Would The Real Owen Seymour Arthur Please Stand Up!

Written by Stephen Williams

Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur

Imagine a man trying to curry favour with the business community, whom he seems to have in the palm of his hands anyhow, telling them something completely opposite of what he has been telling other Barbadians recently.

The man – OSA; the place – the Hilton Hotel; the occasion – the Barbados Chamber of Commerce Luncheon last week; the pandering comment – it is time this government cuts back expenditure on health and education, and offer incentives to the private sector so it can invest in these areas.

Now, rewind to the 28th of June this year, the place – the House of Assembly; the occasion – the Budget Debate; the comment for the masses on live radio television – government has to put more resources into education and health. We must invest in our young people and in their future, give the UWI more money, pay them what you owe them.

Again, a couple months ago at a function at the Cave Hill campus, OSA was admonishing the government about any plans to cut back on education. However, standing before a clearly partisan business sector, with several of his lackeys in tow, he was brownnosing them. This ‘brilliant’ modern-day chameleon really forgot that the news media were present, and his remarks would be reported.

Reminds me of his address to a group in the Bahamas a couple years ago. He told them at the time that he understood their pain as they were not the only ones experiencing the throes of the recession. He said it was a worldwide phenomenon and they had to aim to ride it out. However, the same man was telling Barbadians, before and after that candid address, that the recession was only in Barbados, and it was because of the bad policies pursued by the current government.

Any proposed cuts in health and education would surely affect the small man and the average Barbadian. But, then again, members of the Chamber of Commerce are not average Barbadians. Tell OSA that the private sector does not invest in education, since they do not see any real benefits accruing to them. They do not even give their staff time off to attend classes at Cave Hill. Staffers usually have to retire. And, in health, they would be looking for quick returns from upscale facilities and pricey fees that are outside the reach of the small man..

So, we must ask again: Who is Fooling Whom? If government cuts back on health and education services there will be massive job losses. Sounds as if the BLP are suddenly embracing the astringencies of the IMF. Look how times have changed!

By the way, now that we are on to myths, OSA told his Chamber of Commerce audience that one of the best things his administration did was to sell the government shares in the then BNB (now Republic Bank) because it created employment. Well that is another canard. The only employment it created was jobs for people in Trinidad, where all the profits are remitted and where all the decisions are made. On the contrary, several Barbadians have lost jobs at BNB since the total take over. Indeed, some customers were so upset with the recent name change they have closed their accounts and gone to other financial institutions.

However, this claptrap from the polymathic journalist, Patrick Hoyos,  a sometimes business/financial expert and reporter/publisher, whose only claim to fame is a string of failed businesses, takes the cake.  An extract from his last Sunday Sun column, which praised the same Owen Arthur’s address to the Chamber of Commerce, noted: “… the policy of the Worrell-Sinckler-Dolittle (in that order) Administration, which has been to keep Government workers employed while caring nothing for how their counterparts in the private sector fared,  …. has failed miserably.” UNBELIEVABLE! And imagine, it came from no less a person than a mouthpiece/apologist, diehard supporter and puppet of the Barbados Labour Party. He speaks for them.

What Hoyos is saying is that Government should abandon the public servants and send them packing. Lay them off in droves, he urges, like what the private sector is doing. Let us have what is currently happening in Greece, Spain, England, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Italy, the rest of the EU and Jamaica replicated here. UTTER NONSENSE Mr. Hoyos. Then, you and the BLP would walk the length and breadth of Barbados and bellow that the DLP has put thousands of public servants on the breadline. Won’t happen!

Relatedly, no less outrageous was the suggestion last Tuesday, on the floor of the House of Assembly by MP Ronald Toppin, that instead of Barbados passing legislation to allow casino gambling by passengers aboard cruise ships here (not Barbadians), it should join with other regional governments and seek to purchase a cruise ship. Well, well! What madness! Can you believe it? All cash-strapped countries, barely surviving in a relentless, global recession, and struggling to keep their heads above water, should now try to raise over US$600 million to purchase a ship. We could not handle the little Federal Palm and Federal Maple; a proposed $1million inter-island ferry never got passed being someone’s idea; little Red Jet floundered; and LIAT is having problems; yet, we must, I presume, borrow money and invest in a billion dollar cruise liner. Maybe, we will call it the SS Rockin’ Toppin.

Please God, spare us from the hands of the BLP! Mr. Toppin, wheel and come again Sir!