Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Reshuffle exposes tensions

Date:

Share post:

WHATEVER ELSE THE Prime Minister’s “reshuffle speech” was intended to do, it has exposed to discerning eyes the damaging internal tensions within the ranks of the Stuart Cabinet, with Chris Sinckler and Donville Inniss and the late David Thompson all caught squarely in its crosshairs.
Let me explain.
Social Security, including the cash-rich National Insurance Scheme (NIS), was moved from Sinckler’s control and given to Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo, who is now Minister of Labour and Social Security.
Why this was done we do not know, but there is a clue on Page 4 of the WEEKEND NATION of June 10.
There, Byer-Suckoo spoke of the $10 million fund which would have come from National Insurance (NIS) – (under Sinckler’s control) to the National Employment Bureau (NEB) – (under her control) to ensure that unemployed people could be retrained.
She is reported as saying that there were challenges with collaboration between the two agencies, the NIS and the NEB, but now that both were under one ministry it should be a smoother transition.
Dispute resolved
Clearly, a dispute between the two ministries has arisen and had been resolved with the Prime Minister siding with Byer-Suckoo and not with Sinckler, who holds an important and prestigious portfolio.
Given the current economic situation with the Government borrowing heavily from the NIS, Social Security was a natural fit for the Ministry of Finance.
Yet, Mr Sinckler’s cash cow, the NIS, has now been put under another minister’s control.
Is this an attempt to clip Mr Sinckler’s wings?
In 1988, a year after Prime Minister Errol Barrow died, Dr Richie Haynes resigned as Minister of Finance for much less than this. Are we witnessing history?
Further, Minister of Health Donville Inniss finds his policy on non-national access to health benefits publicly shredded. The Prime Minister asked: Should these people suddenly discover that they are not entitled to benefits other Barbadians enjoy?
His answer bore all the imprint of imperial diktat: “I think not.”
Enough said!
Stiglitz’s words Now, how do we get to Mr Thompson? I may be wrong . . . but see what you make of this quotation at the end of the speech where Mr Stuart says he “fully endorses” the words of “renowned economist and Nobel Laureate Professor Stiglitz” who delivered the 32nd Sir Winston Scott Memorial Lecture here in 2007.
Here is the quotation: We need to begin with a general lesson often lost sight of in the midst of an economic downturn: every downturn comes to an end. Economic policy does make a difference; it can make the downturn shorter or longer shallower or deeper . . . .
Now, while you consider why Stuart had to go there, read Clyde Mascoll criticizing the DLP’s 2008 Budget, three years ago in the NATION of July 11, 2008.
“The Budget will increase the cost of living; it will slow down the economy; it will increase unemployment; it will increase the national debt; it will reduce the fiscal deficit . . . .”
That was how Mascoll saw the 2008 Budget as indeed did Mr Owen Arthur and Ms Mia Mottley – and they were right. The cost of living has increased, as has unemployment and the national debt, and the fiscal deficit has been reduced, but the economy has slowed down!  
Recently, Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford said that a recession happens every ten years. He had his problems in 1991. Owen Arthur faced his in 2001 – made worse by the 9/11 disaster and the OECD threat – a veritable triple whammy.
But only in 2001 were Barbadians insulated from the recession. Why? Because the Barbados Labour Party’s policies made the difference. Professor Stiglitz was right, economic policy does make a difference especially when a country is facing a recession.
But why were Stiglitz’s views included in a prime minister’s reshuffle speech?  
Whatever the reason, the Thompson and Sinckler Budgets of 2008 to 2010 are now in critical focus on the issue as to whether and how their economic polices made the recession “shorter or longer, shallower or deeper”.
In a sentence, the issue now is: were their economic and fiscal policies the right ones?
With the general election 18 months off, such a debate is better avoided by the Democratic Labour Party, because the first response from the Opposition is likely to be, we told you so! And with the voters listening, that is bad news.
So that while some may focus on the inclusion of the Denis Kellman/ Denis Lowe combination, my reading of the speech tells me that policies of Sinckler, Inniss and Thompson came under serious prime ministerial scrutiny, and that there is much more in the mortar than merely the pestle.
• Ezra Alleyne is an attorney-at-law and former Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related articles

PM announces 15 strategies to grow economy

15 Strategies to grow the economy as announced by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley in the 2024/25 Financial...

PM: Barbados’ economy on the right track

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley says the Barbados economy is on the right trajectory. Delivering the 2024/25 Financial Statement...

Road fatality on East Coast Road

Police are on the scene of a road fatality that occurred on East Coast Road, St. Andrew about...

No new taxes

There will be no new taxes in the 2024/25 Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals. That was one of the...