BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Feb 22, CMC – The main opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Wednesday announced plans for a “National March of Disgust” on March 11 as the first step into to forcing the Freundel Stuart government to call fresh general elections.
Opposition Leader Mia Mottley told a news conference that Barbadians must now be given an opportunity to have a say in the economic decline of the country and the ongoing battle by the government to dismiss Central Bank Governor Dr. Delisle Worrell.
The High Court is expected to rule on the matter on Thursday.
“We will be marching on the afternoon of Saturday, the 11th March 2017, and we call upon all civic minded Barbadians to join with us in sending a message to Freundel Stuart and his cabinet that their style of governance is not cute, but above all else that Barbados cannot bear the weight of the indifference and the incompetence of Freundel Stuart and his cabinet for another 12 months,” Mottley told reporters.
“Ironically, yesterday was the fourth anniversary of Barbadians going to the polls at the last elections and several commentators have said over the last two weeks and we have sat back and listened to them, including some of their own, this crisis situation is bigger than each of us”.
Mottley said that the BLP is determined “that no one, not even the titular leader of this country must be allowed to stand in the way of the urgent need to stop the haemorrhaging, to stabilise the country and to put us back on the proper path to recovery.
“The will of the Barbadian people may be delayed but it may never be denied,,” she told reporters, adding the march and the rally afterwards “is but the first salvo by the Barbados Labour Party to let it be known that enough is enough”.
She warned that the BLP “will not sit silently and permit the wholesale destruction of Barbados simply to allow a government to limp or crawl its way to the constitutionally stipulated finish line.
“This is not about finishing the five years given to a government. This must now be about stopping the rot and re-energising Barbados for Barbadians. This must be about giving Barbados and Barbadians a chance,” she added,
Mottley said that it is unbelievable that Prime Minister Stuart would make a public statement that he has had little or no knowledge of the plans by his Finance Minister Chris Sinckler to remove Worrell from his post as Central Bank Governor.
“From what has been whispered and also what has been insinuated and said from other senior members of the cabinet, it appears that in terms of this callous indifference to the issue, Freundel stands alone,” she said, adding that the BLP contends “that it is now time for Barbadians to be given an opportunity to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with this state of affairs in Barbados.”
She said that the Barbados government has continued to paint an “artificial image” of promise and recovery when “it is clear for all to sense and for all to see that the situation is getting worse and headed to intensive care”.
Mottely said that now that the Central Bank Governor has broken free “of ministerial allegiance and dictate and is telling it like it is, the prime minister would have us believe that this is all a side show and that his flying up to New York to speak to his party faithful…is of greater importance
“of the 250,000 Barbadians, Freundel Stuart is the only person not perplexed or anxious about the ramifications of the ongoing dispute between the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank”.
She said that the situation in the country is such that she does not believe that the government can meet its monthly financial obligations “without the Central Bank printing money and buying government securities.
“Therefore it is preposterous for the leader of this country to say to the nation….that he has not bestirred himself to get involved in the matter.
“It speaks to a prime minister entirely disconnected from and unconcerned with the affairs of state and presiding over a dysfunctional government,” she added.
