Barbados’ two newest senators have no intention of seeking to fill the void of an opposition presence in the Upper House of Parliament, although their seats would have ordinarily been occupied by nominees of an Opposition Leader.
On Friday, Senior Political Science lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Dr Kristina Hinds and Dr Chelston Brathwaite, a former ambassador to China and former head of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, were sworn in at State House.
Although the two appointments round out the 21 Senators set out in the Constitution, it was the first time that the country’s Head of State was required to nominate and appoint nine Senators, instead of seven, because of the absence of an Opposition Leader.
It was therefore unclear which role Dr Hinds and Dr Brathwaite would have been expected to fill.
“I am independent. Definitely,” Dr Hinds told reporters, moments after taking the oath.
“To my understanding, we call them Opposition Senators, but they are really Senators that are [nominated] by the Leader of the Opposition. In the absence of such, the President appoints,” said the Head of the Department of Government, Sociology and Social Work at the UWI Cave Hill campus.
Last month, independent senators were accused of being “an instrument of frustration” for the Mia Mottey administration when they opposed constitutional amendments intended to facilitate an opposition presence in the Senate and legally lowering the age eligibility of Parliament to 18 from 21.
But the political scientist declared that her “independence” in the Senate would allow her to be guided by her own personal conscience.
“I don’t think it is good for a democracy for people just to rubber stamp anything, so I hope to bring a critical eye and sometimes it may mean opposing, but not all the time. Sometimes your critical eye allows you to agree,” said Dr Hinds.
“My interest for now is doing the best that I can to ensure that I am a good Senator that contributes to the benefit of Barbados. That is my focus. I don’t have an agenda,” she added.
Dr Hinds said she was surprised by her selection, but said she had no expectation that the Head of State would seek to include representatives of an opposition party.
She added that she would continue serving as a moderator on popular radio show Down-to-Brass-Tacks as long as it is “tenable”, while balancing her duties in the Senate and her career as a university lecturer.
Meanwhile, Dr Brathwaite said Barbadians should expect to hear a “voice of reason” from a Senator who brings constructive analysis and would leave no stone unturned to promote the development of Barbados.
“Since I am not in the Senate yet, I am not in a position to comment or define the delineation or the marks or the structure of how we shall proceed. What I do know is that as far as I am concerned, I will be a voice of reason, a voice to critically analyse the issues that are brought to me and to do everything that I can in the interest of the people of Barbados,” said Dr Brathwaite.
“I see my role in a broad context, that I am there to help Barbados define a new way of doing business with respect to accountability, transparency, commitment to performance and developing sustainable solutions,” he added.
Dr Brathwaite believes his background in food security and diplomacy would help to guide the country through the myriad of challenges that include the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, and climate change.
“One of the things that I would wish to champion is food security because as you know, we are a very food insecure nation. We import almost 75 per cent of what we consume and that is not a good place to be,” said the new senator.
“We should be producing more of what we consume in order to make us less dependent on external supplies which drain our foreign exchange and also to give us that sense of independence, we’re not depending on other people to feed us.
“That is one of the things that we must address as Barbados develops, as Barbados becomes more of a sense of a republic, as Barbados becomes a sovereign nation, among the nations of the world,” he concluded. (KS)
