WHILE IT IS TRUE that the economy is not yet out of the woods, some official statements suggest that there is cause for hope that we are finally emerging from some of our most challenging times.
How we got here will, of course, be the meat and potatoes of the local political arguments but we prefer to draw attention to some of the enduring infrastructural monuments which have served us well and continue to dominate the landscape.
These achievements were established by the exercise of courageous political leadership of a type which we require once again.
The National Insurance legislation introduced shortly after our Independence represents a stellar achievement which has helped to propel our country forward as an example of how a small developing country might lift its people up and prepare them to help themselves when adversity hits the country, or affects their personal circumstances.
That this preparation was done under the aegis of Government matters little to our point since it is the contributions of the workers and their employers which have funded this most important social tool.Initiatives of that kind are often implemented against the grain of prevailing opinion.
When this happens leadership of a high order is required to carry the people forward for the future communal benefit.
In the current atmosphere, we believe that leadership of that order is required on the issue of privatisation. It is common ground among thinking Barbadians that the deficit can be better tackled if some of Government’s assets are sold to private entrepreneurs, thereby reducing the large sums of money transferred to these state entities.
It is a policy pregnant with politics, and it was exploited and kicked around like a football in the election campaign two years ago, but this is not the time to rehash the election. Action is required to bring the national finances into order.
This is a time for mature thinking in the national interest and bullets must be bitten.
We urge the Minister of Transport to do what he deems necessary to rationalise the national public transport service. If he succeeds he will earn the undying gratitude of those Barbadians who have to travel on public transport to go about their lawful business. A more efficient service is urgently needed.
The Minister may draw inspiration from the National Insurance Service to which mention has already been made and he may also even look at the example of the Deep Water Harbour.
The construction of the harbour caused major political debates at the time but enlightened leadership won the day and just like the National Insurance Service, it stands as a monument to significant political and national leadership at a time when vision of high order was required to see how beneficial this project might enure to future economic development.
The exigencies of politics often require pandering to expedient solutions but the national well-being and the longer term view is always of lasting national benefit.
Both the NIS and the Deep Water Harbour, conceived in controversial circumstances, have outlasted the times of their creation and continue to benefit succeeding generations.
If the Minister can find the political courage to execute a balanced, efficient and effective system of public/private partnership solution of our national transport problems, that effort will join the NIS and the Harbour as examples of enlightened leadership in dealing with challenging political problems.
These times call for that kind of courageous leadership. An inefficient transport system can stymie the best laid plans for economic recovery, and the national interest cannot afford obstacles to our recovery.
