Some things are beyond and above partisan politics, such as honour, decency, integrity and the rule of law. When these are assaulted, or worse, deliberately trampled, that nation is perilously near the point of no return.
When they are flouted by the very people sworn to uphold them, the country is down the drain.
There are many crucial issues in Barbados at the moment all screaming for answers that continue to elude us: the sewage crisis, our economy, the state of our roads, the poor state of public accounting, and violence among both adults and youth, to name a few. We don’t need another.
So when I read – and re-read – the statement attributed to the Prime Minister to “take the money”, I figured there was a simple answer for my confusion as to what it meant. Maybe a typo. Or the reporter misunderstood. Or understood correctly but failed to convey in print some essential body language that changed the meaning completely. Or failed to appreciate some very subtle point of rhetoric which would have rendered the opposite meaning.
I am still hoping that one of these is true. Indeed, it must be so.
It would be absolutely impossible for a Prime Minister of Barbados – given what Barbados means, what we’ve stood for over the years – to make such a statement and mean what it appears to say.
Given the current confusion, I fully anticipate that the Right Honourable Prime Minister will restate, review or retract what he said. Not to do so would be to go on record as condoning, even encouraging, the utterly despicable practice of vote buying and selling. That is neither right nor honourable.
– TREVOR R. SHEPHERD