OPPOSITION LEADER DAVID THOMPSON had the gall to call BLP parliamentarians "idle". This nonsensical statement would come back to haunt him a few days later when a debate on a very important bill, for which the required notice was served, had to be postponed because the DLP were not prepared for the debate. This is not the first time they were found wanting and, from all accounts, it will not be the last.
The view that the Dems are in total disarray is supported by solid empirical evidence. They continue to come to Parliament totally unprepared, expecting to seriously contribute to the debates, resulting in their having to resort to innuendoes, generalisations and empty rhetoric. We cannot recall any instances where their contributions were backed by either serious thought or reasoned analysis.
The people of Barbados deserve much better from the opposition DLP. During the last session, there were only two of them. They had the legitimate excuse that numbers were against them. The good people of Barbados responded by giving them seven seats. Sad to say, the more they increased the less they produced.
The fact of the matter is that Thompson misinterpreted the results of the last election to mean that the Dems were set to win the next poll. He therefore removed the leader and installed himself though he has no real interest in the job.
His only interest is to position himself to share out the "fatted calf". He therefore puts little or no effort in rectifying the disorganisation now crippling the Dems. They are a confused and leaderless lot, resulting in a case where every one of them believes they should be leading the party.
Naked ambition now masks the fact that all of them are patently unsuited for the job of leading either the party or the nation.
David Estwick was Deputy Opposition Leader up until a few months ago. He, from all reports, has taken umbrage with the fact that last week, when Thompson was away on his usual jaunt, Denis Kellman acted as leader. Estwick reacted by calling a Press conference to respond to the Central Bank's analysis of the local economy in an attempt to show up Kellman. But he went overboard to show how big an economic guru he had suddenly become.
Barbadians heard of an impending economic crisis about a devaluation of the local currency, and a debt crisis. It is a good thing that people do not take Estwick seriously, otherwise he would have caused a major panic in and outside of Barbados.
We will expect to see more of this confusion in the days ahead as the Dems seek to show up one another and grandstanding becomes the order of the day. The irony of the situation is that with all the goings on in the international economy, we need Parliament to be working at its best, seeking to devise ways of keeping the ship afloat. This BLP Government has done that.
After the 1986 elections, when the BLP captured only three seats, the nation could have relied on us to defend their interest. The "three blind mice" as the Dems derisively called them, worked assiduously and kept the Government on their toes, offering sensible and well thought out policies. They demonstrated how opposition politics can work.
Obviously the Dems are not made of the same stuff.
