Stuart: Democracy, rule of law under threat

Former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has issued a warning to Barbadians that their democratic rights and the rule of law in the island are under serious threat.

In a stinging repudiation of the incumbent Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration on Tuesday night, Stuart said there was a dark shadow over Barbados as a result of the political, economic and social betrayal of the BLP.

And he insisted that people should not remain silent while the values that underpin the Constitution of Barbados and “who we are” as a nation are eroded.

Speaking at a Democratic Labour Party (DLP) spot meeting in Britton’s Hill, St. Michael, Stuart charged that several “unconstitutional” acts had been carried out by the BLP government since taking office in May 2018.

He said the first was to amend the Constitution to facilitate the eligibility of Rawdon Adams and Kay McConney as Senators. Stuart recalled being “horrified” and “disgusted” by this action because he could not believe that a Government could, according to him, so crudely violate Barbados’ traditions and conventions.

“The slide downward had started because if the first act of a government is an assault on the rule of law, then there can’t be any coming back. And there has been no coming back since then. Law after law after law has been violated or abused by this administration,” the former political leader said.

He further chided the government for its controversial appointment of two deputy commissioners of police.

“. . . It was that Parliament that passed a law to appoint a second deputy commissioner of police when the Police Act only made provision for one deputy commissioner. . . . When the second deputy commissioner of police was appointed . . . that law was questioned by the citizenry [and] Miss Mottley said she had appointed him under the Public Service Act. Her appointment impliedly repealed the Police Act to give the appointment of Oral Williams validity. [But] Barbados has no doctrine of implied repeal.

“The Constitution of Barbados specifically and expressly forbids any doctrine of implied repeal. If you are going to change a law you have to go to Parliament and change it openly, not by implication. . . . When they came under pressure. . . the Attorney General went to Parliament after the man had been appointed and was receiving a salary and amended the Police Act to bring it in line with the appointment of Mr. Williams,” recalled Stuart, who once served as Attorney General in the David Thompson-led administration.

He charged that if persons needed further proof that the rule of law was under threat, they need not look any further than government’s recent sealed settlement of a lawsuit brought by seven senior lawmen, including the current Police Commissioner Richard Boyce, even though the law courts on two occasions tossed out the officers’ case.

“If you really want to know how bad it has gotten, reflect that seven police officers put the government in court because they said that they thought they were wronged by the Police Service Commission over their promotions. They were fully heard by the judge, Justice Margaret Reifer – she heard all their evidence, listened to their lawyers’ arguments, saw the affidavits and she said, ‘your case has no merit’. They were not satisfied. They appealed to the Court of Appeal, of three judges, including the then Chief Justice. The Court of Appeal re-examined the case, looked at Margaret Reifer’s decision, looked at how she came to her conclusion and the Court of Appeal unanimously said the case has no merit and they dismissed the case as well.

“Do you know that for all the trouble that the courts put themselves through in pursuance of the rule of law and respect for it, the government has now told those policemen they are going to settle with them although they lost the case? You only settle a case if somebody has been wronged. The courts said these men had not been wronged. But that is where the rule of law has gone in Barbados. No more respect for it by this Barbados Labour Party,” Stuart charged.

The former prime minister said that three and a half years after the BLP took office, Barbados was worse off.

He contended that the fundamental values to which Barbadians have subscribed since Independence had been betrayed.

“One of my concerns about politics in Barbados is that too many people in Barbados treat politics as though it is a spectator sport. It is not! The stakes in politics are very, very high. Human welfare, human well-being, human future depend on how seriously we take politics,” Stuart said. (KC)