‘Keep out the cronies and parasites’

St Michael East Member of Parliament Trevor Prescod has warned the political leadership of his party to steer clear of cronies and parasites, whom he said will undermine the party and set it off course.

He made the comments yesterday in the House of Assembly as the Chamber paid tribute to former Prime Minister Owen Arthur who died on July 27 after a brief illness.

According to Prescod, Arthur spent much of his time as leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) returning it to its original philosophical moorings which were grounded in improving the lives of the poor people in the country.

Noting that the former Prime Minister did not benefit from “successor rights” or from family ties in his rise to leadership, but got his power from the people of Barbados.

According to Prescod: “The people put him there and all that he was doing in his time was bringing this party back on track. I know political parties have a tendency of hailing everybody. Whoever is the leader is the greatest man on earth, or she is the greatest woman on earth . . . that is fanaticism.

“Only cronies echo that foolishness and probably Owen Arthur had the problem of not abandoning course but he had the problem of . . . giving satisfaction to some working class cronies who felt that handouts was necessary because they felt they were important.”

Warning that parasites and cronies are always seeking to attach themselves to the persons holding the seat of power, Prescod noted: “All Prime Ministers got to be careful with cronies. Even today cronies are dangerous in body politics because when they talk they are talking about themselves. They are not interested in nobody, they have no track record of doing anything for their mothers, their sisters, their aunts, their grandmothers. They did nothing for nobody.

“Owen Arthur understood parasites – people who suck the blood of state people who commit themselves for a lifetime to the betterment of the society.”

Prescod, who has worked with community and non-governmental organisations, told the Lower House: “Don’t allow cronies to emerge because you will pay the price, for cronies are parasites.”

Telling the House he was not intending to be offensive to anybody, Prescod said he had the greatest admiration for Arthur because he never went off course.

“We must never reach that level to talk about $2.7 billion in reserves and so many poor people . . . worrying about no housing, no food, can’t feed their children, young men on the streets doing anything . . . that is the environment we are in . . .

“Owen Arthur remained constant and remained connected but sometimes you take advice from other people who visit Bridgetown once in every 365 days, never went through Nelson Street yet, never buy a lunch in Nelson Street yet, don’t know where Swan Street is . . . . and want to make you believe the Master blessed them with a special talent and that they must rule things and dictate and boss around people as they like- treat people as they like.” (IMC1)