#SpeakingOut – Is this the same Mark Maloney?

by Hyacinth Greenidge

Madam Editor, could you assist me with an inquiry? How many Mark Maloneys are there involved in the construction of hotels and housing communities in Barbados? I cannot get the information myself so I am asking you to use the facility of your paper to assist me.

There was one Mark Maloney who was attempting to build a hotel complex in town a few years ago and people like the current Ambassador to Caricom David Comissiong were quite vocal in their criticisms of the gentleman and the then government trying to start these projects to stimulate the economy and get some people employed.

Then the Opposition Leader at the time who is currently Barbados Prime Minister was very critical of the gentleman and the government of the day for being in partnerships, trying to start partnerships, and who knows, even thinking about it, in terms of capital works projects in Barbados.

In fact, if I remember correctly, the government of that day even get accused of giving this Mark Maloney all the work in Barbados. There was even a little controversy off Spring Garden Highway with some material belonging to the gentleman which people made a grand fuss about.

The long and short of it was that this Mark Maloney as far as the opposition was concerned, seemed to be persona non grata in Barbados. Now, since 2018 and up to recently, every time I look in the paper or watch CBC I seeing the Prime Minister or some other minister parading about the place with a Mark Maloney doing this project, and contemplating that project, looking to start another project and the like.

What I want to find out is if the Mark Maloney that was almost portrayed as Public Enemy Number 1 is the same Mark Maloney that I see with the PM and other ministers out in the City at that Bridgetown project? Is this the same fellow that government entering into a partnership with to build houses in Christ Church?

I have no problem with the partnerships because I might even get some consultancy work out of it, and a construction boom always helps to stimulate the economy. So, it gets my vote. But what I want to find out is if the Mark Maloneys I talk about are the same or two different people. If there are two construction magnates with the same name then you can delete this and throw it in the thrash. But if there is only one construction magnate name Mark Maloney, was the opposition back then just trying to fool Bajans?

And worse yet, rather than let the Hyatt get off the ground and allow some stimulation of the economy and for people to get some work, did the likes of Comissiong and the then opposition frustrate the process just as another step towards winning the government?

But the same constituents that they were courting are some of the same people that suffered because the economy was stagnant. How can you want power so bad that you don’t care how people suffer, how many people are unemployed, how poorly the economy doing, but you do things to make a bad situation worse?

But as I said from the beginning, there might be two different Mark Maloneys and the government now butt up on this one. If so, what has become of the other fellow that the Barbados Labour Party didn’t like? Is he still in construction?