unvarnished” truth before the Parliament.

At the outset of his presentation, the opposition leader traced the birth of the Barbadian democracy recalling pivotal stages in the country’s historical journey including the 1937 riots, the birth of the trade union movement, the granting of universal adult suffrage and Independence and pointing to these revolutionary events as those which paved the way to a growing democracy.

“This Budget comes at a time in our history of what appears to be tyrannical rule,” he charged. “And therefore, the Budget must reflect that tyrannical rule.”

Thorne charged the present administration with presiding over declining standards and in a new parliamentary democracy that continues to operate under the cloak of a Westminster Constitution four years later. Barbados, he said, is the only country in the world which claims to be a republic but carrying a Westminster constitution.

Thorne said that the most pervasive myth across Barbados is that there is a democratic governance.

“The idea of good government is a false idea. The idea of democracy is now a false idea,” he said. (SP)