#BTSpeakingOut – Knowing when to speak or not

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

“For everything there is a season,

A time for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to plant and a time to harvest”.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 New Living Translation

Many years ago, a wise man made a very profound statement that continues to advise mankind, there is a time and place for every activity to be undertaken.

It is also important that every person should know when to speak and when to remain silent.

Unfortunately, a number of persons seem not to heed such good advice.

On Tuesday 4th October 2022, Senior Minister William Duguid saw it fit to use parliamentary privilege and verbally scolded the Barbados Light and Power Company for “lacking foresight and focusing on the bottom line above all else”.

Approximately two weeks after, another Senior Minister in the person of Mr. Kerrie Symmonds used the occasion of a Renewable Energy Expo sponsored by the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to laud the efforts of the BL&P, saying that while the company was not perfect, it should be credited for attending to its social responsibilities.

The two Senior Ministers were obviously at variance, with the former chastising the BL&P, while the other saw the company as an “indispensable partner”.

In fact, Minister Symmonds was quoted as saying: “even in the House of Assembly, there were criticisms which I think do not resonate comfortably with my sense of conscience and sense of decency”.

Not only is there a time and place for everything, but it is also wise that one should think before one speaks.

The current season is now the time for the Fair Trading Commissioners to be sitting and studying to make a determination whether or not our sole utility power company is to be granted a hike in rates, but sadly, the public at large is privy to how the two Senior Ministers think and how they feel about the Barbados Light and Power as a corporate citizen.

One’s only hope is that the FairTrading Commissioners will neither be coerced nor persuaded by what the Ministers had to say, but be guided only by the pertinent and convincing arguments presented by the Company and the intervenors.

Michael Ray