THE OLD BOYS’ CLUB of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) needs a cleansing, says one of its former parliamentarians.
Hamilton Lashley, a former Minister of Social Transformation and representative for St Michael East, was reacting yesterday to the washout in last Thursday’s General Election where the Dems did not win a single seat in the 30-member House of Assembly.
Lashley said a first step to the cleansing process was to accept the offer made by Prime Minister Mia Mottley for two DLP representatives in the Senate.
“It cannot be an inside job. The Democratic Labour Party now has to look externally, in collaboration with all of civil society, the business sector, the youth organisations . . . but [it] can be an energised force again. But if it is an inside job, then of course it will languish and fade into the wilderness.
“I know I will get cuss, but I accustomed to that. [It needs] a cleansing, a purge,” said Lashley during a Press conference by defeated DLP St Michael South East candidate Rodney Grant at the Marcus Garvey Resource and Development Centre, Wildey.
Lashley touted Grant and City of Bridgetown candidate Henderson Williams as being among the younger, brighter people who were able to fill the Senate seats and take the party into the future.
“The time has come within the Democratic Labour Party where many of the old, traditional thinkers, and diehard way of doing things, have to completely change. There has to be first a distinct loyalty to Barbados and the party second, and that is the problem because it is the other way around.
“People believe in who has served the party well, and who are the best members, but we are at a particular juncture now where we have to look to the future seriously. And it is quite obvious to me that a lot of the old boys and old girls in the party now have to sit back in an advisory capacity and let the younger, brighter persons take the lead . . . ,” he argued.
Grant agreed that the DLP should take up Mottley’s offer as a responsibility to the thousands of Barbadians who still voted for them. He said the party should take it a step further and create its own Opposition outside of Parliament.
“I still believe that if we have an opportunity to go into any aspect of the houses, Upper House or Lower House, and speak on behalf of the people, I think it is good for democracy,” he added. (SDB Media)
