Atherley: land policy reinforces old plantation economy

Leader of the Opposition Bishop Joseph Atherley has urged Government to revolutionize the National Housing Corporation (NHC) and reform land policy to give more working-class Barbadians the ability to own a piece of the rock.

He made the call in the House of Assembly as he blamed the current housing policy for benefitting the privileged and keeping the plantation economy system alive and well.

But in an impassioned response, Minister of Energy, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Kerrie Symmonds stoutly defended the Government’s track record and cried shame on Bishop Atherley for choosing to ignore its progress and continued efforts.

In debate on a resolution to approve the vesting of Crown land at Lot A, Wildey, St Michael in the Caribbean Development Bank, Bishop Atherley said the Government has a moral responsibility to provide land ownership opportunities for Barbadians.

He told the House: “We need to see a revolutionized role for the state-owned housing entity which we call the National Housing Corporation (NHC) and we need to see more robust attempts to bring people into ownership of land and thereby facilitate them with housing.

“If you want, as a serious government, to empower and enrich your people, your country, your nation, you have to change the nature of the relationship between labour and the land. Right now, in the majority instance, labour in Barbados is disenfranchised and dispossessed with respect to land, and I would think that a principal obligation to any government – and especially a government awarded 30 seats in a general election – would be to try to change the nature of the relationship between labour and land in Barbados.”

Although acknowledging that land has been used to build and empower the middle-class in Barbados, Bishop Atherley questioned whether enough had been done to address “the institutionalized systems and culture…that keeps poor people poor and helps to facilitate always a privileged few in their efforts to build upon that platform which already has been constructed”.

He contended that based on how land is currently used in Barbados, a plantation economy system still exists.

“The equation, as it has been historically, remains pretty much the same – that the majority of those who constitute the working class in Barbados, the majority of those who constitute labour in Barbados are still dispossessed and are not empowered when it comes to the business of ownership of land,” he argued, adding that current land use “facilitates the entrenchment, the furtherance of a commercial and retail sector”.

He added: “A large component of the Barbadian economy is retail and commercial activity and land in Barbados has been used historically, and even in a changed context is still being used, to keep people tied to a plantation economy system. Coming forward from the days of slavery, you go through a period of indentureship and you come to the now.

“The sugar cane fields are barren, bush has taken its place and, to a little extent, privileged construction has replaced the sugar cane and our fields now lie largely idle, but the plantation economy system still remains.”

Bishop Atherley insisted that to change Barbados’ economic profile, the land use policy must be re-examined.

The Opposition Leader insisted that such a policy must be viewed as a critical component of a serious government’s policy platform and not as an “incidental, almost superficial, by the way, ad hoc, now and then, stop-gap, fill-in approach…that reflects itself when we come to the Parliament of Barbados”.

“Land has to be seen for what it is worth in terms of its value and the use of policy with respect to land for its effective potential to change the plight of people and their relationship to the economy,” he said.

But in responding to Bishop Atherley’s criticism of Government’s land use policy, Symmonds declared the administration had been at the forefront of providing Barbadians with home and land ownership opportunities.

He said the Mottley administration had committed to improving land policy, when it came to office in 2018, and has followed through since then.

Symmonds highlighted the Home Ownership Providing Energy (HOPE) project, the transfer of titles to NHC tenants and the relocation of squatters as examples.

He also pointed out that within six months of the life of the administration, a new Town and Country Planning Act “which speaks directly to the land-use policy” was taken to Parliament.

“Beyond that, this administration is the first administration in the history of this country, to bring to bear a requirement that investors don’t just come and ask for concessions, but that investors must also have some planning gains imposed upon them,” Symmonds said.

“I’m speaking about that which is a reality. It is a practice that has come about during the course of the last three years,” he added, insisting that Bishop Atherley had made “an elementary error” by not doing his research before speaking on Government’s land-use policy.

Symmonds blasted his former BLP colleague for ignoring the changes that have been made not only by the current administration but by previous Labour administrations.

“What we were treated to today is the most unfortunate set of amorphous absurdity that has even descended upon, been vomited out on the floor of this House,” he said.

Symmonds was supported by Minister of Economic Affairs and Investment Marsha Caddle who also identified positive developments in the government’s land-use policy.
(IM)