Lashley weighs In on public spat Over Elderly Protection Bill

There should be no fighting over the affairs of the elderly, former Minister of Social Transformation Hamilton Lashley has declared.

Responding to the recent public exchange between Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey and CBL Chambers over the law firm’s draft legislation dealing with the protection of senior citizens, Lashley said the matter should not be dealt with in a “territorial” manner. However, he insisted, any such legislation should not be allowed to make it to Parliament if there has been no buy-in from all relevant stakeholders.

Last Thursday, attorney-at-law Corey Beckles and his legal team presented to the media a draft Elderly Protection Bill which proposes penalties for individuals who abuse the elderly.

However, two days later, Minister Humphrey made it clear that the Government had nothing to do with that draft legislation and that as far as he was aware, CBL Chambers had not consulted with stakeholders such as the Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP).

Lashley insisted in an interview with Barbados TODAY that “any bill drafted in the interest of the elderly should involve the widest possible consultation to ensure authenticity and originality of the document”.

The former Parliamentarian added that as Minister of Elder Affairs, Humphrey should be leading the consultation process.

“I can imagine if it was me sitting in that chair and I had read it, I would be taken aback. I understand how Minister Humphrey probably feels because he really believes in what he is doing. The first step should have been consultation with the Minister,” he said.

“Of course, you don’t want to have this loggerheads situation. It cannot be a territorial issue right now. It should be a cohesive, comprehensive approach and I seriously believe that the first stop should have been the Minister’s office. It can’t be this breaking-for-yourself thing because you are dealing with a society where the issues of the elderly need to be taken into serious consultation.”

During a press conference at his Strathclyde, St Michael office on Monday, Beckles said his team had repeatedly reached out to Humphrey to schedule meetings to discuss the draft legislation.

He also called on the Minister to apologise for his comments, saying that the statements had, in effect, “made myself and my colleagues enemies of the state because we did not follow what he refers to as the correct procedure”.

Around that same time, Minister Humphrey, speaking on the Down to Brass Tacks call-in programme on VOB, said while CBL Chambers had not followed the correct procedure, he was willing to discuss any plan with the firm that had the potential to provide protection for the elderly.

“I would love to see both the Minister and Mr Beckles sit down and deal with it. But you cannot bypass the office of the Minister. I mean, you could, but you should not bypass the Minister’s office. We don’t want this war, we don’t want this fight between the two entities,” Lashley said.

He further suggested that now is the right time for the Government to look at the provision of housing and transportation for the elderly since ageing and disabilities are inextricably linked.

Lashley said Barbados should be a fully adaptive society to deal with ageing persons with varying types of disabilities.

“Right now, we have a challenge on our hands as Barbadians as to how we now deal with the challenges of an ageing society. You have persons, living particularly in the government estates, who have physical disabilities and live in upstairs houses and can’t get upstairs.

“What I am suggesting is additional rooms be built onto these houses with additional and adaptive devices to make sure that these persons are comfortable in their homes. There are so many things that we can do so that Barbados can become the most wholesome society as it relates to how we treat our elderly and disabled persons,” he said.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb