#BTSpeakingOut – The BLP has failed us

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by Michael Ray

If an examiner is grading what can be considered the examination paper of the current BLP-led government, then there are compulsory items to be taken into account; rather, all items on the Paper must be answered, none are optional.

The Paper is of the government’s own making and they are better able than any others to determine if a passing or failing grade is likely.

The “To do list” of this current Barbados Labour Party government contained a significant number of “mission critical policies and actions” to be completed in the BLP’s first six months and another 40 Top Policy ideas.

When a government has failed to fulfill almost 50 per cent of the promises made to the Barbadian electorate, it is difficult to understand how pollster Peter Wickham can award as high a grade as B-plus.

Mr. Wickham must be challenged to present the rubric allowing him to arrive at such a grade.

Furthermore, he was bold enough to state that it would be fair to award an A-minus in some instances.

In the absence of stated criteria and other specifics, those conclusions seem lacking in credibility and appear to be arbitrarily contrived.

The current BLP-led government has so far failed to execute some 22 election promises, followed by a series of missteps, retractions and reversals on a number of critical matters.

It seems obvious that any examination and grading should take into consideration what has been expressly stated as manifesto promises, what has been done, what has been left undone, the mistakes, the missteps, the bleeps and the blunders.

For the benefit of readers, the following items were included in the list of manifesto promises made by the current administration, prior to the general elections of 2018:

1. Value-added tax to be returned to 15 per cent within 18 months.

2. Reverse Mortgages for senior citizens.

3. Post Office Banking.

4. Digital ID for every Barbadian.

5. Creation of Six Special Economic Zones.

6. Paternity leave.

7. Ministers and top civil-servants to declare assets immediately on winning the government to help
stamp out corruption.

8. Give Barbadians more say by way of Referenda and National consultations.

9. The establishment of People’ Assemblies.

10. Integrity legislation will be presented at the first
sitting of Parliament.

11. Secondary Schools specialisation in particular disciplines.

12. Abolishing Road Tax and replacing it with a more equitable tax on petroleum products.

13. Protect our seas, marine plants and animals.

14. Free island-wide WI-FI and Broadband.

15. Access to Government contracts for goods and services up to 250,000 dollars for small and community based businesses.

16.  Scheme for Rent-To-Own fishing-boats.

17. New islands off the South and West coasts to expand our space, create jobs and investment opportunities.

18. Create a Sovereign Wealth Fund.

19. Master-teacher designation.

20. Cost of Living Allowances (COLA) for workers.

21. Full public recreational beach facilities on South and West coast sites.

22. Upgrades in urban and rural districts such as Cats Castle, Greenfields, Wellington Street and Allen View.

The above list shows a series of highly unattainable manifesto promises caused by the disastrous impact of the global recession.

To worsen the situation, a series of missteps and blunders followed, including these listed below:

1. Unfavorable conditions imposed on senior citizens purchasing government paper.

2. Mishandling of the appointment of the Deputy Commissioner of Police.

3. Retrenchment of hundreds of civil servants under the Barbados Recovery and Transformation program.

4. Confusion and misunderstandings surrounding whether BOSS was an Optional Savings Scheme, a forced savings plan or a “meeting-turn”.

5. Allowing flights from Britain to land at the GAIA when it was known that a variant of the covid pandemic was impacting on the British population.

6. Problems associated with the abolition of Road Tax.

7. Breaching of the Constitution caused by amendments to the Bail Act.

8. Failure to have promised Integrity legislation passed in the Senate.

9. Refusal to acknowledge a promise to award contracts to small businesses.

10. The mishandling of pension and gratuity for retrenched government workers who were forced to seek audience with the Press, in order to have their grievances heard.

11. The wastage of thousands of dollars on a hackneyed worn-out theme for our tourism product – A Tag-line that should be reconfigured if it is to reap significant success.

It should be clear to see that the government has not performed at the level to which Peter Wickham spoke.

His assessment can be described as highly overrated and misleading, but readers can decide for themselves, after reading the foregoing.