by RICKY JORDAN

THE NO-CONFIDENCE MOTION brought against Prime Minister and Minister of Finance David Thompson was defeated 19-9 last night after a marathon 13-and-a-half -hour debate in the House of Assembly.

The 11:46 p.m. vote saw the 18 sitting Government members (not including Speaker Michael Carrington and absent backbencher Kenny Best) and Independent MP Hamilton Lashley siding against the motion brought by Opposition Leader Mia Mottley.

Mottley, who led off the debate, had sought to condemn Thompson for "misleading the public" and failing to take immediate and urgent action to protect 40 000 CLICO policyholders.

The Prime Minister, in his reply, said no other government in the Caribbean had given its people such open-ended commitment as his administration in the crisis, which came to light on January 31.

He also said Government was the only entity that could give comfort to policyholders, since it understood confidence was critical at this time and its mission was to protect policholders and save job losses in the event of a run on CLICO.

Blasting Mottley's stance, Thompson said no other Opposition side in the region, or indeed the world, had taken the kind of fight against its government which the Barbados Labour Party had.

"There's no other country in the Caribbean where the opposition has behaved so immaturely, jostling for position...I know of no other country in the world where people are not seeking to bind together as one," he stated.

Mottley, in her opening speech and wrap-up late last night, stated that on Monday 40 000 policyholders could feel no more secure about the security of their investments.

She also criticised Thompson for waiting until she had filed the motion to start "telling Barbadians the truth", noting that he had only given details of CLICO's $93 million Statutory Fund deficit in his televised Press conference on Sunday, while other regional countries had moved rapidly in the last 36 days to deal with the CLICO crisis.

The Opposition Leader also repeatedly mentioned British American Insurance, a subsidiary of Trinidad's CL Financial, saying it could be in trouble via a proposed US$39 million lawsuit over 6 000 acres of land bought in Florida.

Mottley, calling for a joint parliamentary oversight committee to deal with similar financial matters in the future, also told Barbadians no CL Financial subsidiary or its assets in Barbados could be sold without explicit permission from the Trinidad and Tobago government,

"There can be no sale of assets in Barbados unless that injunction is either discharged or permission is granted by the person who effectively has control of CL Financial, namely the Government of Trinidad and Tobago," she said in reference to the proposed buyout of CLICO international Life by the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Ltd.