by RICKEY SINGH

I RETURNED to Barbados last week from a visit abroad with my wife, to further learn of concerns by professional media colleagues, family members and others, about recent comments by Prime Minister David Thompson that have been interpreted as directed at me as a "writer" who has engaged in "unfair and unwarranted maligning of Barbados and Barbadians" over its immigration policy.

The Prime Minister was at the time delivering the feature address at the August 23 annual conference of his Democratic Labour Party (DLP) when he made references, without calling names, to criticisms pertaining to the Government's immigration policy and, in particular, what he chose to describe as "the definitive action we have taken on the issue of undocumented migration in Barbados . . .".

Well, as I had said earlier to other media colleagues, the Prime Minister could not seriously have been referring to me - though I must confess my difficulty in identifying the "particularly one writer, to whom this country has extended a welcoming arm and embrace . . .".

For starters, whatever the criticisms - some of which, admittedly, could be viewed as sharp - I have made of the current or previous Governments of this nation, I am simply not in the business of "maligning" Barbados or Barbadians - a country and people for whom I have developed deep respect and admiration as a "documented" CARICOM migrant since January 1987.

A distinction needs to be made that criticisms of a government's policies and/or programmes by a journalist - the veracity of which could be challenged, if necessary, at ANY time by said government - should not be confused or interpreted as being either anti-government, or worse, "maligning" the country or its citizens.

To the best of my recollection, there is NOTHING I have written on this Government's "immigration policy" or on the critical comments made about the reported mistreatment of undocumented CARICOM migrants to warrant a public chastisement and threat as outlined in the text.

Those who may have chosen, out of self-interest, to mis-advise the Prime Minister should be reminded that at no time have I been challenged to correct any so-called falsehood.

Not even when I sought, in this very column, official responses to what I had written, in relation to reports of exploitation and, worse, the disgusting treatment of illegal, or undocumented CARICOM migrants rounded up for expulsion by immigration authorities.

The Prime Minister of Barbados, who shoulders lead responsibility for CSME-readiness of which regional labour mobility is one of the significant pillars, would also know that disagreements between governments and professional practitioners of the media, need not lead to hostility.

In this context, let me also empathise with the pain that my colleague Carol Martindale, editor of the SUNDAY SUN, had to unnecessarily suffer due to a telephone call regarding the prominence and display to be given a poll conducted for the DLP, by the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES).