Opposition MP Dale Marshall
St. Joseph MP, Dale Marshall, has thrown scorn on suggestions made by Democratic Labour Party spokesmen that their party has transformed the local economy.
He questioned the accuracy of these comments while speaking yesterday in the House of Assembly on the 2013/2014 Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals.
“We all understand the meaning of the word transformation. A transformation is a change in form, it is a change in structure and a change in character and it is generally used when those changes are for the better,” he added.
“We on this side remain completely bewildered that any member on the Government benches can seriously lay claim to any transformation of the Barbadian economy. But if you wanted to be purist, we would say yes, the economy has been transformed because we have gone from low unemployment when the Barbados Labour Party was in power to high unemployment. We have gone from low deficits when the BLP was in power to high deficits. We have gone from being a blue chip investment country to a country that has been downgraded to junk bond status.”
Marshall maintained that Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Chris Sinckler, had folded his arms, closed his eyes and now subscribed to a form of “economic fatalism”.
The attorney at law argued that Sinckler’s action reminded him of the Biblical story where one servant took his talent and buried it, while the other two through astute stewardship took theirs and multiplied them.
“The sad fact is that this country cannot afford to have an administration that wants to adopt that kind of supine approach to the management of our affairs. The election was only six months ago and it is fresh in this country’s mind. We on both sides were up and down telling the country various things and the BLP, I well recollect, was careful to point out to the Government and to this country that we were in perilous waters and that they would become more perilous, but the Government chose to tell the people to ignore the BLP,” Marshall explained.
Marshall told fellow parliamentarians that since February 21 DLP spokesmen had been saying that something had gone awry and over the past three days have been trying to convince Barbadians that they must hold each other’s hands as they confront the economic challenges.
He recalled that prior to February 21, DLP speakers had dismissed their BLP counterparts as prophets of doom and gloom and naysayers and people to be ignored. (NC)