Barrow is Bogus!

by glenntillett@yahoo.com

“The Social Partners recognizing that there resides among them a mutuality of interest, an inherent interdependence and a maturity in the exercise of their relationships;

“And further recognizing that the sources of any sustained social and economic progress in Barbados will depend to a considerable extent upon their on-going individual and collective commitment to a philosophy of governance which is characterized by participatory democracy and the subjugation of their sectoral interests to the national good;

“Recommit themselves to a formal structure to govern their continued collaboration and consultation of fundamental issues affecting their individual and collective contributions to all aspects of national development.” – Preamble to Protocol Three, Barbados Social Partnership compact.

If I am to judge strictly by the feedback I get, sometimes I want to think more people read my column on-line than in the actual world of the pages of the newspaper. If you’re reading this on paper as it has been printed in ink, the chances are you reading it on Friday, February 19^th, 2010, and Belize’s Prime Minister Dean Barrow may even at this moment be behaving dishonorably in the House of Representatives.

As I write this on Wednesday afternoon, February 17^th, 2010, it is a good bet that once again at Friday’s meeting of the House of Representatives at the National Assembly in Belmopan, and as he has done on just about nearly every other public occasions when he addressed matters of state or tended to the business of the nation, Barrow will be doing all he can to the divide the people of Belize, and continue to damage our viability as a nation-state.

My on-line readers are most often curious about why I am so critical of Barrow’s behavior, and question the aggrieved tenor and angry tone of my columns about him. I conclude that they wonder about it because they don’t get to witness Barrow’s behavior first hand, and the majority of our media do not report his histrionics or question his exaggerations, misrepresentations, derogatory characterizations, untruths, lies et cetera.

Each and every time I have listened to Dean Barrow in the past few years I am left in awe of his limitless capacity to hyperbolize, overstate, amplify, magnify, overdraw, misinform, mislead – alas, my Thesaurus fails me.

And then I watch and listen to the reports of his “performances” in the so-called “independent” media and I wonder why they don’t think that Dean Barrow’s turn before the camera and microphones is not worthy of adjectival comment.

Belize, to put it mildly, is in the economic doldrums of a paralyzing recession, and the only breeze is Barrow’s hot air. But instead of breathing life into our limp sails it tends to blow off statesmanship and make enemies of the very people needed as allies in the cause of survival.

In the early Nineties Barbados was able, in the words of their media, “to avoid the prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund” and strengthen its economy to one of the top three in the region through the implementation of what became known as “The Social Partnership.”

Former Barbadian Owen Arthurs once told me that the Social Partnership ushered in a new era and indeed a paradigm shift in the concerts and practices of governance.

He said: “We have to a very great extent changed the meaning and interpretation of consultation and participation.”

Belize as a nation is failing on nearly every front and in every sector. We need a uniter, not a divider. I wrote in this space over a year and a half ago about Barbados’ social partnership and urged Belizeans to consider this as a core strategy for economic and social advancement and development, and today I am renewing that call.

I will continue to chronicle the many, many ways Dean Barrow’s political philosophy of partisanship over partnership fail us, and provide you with examples to show how and why a different approach would benefit us. For example, even as I write this I note the following story from Barbados. Compare these two Caribbean Prime Ministers. Just last week Dean Barrow called his quarterly press conference to once again pursue his petty, partisan, political agenda …

“Barbados PM to meet with social partnership on Friday

“The possibility of having a moratorium on wages is expected to be discussed this Friday, February 19, when Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, David Thompson meets with the social partnership.

“He made this disclosure last Thursday, during his first quarterly press conference for the year, which was televised live from Ilaro Court.

“Thompson told the media that there was a lot on the meeting’s agenda, because, “as a precursor to the economic consultation there are specific initiatives that are being pursued in the economy and in the society”.

“He said that the social partnership currently had before it the impact of the increase in local water rates. ‘Obviously I expect to be hauled over the coals by the private sector and the social partnership for the size of the increase; and government has to defend why, in these circumstances, it is necessary to do it for environmental and for other reasons,’ the Prime Minister stated.

“He added that concerns from the Catholic Church in relation to a more humane society in Barbados, and issues related to specific scenarios where government and the workers’ representative had matters unresolved, would also be discussed at Friday’s meeting.”

This is why I say Barrow is bogus. Check the contrast Jack – Barbados PM seeking to unite in the face of crisis, Belize PM trying once again to divide.

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