The ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Sunday night launched its campaign for the May 24 general election, brushing aside the “promises” made by its main opponent, the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) at its own launch 24 hour earlier.
DLP leader Freundel Stuart told supporters that he was “very pleased about the level of optimism that I have seen from the audience here tonight …and as St. Paul said, the day is at hand and we must therefore criticise the work of darkness and put on the armour of light.
“I just want to say to you as you go through this campaign, remember the works of darkness can be found in the Barbados Labour Party but the armour of light is to be found in the Democratic Labour Party and therefore vote DEMS on May 24”
Prime Minister Stuart, who is leading the DLP into a second general election, last week reminded reporters that since 1961 all the elections here were fought on leadership, and he took that message to the platform on Sunday night, launching a blistering attack on the BLP leader, Mia Mottley, who he said was approaching the office of Prime Minister with a sense of “entitlement”.
Prime Minister Stuart told the crowd that leadership had absolutely nothing to do with blood lines and referred to a situation several years ago when Mottley was appointed attorney general here.
He said her predecessor had made no reference to her “capacity for hard work, he did not say her intellect, none of those criteria at all, did he mention. He said her bloodline….limitless opportunities for higher achievement”.
He said while he would not go into explaining what bloodline is there’s no one in Barbados “who can say because of who my father is, because of who my mother is, because of whom my grandparents are…I am entitled now, not only to the future, to opportunities for higher achievements that have no bounds or limits”.
Stuart was critical of the media and political commentators for keeping quiet on what he termed “that kind of thinking because Barbados has left that behind years ago.
“We don’t do thinks nowadays on the basis of bloodline. The Democratic Labour Party came into existence to end all of that. That is why we said we wanted to create a just society in Barbados, Sturt told supporters, adding “not bloodlines, not who your father is, your mother is or who your grandparents are….
Stuart said Barbadians were facing at present “a sense of entitlement based on the fact that somebody has been led to believe that her bloodline is spell and portend, limitless and boundless opportunities for higher achievement”.
Mottley had at the launch of the BLP campaign under the theme “Lift Off”, said issues related to transportation, problems plaguing the South Coast Sewerage Project and free tertiary education would be solved immediately should her party win at the polls.
“They keep asking how we are going to do it. We will show them how to do it,” Mottley said, promising also that non-contributory pensions would be increased, should the BLP regain the government.
“The days of pensioners getting BDS$77.50 (One Barbados dollar=US$0.50 cents)will be no more. From June 1 pensioners will get BDS$225 every two weeks,” she said.
But Finance Minister Chris Sinckler told DLP supporters that Mottley should inform the electorate how the party intends to keep the promises it has made, describing the proposals as “madness’.
He warned that the National Insurance system could collapse as a result, adding “nobody explained to Ms. Mottley, that old age non-contributory pensions are indexed, by differential, to contributory pensions. So if you increase non-contributory pensions you have to increase contributory pensions.”
Sinckler said that the basic formula would see the minimum non-contributory pension, which is BDS$155 increased to BDS$225 resulting in the non-contributory moving to BDS$23 million per year.
“We already pay BDS$48 million per year in non-contributory pension. That is what the Ministry of Finance sends to National Insurance Scheme. And you are going to add on another BDS$23 million on that and then compound it, because that is a 45 per cent increase.
“You now have to go and increase the contributory pension because there must be a differential between the two,” he said, rubbishing claims that a new fleet of garbage trucks would be brought, explaining that one truck on average costs $700 000.
“Where is she getting this money from?” Sinckler asked questioning also promises to pay all arrears owed to the University of the West Indies (UWI), remove the National Social Responsibility Levy and reduce the Value Added Tax, all in one fell swoop.
Nomination Day for the general election is May 7.
In the last general election, the DLP won 16 of the 30 seats with the remainder going to the BLP.
