Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.
by John Beale
Background
Recently there have been active discussions on the nomination by the Government of Barbados (GOB) of Chris Sinckler to the post of Alternate Executive Director of the World Bank. Mr. Sinckler will work with a group of countries comprising Canada, Ireland and 10 CARICOM countries. Canada’s representative is always the director and Ireland the deputy.
The CARICOM countries have one Executive Alternate Director that rotates between them every few years. The last CARICOM country that held this position was Guyana, represented by Donna Harris whose performance was outstanding.
It is now Barbados’ turn to nominate the new Alternate Executive Director. The selection of Mr. Sinckler is a decision of the GOB. However, he will also represent the nine other CARICOM nations. Mr. Sinckler did not apply to the World Bank for this job.
Selection
While good governance would dictate that the GOB chooses the best candidate, irrespective of political affiliations, the final decision is the PM’s and politics can be a factor. The question is, was Mr. Sinckler, who as Minister of Finance witnessed repeated downgrades of the Barbados economy, the best choice?
Hyacinth Greenidge and Clairmonte Grazette in their recent comments in the newspapers, seem not in favour of selecting Mr. Sinckler whereas Winston Cox thinks “politically it is a very clever and astute appointment”.
Credibility and optics matter
Mr. Sinckler was the economic/finance leader of the DLP and was considered by the then leader of the Opposition, Mia Mottley, to be a total failure prior to the 2018 elections. He was seen as the architect of “The Lost Decade”. He fired the Governor of the Central Bank for not following his directives which were to print more money. On the other hand, he was also fired by the voters in the 2018 elections. Are we to assume that Mr. Sinckler has since learned from his mistakes/experiences or did the PM err in her condemnation?
Does it not seem somewhat strange that the PM would appoint Mr. Sinckler to serve on her never reported task force? Why would he, on the cusp of the January 2022 General Election, question the leadership of the DLP president Verla De Penza and say that Mia demonstrated good leadership on a front page interview in the Sunday Sun?
Does anyone remember that former PM Owen Arthur found it inappropriate from an optics point of view for Mia Mottley as Leader of the Opposition to walk arm in arm with Mr. Sinckler, Minster of Finance as he was on his way to deliver a budget speech? Is Mr. Sinckler still a member of the DLP or has he joined the BLP?
Regardless of the politics, let us all wish Mr. Sinckler lots of luck and success as he tackles several major CARICOM issues relating to concessionary financing, climate change, technical assistance and getting Barbados and other CARICOM countries to improve their capacity to implement projects from the 70 per cent implementation deficit they are currently achieving.
Addendum—say what you mean and mean what you say
Politics appears to have reached the stage where if a Republican or BLP politician says “yes” to something, it will automatically mean that a Democrat or DLP politician must say “no”. Moreover, what is even more disturbing is that they can say “yes” emphatically today and “no” tomorrow without any explanation.
Examples of this are the derogatory comments about Messrs. Sinckler and Maloney before the 2018 General Election and actions since then. Is the general public to believe that Messrs. Sinckler and Maloney are villains or heroes, rising again, like the resurrection, at Easter?
John Beale is a former Barbados Ambassador to the US and OAS for 7 1/2 years appointed by the DLP and a former Barbados Honorary Consul to Brazil for
10 years appointed by the BLP. He has never joinedany political party.
