The November 29 abstention by the Barbados delegation on the vote for the non-voting member status of Palestine in the United Nations General Assembly reeks of the perceived inertia among current Barbados leadership and decision making.

Coincidently, the abstention was on the eve of Barbados’ 46th year of Independence.

According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, to abstain is to refrain deliberately and often with an effort of self-denial. What plausible reason could Barbados have for denying itself a chance to help a displaced people get a better seat at the international table?

Only recently, Louis Farrakhan, in his visit to Barbados, intimated that the island should be leading the Caribbean. How can we lead when we don’t have the guts to vote to give another nation some rights?

Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname all voted in the affirmative.

There is a deafening silence on the recall of the UN delegation that could not make a decision.  The Opposition has also been silent as though it has given tacit approval to the abstention?

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