CONTRIBUTION TO DEBATE ON PRIVATE MEMBER’S RESOLUTION BY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION OF NO CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNMENT ON 10^TH MAY, 2016 BY EDMUND G. HINKSON, ST. JAMES NORTH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

1. INTRODUCTION:

Praise to Leader of the Opposition for her outstanding and commendable marathon effort in presenting Resolution.

Substantial majority of St. James North constituents, similarly to other Barbadians, now have no confidence in Government’s ability to take country out of socio-economic malaise of last eight years, to properly and effectively, manage nation’s affairs of state or to govern in the best interest of people. Every day people ask me when are the Elections and what BLP doing about changing the Government.

PM’s statement that you have to experience Good Friday to celebrate Easter Sunday makes no sense in relation to what is going on in present day Barbados. The suffering has gone on for too long and Easter Sunday is nowhere in sight.

2. MISGUIDED FISCAL POLICIES, POOR ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT AND FAILED LEADERSHIP

DLP Government came into office in 2008 to bat with a firm foundation laid by outgoing BLP Government. Unemployment was down, foreign reserves were up, Barbados was occupying a leading role in Caricom. Ball started to swing and seam slightly. But DLP batted with very poor technique and soon put team Barbados in trouble. High taxation in first budget, failure to make timely fiscal interventions before 2013 General Elections, followed by continuous fiscal adjustments strategies one after the other starting with 2013 Budget, all of which failed. Result has been over 3,000 laid off from public service after PM on Saturday, 27^th October, 2015 assured Barbadians that DLP will not be cutting jobs in the public service. “We are going to protect the people of Barbados and the public service from that kind of political slaughter. It will be a recipe for disaster”. Result of this promise has been that in many cases, not only one but both breadwinners in a household no longer have a job having been fired from government employment. House has been lost, young adults have had to drop out of Cave Hill University and people’s health care has been placed at severe risk. No right-thinking person can have modicum of confidence in this Government which in 2008 told us that they will not “lie, cheat or steal” but has proceeded to break every major Manifesto commitment made to the people.

Government has continued to impose draconian taxes and fees on citizens, over 33 in eight years, whilst removing the vast majority of tax allowances which income earners could have claimed as tax refunds. The Government has used the same kind of thinking which it used to create the problem in its attempt to solve them even although, as Albert Einstein said, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

All this whilst restricting the quality of social services which people had become accustomed to receiving paid for by their taxes. This has especially affected the community of persons with disabilities and senior citizens, two categories comprising the most financially vulnerable persons in Barbados. The middle economic class is under increasingly severe pressure while poverty is growing, as revealed in the last study on poverty submitted in 2010 which indicated that 20 per cent of Barbadians at that time were living below the poverty line. End result of Government’s incompetent economic management and political leadership is that Barbados, our beautiful country, has fallen from a lofty ranking of 37^th of 182 Nations on the Human Development Index in 2007 to 57^th of 188 in 2014. A very large number of Barbadians have no confidence in Government going forward.

3. DLP’S ANTI-TRADE UNION STANCE:

This has been most despicable. Mention PM’s condemnation in July last year of NUPW leadership in calling it bullies, irresponsible, etc. BLP under National Heroes Sir Grantley Adams and Sir Hugh Springer founded BWU and was instrumental in legitimizing of trade union activity over 75 years ago. PM’s threat to amend section 49 of the Constitution to curtail trade union’s power is unbecoming of someone holding the office of PM.

4. BLUNDERING EDUCATIONAL POLICIES:

Nowhere is this Government’s incompetence to manage and lead our country more patently obvious than in its educational policies or lack thereof and its management of the Ministry of Education. Minister acknowledged as worst Education Minister out of 13 by the press, teachers’ unions, university students, BCC students who now also have to pay tuition fees for their degree programmes, polytechnic students and parents alike.

Country was previously known among small developing countries newly emerged from the trappings of colonialism as having a globally competitive educational system which was the envy of many. Sector after 8 ½ years under Jones is lurching from crisis to crisis.

Inability to resolve industrial relations disputes with respective teachers’ unions, as “shoot off heads and crack skulls mentality” has been adopted. BUT members are now “on work to rule.”

Inability to resolve growing number of issues related to student on student violence, conflict between teachers and students, principals and teachers, principals and teachers on the one hand and parents on the other hand and teachers and the Ministry. Jones’ approach has been to label some children as “demonic” and to establish a committee two weeks ago to investigate violence in schools which, he says, will provide recommendations as to its resolution.

This decision is a complete dereliction of the ministerial duty of Jones as the person entrusted with the very important political mandate for the educational development of our people, especially our youth. It is indicative of why the general population and the stakeholders in education have no confidence in him as Minister. Numerous studies already have been undertaken. The establishment of committee is merely a substitute for decisive political action which is required. The Education Act and Regulations have sufficient teeth to effectively deal with this issue. We have no confidence in this Minister.

This government has failed to reform curriculum after 15 years to make it more relevant to modern day Barbados. The Education Ministry is now apparently preoccupied with partisan politics.

There has been a refusal by Minister Jones, a former BUT President being advised by a Chief Education Officer and Parliamentary Secretary, both former union head and secretary respectively, to meet with teachers. My advice to the teachers is not to meet with him or with those in cabinet who have publicly voiced support for him when they come to ask you for a vote.

Failure to appoint 100’s of eligible teachers to permanent positions in spite of promises to do so.

Failure to resolve a plethora of environmental issues at a myriad number of schools, as the Ministry has no policy of proper maintenance of the school plant and infrastructure.

Failure to establish Teachers Service Commission provided for in the Constitution of Barbados as promised to the teachers on 6^th September, 2012. Minister Jones then told them that the paper to establish this Commission had already gone to Cabinet.

Jones has presided over the dismantlement of 50 years of hitherto previously free university education for Barbadians, resulting in the loss of hope for 1,000’s of Barbadians from working class backgrounds. No Barbados government has ever been able to afford free university education but all of our governments previous to this one did. PM had in October 2012 committed to Barbadians that the DLP will continue to fully fund UWI education of our citizens. This promise was broken within one year afterwards.

Failure to clearly enunciate policies relating to funding of tuition fees of some UWI students, whether it is by way of bursaries or grants, again resulting in hundreds dropping out.

Jones should be removed as Education Minister. Furthermore, he has failed to honour pledge and commitment to this Parliament first made 14 months ago and repeated in March this year to deliver policy documents relating to education to the Opposition Party. Under Westminster system, he is no longer fit to be a cabinet minister.

5. LACK OF TRUST:

The people have lost trust in this Government led by a PM who has presided over an administration which has been marked by broken promises after broken promises. Ultimately he has to take full responsibility for his party’s failure to honour its commitments.

6. PROPOSED CABINET MEMBERS’ SALARY INCREASE:

Government’s display of callousness, insensitivity and contempt for Barbadians is demonstrated by Resolution which was laid in Parliament last week to raise salaries by ten per cent in a situation where public servants have not had a salary increase, bar increments, for the last 7 years. These Ministers are effectively telling the public who pay them and who they should serve that they cannot exist on a monthly salary of $13,000.00 plus travel and entertainment allowances plus over US$150.00 each day whenever they travel overseas as they frequently do flying first class. However, the DLP government is telling the electorate that the 1000s who have been fired from their government employment and are still unemployed as well as those who have not received their termination pay or even vacation pay after over two years must find a way to survive.

7. LACK OF COMMITMENT TO PROPER GOVERNANCE:

PM has to take responsibility of failure of Government to enact Prevention of Corruption Legislation. The AG’s recent statement that those who draw reference to this failure are making “stupid noises” demonstrates that he too is not fit to be the principal legal advisor to the government.

There is a total lack of accountability and transparency in Government. No Freedom of Information Legislation. These are further breaches of 2008 Manifesto promises.

8. COVENANT OF HOPE:

We in the BLP today pledge to restore hope to our country’s youth as opposed to the hopelessness that many are now experiencing under DLP. We will create a safe and nurturing environment within which they can grow to their maximum potential. We will aim to create through our policies, a new generation of confident and capable, multilingual world class citizens, as we are capable of doing. We will give them the skills and provide them with the opportunities which will allow them in turn to make our Barbadian brand again the envy of other small developing countries.

9. CONCLUSION:

I fully support this Resolution and call on the Government to dissolve Parliament and place the fate of our citizens during the foreseeable future in the hands of the electorate, since we cannot continue on this path for another 20 odd months.

THE NEED FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD AND PRIMARY EDUCATION REFORM IN BARBADOS

By

Edmund G. Hinkson, M.P.

Successive Governments of Independent Barbados have consistently and correctly allocated the highest percentage of its annual revenues to the Ministry of Education. Only allocations towards the sustainable health of our citizens have come near to what has been allocated to the educational advancement of our people, particularly our youth, over the last sixty years. Indeed, our first Central Bank Governor Sir Courtney Blackman remarked that in the 34 year timeframe between 1966 and 2000, a period over which Barbados has almost equally been governed by both major political parties, successive Governments of Barbados had spent US $15 billion on education costs. Our country’s present annual budget towards education is now generally about ½ billion Barbados dollars.

Barbados still generally possesses an educational system with its fundamentals rooted in colonial times. Other former British colonies, for example, have moved away from the concept of a single exam on a defined day determining an 11 year old child’s transition from primary to secondary school. We need to seriously decide as a people if we can afford to continue along this path in a modern era of a highly competitive universe without trade or financial preferences, as was previously the case due to our small size and history. Contemporary times demand that we maximize our human resource capacity to include and involve as many of our people as possible in our national development.

The time has therefore come for us as a nation state to critically assess whether we are obtaining maximum returns from the investment of significant taxpayers’ money in the education of our youth. We still have a situation in contemporary times when it is estimated that close to 50 per cent of children leave secondary school without any formal certification. We need to examine the reasons why our systems have failed these children.

Barbados’ political directorate must firstly formulate a vision of where we wish our country to be in terms of national development in the next 15-20 years. Related to this national goal, our society has to determine the type of citizens we wish to create in order to take us where we need to be.

The last BLP administration wisely sought to attempt to place our country in the strategic position where it would become the smallest developed country globally by 2025. We were also to become the entrepreneurial hub in the region by 2020. This DLP government has not even attempted to define a place for Barbados in the World, as it has just led our country into socio-economic malaise.

The Minister of Education is mandated by the Education Act, inter alia, to frame an educational policy to provide a varied and comprehensive educational system which is characterized by excellence. He is also required to contribute toward the spiritual, moral, mental, physical, social, cultural and economic development of the community by ensuring that efficient education is available to meet the needs of Barbados.

Our political leadership needs to understand that Barbados, with the significant resources that have traditionally been spent on educating our people, is in a prime position to become the leading technological and scientific hub of the Caribbean in the next 15 years. After all, as Nelson Mandela remarked, education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

We must also attempt to aim to be the entrepreneurial capital of our region. To achieve this will however require political leadership of a kind that this DLP government, including the political leadership of the education ministry, has miserably failed to demonstrate in almost eight years of governance.

The Owen Arthur administration sagaciously promoted and advanced the need for the commencement of supervised early education training for our children from the nursery age of three years old. Eeva Hujala, a child development specialist in Finland which is recognized by the United Nations Human Development Index as one of the top four countries in the world in terms of educational delivery, opines that “early education is the first and most critical stage of life-long learning. Neurological research has shown that 90 per cent of brain growth occurs during the first 5 years of life.” Finland, for example, in fact provides each and every parent of newborn babies with a book for their child at birth as well as a book for the child in order to foster a culture of reading, so critical an emphasis that country places on early childhood development.

In preparation for our vision for Barbados as the leading technological, scientific and entrepreneurial hub in our part of the universe, we need to provide our children, from nursery and primary school, with a greater opportunity to develop their individuality and creativity. We need to place wider emphasis on developing their social and interactive skills, their care and sensitivity to others’ needs and interests. Such awareness must seek to engender in our very young persons a more positive attitude towards others and a greater appreciation of their differing cultures and environments. Additionally, our early childhood education must provide our youth with the ability and capacity to think critically, to problem solve and to resolve conflict.

We must further attempt to inculcate in our children at a very early stage characteristics such as self-esteem, self-confidence, independence and the spirit of volunteerism. They will consequently acquire the psychological profile to become more responsible and useful adults. Barbados, as it moves towards 50 years of nationhood, will clearly benefit from a more active and productive citizenry, capable of employing themselves and others in their community who will need their help.

We have not undertaken any curriculum reform in our educational system since 2000 under the ministerial leadership of the Honourable Mia Mottley. We need to reform the existing subject matter to place greater emphasis during primary school education on science and technology, business, art, drama, music and craft. We also need to encourage and place systems in place for those older primary school children with an aptitude in language to study more Spanish and may be even French. Serious consideration needs to be given to appointing specialist teachers in primary schools to facilitate this paradigm shift in focus on early childhood education. Furthermore, successful business persons should be invited as of course to assist our children, even at this level, in the basic concepts of turning your hobbies and interests into legitimate money-making ventures.

Of course, we need as a country to include children with physical disabilities, many of whom have unique skills just waiting to be given the opportunity to be tapped, into our mainstream education system. In this manner, they will in the future as adults be better equipped to contribute to the national development of our country and to participate positively in our socio-economic and political affairs.

Furthermore, our Government needs to establish a Teachers’ Service Commission, separate from the Public Service Commission, as was enacted by Parliament 40 years ago in an amendment to the Constitution of Barbados. This will allow greater efficiency to be brought to bear on the reform required in the administrative structure of our educational policy and on issues relating to our teaching profession.

Any visionary political administration should be concerned with the provision of an adequate nursery and primary school system which will enable the youth to be reasonably prepared to eventually become valuable citizens. Barbados needs to sustain its reputation as one of the leading countries in our region in terms of the education of its people. This DLP administration now however only allocates about 16 percent of government revenues to the education of Barbadians, down from a high of approximately 23 per cent during periods of both the Errol Barrow and Tom Adams led governments.

We as a people cannot afford to lose hope in our youth or to neglect their future. We can only hope that the day will soon come when a responsible, caring Barbados Labour Party will be given the mandate by the people to implement more appropriate policies and programmes for the early educational development of our children.

Dated 30^th October, 2015

Edmund G. Hinkson, Attorney-at-law, is the Member of Parliament for Saint James North as well as Shadow Education and Human Resources Development Minister

The Government of Barbados owes it to the citizens of this country to clearly spell out its welfare policy towards the poor and unemployed as well as towards persons with disabilities.

Many of my constituents who have not found employment in view of the harsh economic circumstances presently prevailing in our country and who were previously on welfare are being either taken off of the programme or have had their monies severely cut. No reasonable explanation has been forthcoming from the political directorate as to why this has happened. These are in the main single mothers with many children of school age, persons with disabilities and senior citizens who are not beneficiaries of old age contributory pensions.

In the midst of all of the Government’s financial cuts within recent times, the welfare grant to individuals from the Social Care Ministry has been cut in this year’s Estimates by 32 percent from what was actually spent three years ago in the year leading up to the last General Elections. This year’s Estimates for grant of welfare to individuals are less than $16 million, down from the over $23 million which was spent in 2012-13. This Cabinet decision has been taken even although the Finance Minister and Central Bank Governor wish us to believe that the economy is “turning around”.

The Minister of Social Care, or some other member of the Cabinet, needs to clearly outline what is Democratic Labour Party’s policy as to how it chooses who is being off of its welfare budget or whose welfare allocation is cut. The Government also needs to inform the public as to what programmes it has in place to specifically provide opportunities for these Barbadians to become gainfully employed. Additionally, the public ought to be informed as to what policy is in place to facilitate these persons who are being removed from Government’s welfare programme so that they can obtain the necessary skills which they may require to find employment in these very difficult times.

It is socially dangerous and politically unwise for any Government of Barbados to just cut off poor, unemployed and disabled persons, many of whom have young children, from the welfare system without any strategy as to how they will be provided with money for their continued viability and for the survival of their dependents. A society must be always judged by how it treats to its most vulnerable persons.

The Country Assessment of Living Conditions Study indicates that in 2010 one in five Barbadians were already living below the poverty line. The implications which will arise from the present political administration’s policy to reduce the welfare allocation to some of the most financially desperate, combined with all the other crises going on in our education, health and other social services, are potentially catastrophic to our society.

17th April, 2015

EDMUND G. HINKSON
Attorney-at-Law and Saint James North Member of Parliament

Private Members’ Resolution

Mr. Edmund G. Hinkson, M.P.-Member for St. James North

WHEREAS Data from the 2010 Population Census of Barbados indicates that about five per cent of the total population of Barbados are physically or mentally challenged or suffer from hearing or visual impairment.

AND WHEREAS the Barbados Country Assessment of Living Conditions 2010 Report submitted to the Government of Barbados in December, 2012 indicates that these persons with disabilities are among the most vulnerable in our society and comprise a significant percentage of persons who live below the poverty line.

AND WHEREAS the 1966 Constitution of Barbados as amended does not guarantee persons with disabilities as a group protection from discrimination under the law.

AND WHEREAS the Government of Barbados on 30^th May, 2000 laid in Parliament and debated the Green Paper on Persons with Disabilities as a part of its national development policy.

AND WHEREAS this document outlines basic principles which seek to empower persons with disabilities and organizations promoting the special interests of persons with disabilities so that these persons can be better equipped to become involved in the socio-economic development of Barbados and to ensure equal opportunities in all areas of the development of their lives in Barbados.

AND WHEREAS the Government of Barbados on 20^th August, 2002 laid in Parliament and debated the White Paper on Persons with Disabilities outlining the strategies, policies, programmes and activities which it intended to develop to empower and protect persons with disabilities and to create an environment in Barbados conducive to the integration and inclusion of persons with disabilities at every level of our society.

AND WHEREAS the Government of Barbados on 19^th July, 2007 signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“the Convention”) which entered into force on 3^rd May, 2008.

AND WHEREAS the Government of Barbados on 27^th February, 2013 ratified the Convention, internationally binding itself to enact and have proclaimed legislation promoting, protecting and ensuring the full and equal enjoyment of all the human rights and the fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities in Barbados and promoting respect for their inherent dignity.

AND WHEREAS the Government of Barbados in July, 2014 launched a monitoring committee, as provided for under the Convention, with its mandate being to submit a comprehensive report by early 2015 on measures taken by Barbados to give effect to the country’s obligations under the Convention and on progress made in that regard.

AND WHEREAS Barbados committed itself under the provisions of the Convention to submit to the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities established by virtue of the Convention a comprehensive report on these measures and on this progress by 27^th February, 2015.

BE IT RESOLVED:

1. That within six months of the passing of this Resolution, the Government of Barbados shall lay and have debated in the Parliament Disabilities Legislation providing , interalia, for:-

1. respect for the inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own choice and the independence of persons with disabilities,
2. non-discrimination of persons with disabilities,
3. the full and effective participation by and inclusion in society of persons with disabilities,
4. the equality of opportunity for persons with disabilities, including in their educational, health, employment, cultural, sporting, recreational and political development, and
5. full accessibility for persons with disabilities to the built environment and natural environment, to education at all levels and to employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Notice of this Resolution was given on March 16, 2015.

Another Month of the Disabled is about to be recognized without any comprehensive legislative framework in place in Barbados to advance the cause of persons with disabilities. There continues to be the crying need for the enactment of laws addressing all forms of discrimination on the basis of physical and mental disabilities and hearing and visual impairment in our society. There is also a need for laws providing for equal opportunities to be granted as of right to differently-abled persons so that they may have a greater chance to realize their full potential, live as independent and active a life as possible and participate as worthy citizens in the development of our country.

We recognize the fact that the Government did finally ratify The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 27th February, 2013, albeit after a delay of almost five years after the Convention entered into force and only after stakeholders serving the cause of persons with disabilities presented the political administration with a petition calling for ratification.

We also take note that the Ministry of Social Care finally in July last year established the monitoring committee as provided for under the Convention, with its mandate being to submit a comprehensive report by early this year on measures taken by the country to give effect to its obligations under the Convention and on progress made in that regard.

However, the Government needs to now go the ultimate step and bring to Parliament disabilities legislation penalizing the discrimination of persons with disabilities in our country and providing for the full and effective participation by, and inclusion in society of, persons with disabilities. We also need to legislatively provide for an equal opportunity for their participation in aspects of society relating to their educational, health, employment, entrepreneurial, cultural, sporting, recreational and political development. There must also be full accessibility, supported by legal rights, for differently-abled persons to the country’s natural and built environment. It is noteworthy that the Jamaican Government four months ago passed disabilities legislation through both of its Houses of Parliament.

Furthermore, the Government needs to restore the subvention for the disabled during next month’s Estimates Parliamentary Debate to its pre-2013 general elections level, after it was cut by 10-12 per cent last year. The 2010 Country Assessment of Living Conditions Study indicates that a large percentage of the almost 20 per cent of persons living below the poverty line in our country are differently-abled. We cannot continue to severely jeopardize the quality of life of those persons who are the most vulnerable in our society by depriving them and their caretakers of the basic necessities which are required for their existence.

Dated the 25th day of February, 2015

A PERSPECTIVE FOR BARBADOS’ ADVANCEMENT IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

After almost seven years of DLP government, our beloved Barbados continues to be in the midst of the deep socio-economic crisis where it has been since 2009. The Stuart-led political administration has been unable to articulate in any clear manner either to our citizens, to our potential foreign investors or to the international organizations of which Barbados is a member a pathway whereby it would lead the country out of this existing depression.

One of the strategies which government ought to adopt in order to return Barbados to positive economic growth is to invest more heavily than it is at present doing in science, technology and innovation. The political directorate needs to recognize that integrating a vision for science, technology and innovation in an understandable long-term development strategy can be a key factor in achieving an improved quality of life for the majority of our people. However, for such a policy to be successful, our scientists and innovators must be supported by high-level government officials who have the vision, pragmatism, political will and understanding as well as the ability to formulate such strategy and subsequently to lead its implementation.

It is highly doubtful that the Barbados government as presently constituted is capable of this task. The Ministerial portfolio of Science, Technology and Innovation is presently like an outcast third cousin attached to the portfolio of Education. There is neither a permanent secretary nor administrative office within this Ministry to lead any strategy for the development of a science, technology and innovation agenda in our nation.

The National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) was established by the Tom Adams-led administration in 1977. It is the most long-standing institution in the area of science, technology and innovation in Barbados. It presently exists from the offices which house the Ministry of Commerce and Trade and not the Ministry of Education. Its total operating expenditure granted in this financial year’s Estimates as laid in Parliament is a mere half million dollars.

The Barbados Human Development Strategy Paper, 2011-2016 describes the main functions of this department as the promotion of science and technology, creativity and innovation to the public, particularly the youth and the rendering of technical assistance to persons seeking to research, develop and commercialize new, innovative products and service ideas. The agency is also supposed to act as an information hub on science and technology and to collect, analyse and disseminate reliable, current and relevant information. It is, however, unquestionably understaffed, under-resourced and incapable in its present form of playing any part in facilitating any leading role for Barbados among small island developing states in the development of this area of potential economic growth.

This DLP administration has failed to communicate any transparent policy or vision on what should really be a major development tool of government policy. The present political directorate is like a “rudderless ship” drifting further and further out to sea without any captain on board. Many countries in the world which have demonstrated that they are serious in advancing themselves as countries of excellence for the development of science, technology and innovation have placed institutions monitoring this area under the cabinet responsibility of the Prime Minister. This is the case in Malaysia and in Finland, which is a pioneer state in this field.

Additionally, the present Government of Barbados defeats its own stated objective of “[recognizing] the importance of investment in research, innovation and entrepreneurship as providing a competitive advantage in an increasingly global economy” (Barbados Human Development Strategy Paper at page 62). It is the first Government in half a century to impose the payment of tuition costs on our citizens seeking to study at the campuses of the University of the West Indies, including in the departments of science and technology. Furthermore, the current Minister of Education must bear full cabinet responsibility for the decision of that Ministry, in the space of a year, to reduce the number of National Development Scholarships granted to Barbadians to one-third of what were granted in the year just before the last general elections. In addition, the areas of study for which such scholarships can be awarded have been drastically cut.

A progressive Government would understand that heavier investment in science and technology from our primary school system right through to our university is required to act as a catalyst for the creation of innovative products and services as well as for the development of entrepreneurship in our country. An enlightened administration would comprehend that research and development in the sciences and technology should be given some degree of priority at the tertiary level of our education system. For example, the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic ought to be granted more financial and technical resources coincidental with Barbados’ developmental requirements for the next two decades, so that it can offer a greater variety of courses to a larger amount of students at more numerous locations throughout the country.

Furthermore, a caring political directorate would visualize that the creation of an enabling environment whereby more persons with disabilities could be educated in areas of science and technology development would ultimately lead to some of the most vulnerable in our society having the opportunity to realize their full potential.

Such a Government would have encouraged science and technology parks, perhaps through our university, for the increased knowledge base and practical education of our youth. A greater number of national innovation scholarships, awards and other incentives would have been granted to facilitate and encourage innovators and entrepreneurs in new fields of development for the ultimate benefit of Barbados and the wider Caribbean.

All of these policy initiatives, if implemented, would ultimately result in the further development of our people, our society and our economy. Such initiatives would in the long term lead to greater national productivity, increased commercial competitiveness and a reduction in our unacceptably high unemployment rate.

The DLP Government has instead taken the highly retrogressive policy position of not supporting the full financial costs of all of our tertiary education students and of being in present debt to our University of the West Indies campuses to the tune of over $200 million.

The BLP envisages government as the facilitator of opportunities for all worthy Barbadians to progress with the necessary skills and knowledge to compete in an advancing technical age. This DLP government has failed the citizens of this island in its stated attempt to create a just society and economy. The BLP on the other hand remains committed to supporting Barbados’ development as a centre of excellence among small island developing states in the areas of science, technology and innovation and as part of a national effort to again create sustainable economic growth, increased employment and to produce a higher quality of life for all citizens in our country. We must strive for a better standard of technical and scientific education and innovation.

THE BARBADOS LABOUR PARTY CALLS FOR MINISTER JONES’ REMOVAL
FROM THE CABINET OF BARBADOS

The Barbados Labour Party today calls for the resignation of Minister Ronald Jones from the Cabinet of Barbados. Failing this, we call on Prime Minister Stuart to dismiss him.

The citizens of any democratic country must be able to believe, rely and act on the words and public undertakings of a cabinet minister. They must be able to plan their everyday lives and future based on the statements and promises made by any member of the highest executive body in the nation. Events over the last six months have clearly demonstrated that Barbadians, whether students, their parents or the general public, have found it next to impossible to hold sacred the public pronouncements of this Minister as they relate to the funding of University of the West Indies’ onerous tuition fees of financially challenged students. Minister Jones has, in our opinion, failed to meet the expected standard of ministerial conduct such that citizens affected can reasonably plan their affairs and future.

Minister Jones will go down in political history as the official who had cabinet responsibility for dismantling one of the fundamental pillars for the socio-economic development of our citizens and nation over the last 50 years. Free tertiary education at the UWI has been the ladder by virtue of which tens of thousands of poor Barbadians, who have traditionally comprised over 80 per cent of the local students attending this institution, have been able to climb their way out of poverty and into better social and financial circumstances.

On 15th April this year, 3 days after Member of Parliament Miss Cynthia Forde and I held a press conference, the Education Minister publicly announced at the 40th annual general conference of the Barbados Union of Teachers that his Ministry will be providing “a substantial number of bursaries so that no eligible Barbadian student will be disadvantaged” from attending UWI.

Nothing further was then heard on the issue of the grant of any bursaries to any UWI student from either Minister Jones or from any high-ranking education official for 3 months. This Minister on 11th July at the plaque ceremony inaugurating the UWI Chinese Confucius Institute then announced that “in the first few years, we will do some 3,000 bursaries to help these UWI students with challenges.” He in fact proceeded to inform the public that “this has already been agreed to”. These bursaries were to be thereafter launched in two weeks and were to be made available to Cave Hill, Mona and St. Augustine Campus Students. Furthermore, Minister Jones publicly stated that they would cover about 50 per cent of the successful students’ total tuition costs. He additionally was quoted as saying that “Sir Hugh Wooding Barbadian law students would not have to pay tuition fees”.

The Ministry of Education finally announced through a GIS release on the evening of 28th July that the bursary application forms would be available from the following day. This was the same date when I publicly expressed concern over this Government’s continued broken promises to put adequate arrangements in place for the financing of UWI students’ tuition fees and over the fact that there were no bursary application forms in existence and no criteria as to how bursary recipients would be selected.

Hundreds of Barbadians filled out bursary application forms on reliance of the Minister’s word that free grants would be given to financially disadvantaged UWI students. Required supporting documents were submitted by these many applicants. Weeks have passed since then and first UWI semester is almost midway in duration.

The public of Barbados has now been told, not by Minister Jones or any high-ranking official of the Ministry of Education, but by a media house that the Ministry of Finance will not be funding any bursaries to any UWI students as promised by Minister Jones or at all. In the meantime, the Education Minister yesterday left Barbados on a ten day first class travel trip to China, presumably partly if not completely funded by the taxpayers of this Country. This when hundreds of the declining numbers of UWI students do not know how they will pay the next due monthly installment on their tuition fees and are now, in the continued absence of the promised bursaries, seriously contemplating their future education.

Furthermore, the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School Barbadian students were told on arrival last month that they will have to pay their own tuition fees, contrary to Minister Jones’ public assurances on 11th July.

In any proper functioning Westminster-type democracy, a Prime Minister would not have had to request the resignation of his cabinet minister under these or similar circumstances. The Minister, having announced government policy on an issue so fundamental to his country’s human resources development without his cabinet colleagues’ approval and now in fact, apparently, with his colleagues’ disapproval, would resign forthwith. Minister Jones for the last six months pronounced on a government educational funding policy without the approval of the Minister of Finance.

He has apparently, according to the news report, been “admonished” by Finance Ministry officials for so doing. He ought to be relieved not only of the Education, Human Resources, Science and Technology portfolio but of any ministerial responsibility whatsoever.

Minister Jones has throughout this whole episode also acted with a degree of arrogance which, in our opinion, has shown utter contempt for the people whom he has been elected to serve. His earlier incendiary statements in Parliament about “cracking some heads” and “shooting some people” have been matched by his more recent statements about “hungry people” running him down asking about the sharp decline in UWI applicants this year whilst the media “beat him to the ground” and people “run him down” about when we can get the bursaries.

Clearly, Mr. Jones is no longer capable of engendering any feelings of hope for their future in the youth of our country. Indeed, his ministerial legacy has been one of despair and frustration among thousands of Barbadians who wish to further their tertiary education. The public can no longer have confidence in this Minister in his public capacity.

Yesterday’s statement by the Acting Education Minister, Senator Harcourt Husbands, did nothing to inspire any one as to when, if at all, bursaries would be granted, under what criteria, to whom they would be awarded and how they would be financed.

The Prime Minister ought to relieve the public of Barbados of the ministerial liability which, in the submission of the BLP, Mr. Jones has become and which the public can no longer afford to carry. The Education Minister himself has been quoted as saying that he is “really tired”. Previous Barbadian Prime Ministers from both political parties have dismissed cabinet ministers for much less.

Edmund G. Hinkson
Shadow Education and Human Resources Minister
And St. James North Member of Parliament

7th October, 2014

RIGHTS OF PUBLIC WORKERS BEING ERODED BY DLP GOVERNMENT

The workers’ rights and entitlements which government employees, political leaders and trade unions in Barbados have fought for and achieved over the last 60 years are in a large measure being surely eroded by the current DLP Government.

We now have a situation where not only thousands of workers have been summarily dismissed and retrenched by this Government but in addition to that travesty, having been so dismissed, they still cannot get the money that is due to them under the laws of the country six months and more after their dismissal. All this after the DLP promised leading up to last year’s election that not one public worker would be retrenched if it was re-elected to office.

It is politically irresponsible for any Government of any just society to fire its employees without being in a position to compensate them in accordance with the law of the land. Yet six months after they have been dismissed thousands of the employees, whether formerly of the Transport Board, National Conservation Commission, National Housing Corporation, Beautify Barbados or of other government entities, cannot get their full money due. Furthermore, many of them have had to demean and dehumanize themselves by demonstrating in front of their former work headquarters to even get a hearing from the relevant authorities in order to find out when they may possibly get their money.

Under the Severance Payments Act, the Minister of Finance ought to ensure that these former government workers receive interest at the rate of at least 6 per cent per annum on all severance monies due to them which remain outstanding four months after their dismissal.

About half a dozen of the 60 odd Beautify Barbados general workers are my constituents. I have written to the Ministry of Environment and Drainage since May this year on behalf of some of them requesting payment of the monies due to them. No positive response has been forthcoming from any one in that Ministry. Many of these workers were employed by the Government of Barbados in this project for about 15 years. Under the 2007 Public Service Act, enacted under the last BLP administration, they were entitled to be appointed to the public service and were entitled to the benefits of such appointment. Instead of so appointing them and giving them security of tenure after so many years of employment, this DLP Government dismissed them with one week’s notice, with no gratuity and with only 3 weeks’ vacation pay.

All these dismissed Government workers are a part of the most vulnerable sectors of our society. There were the general workers, maids, gardeners, bus drivers, life guards, beach rangers, field supervisors and clerks. They have children to send to school, to clothe and to feed, utility bills and rent or mortgages to pay and taxes to render unto the Government. What manner of political administration will treat poor people in this way?

All the gains made over many decades by public workers in this country are in serious danger of being rolled back by a political party that has shown itself to be callous and uncaring towards the people who have elected it to govern.

EDMUND G. HINKSON
Attorney-at-Law and St. James North Member of Parliament
6^th October, 2014

FUTURE EDUCATION OF THOUSANDS OF BARBADIANS IN JEOPARDY

The future tertiary education of thousands of Barbadians continues to be in severe jeopardy as a result of the DLP Government’s continued broken promises to put in place adequate arrangements for the financing of their UWI student tuition fees.

The latest episode of this woeful saga is the failure by Education Minister, Ronald Jones, to ensure that his Ministry is in a position to process applications for the 3,000 bursaries which he, on the 11th of this month, stated would be launched in two weeks’ time to help those financially challenged citizens who were already attending one of the three UWI campuses or who wished to enter for the first time. Minister Jones, on that occasion, revealed that the bursary arrangements had already been agreed to and that he was clearing up some of the “noise and mischief” circulating on the issue of paying tuition fees. However, both current and potential students of our three campuses continue to be clueless as to how they can even apply for a bursary. No application forms to so do presently exist and no criteria of how the process for the selection of recipients will be done has been established or announced.

Furthermore, no indication has been given as to who would be entitled to full bursaries, who would only be entitled to partial bursaries or how many of the declared 3,000 bursaries would be given in this coming academic year and to which faculty’s students. We do not know whether students who are part time and who are employed will be eligible. We do not know whether persons with disabilities and others who make up the most vulnerable segment of our society would be given preference in so applying. We do not know whether potential students need to first apply for a loan before they can be eligible for a bursary. Most importantly, we do not know whether the selection process will be saddled with political considerations, with supporters of the governing party as well as relatives and friends of DLP politicians having a distinct advantage in accessing these bursaries.

I myself incognito contacted the Education Ministry last Friday and could obtain no response from any official on any of these queries. Has Minister Jones under public pressure, in yet another knee-jerk response made without any serious discussion with his Ministry’s officers, proclaimed an initiative without the finances being in place to fund it?

Registration for the UWI school year will commence in three weeks’ time. This political administration has created so much uncertainty over the funding by students of their tuition fees, whether on the issue of the student revolving loan funding, government granted bursaries and otherwise, that over 40 per cent of the present students are today uncertain about whether they will be able to continue their courses. They strongly believe that they are not in any position to access the finances to pay the onerous tuition costs which the DLP has now burdened them with. Additionally, there is presently a 50 per cent decline in new applications to enter UWI for the first time.

The Stuart/Jones and Sinclair led Cabinet, which presently owes the three UWI campuses a total debt of approximately $221,000,000.00, is in serious danger of leaving a legacy of destruction of higher academic achievements to which our nationals have previously aspired. The misguided, ad hoc and uncertain education policy which this government has suddenly foisted on Barbados has the potential to take us back to our pre-independence era after our socio-economic advancement over the last half century.

27th July, 2014
EDMUND G. HINKSON
Saint James North Member of Parliament and BLP Shadow Education Minister

“THE BARBADOS REVENUE AUTHORITY IS ACTING OUTSIDE OF THE LAW”

The Barbados Revenue Authority, already embroiled in controversy with the Municipal Solid Waste Tax, is now flouting the law as it relates to land tax certificates to the further economic and other disruption of our citizens’ lives.

The BRA has taken a policy decision that it will not issue a land tax certificate that all current and arrears of land taxes due on property have been paid to Government until the owner of that property has paid the municipal solid waste tax being levied on that property.

The major and immediate direct implication of this stance is that no sale or other transfer of property in Barbados can be completed until the municipal solid waste tax being now charged thereon has been paid since, under the Land Tax Act, the Registrar of Titles can only stamp and record the document of sale or transfer if a valid land tax certificate is produced.

The Authority is clearly acting ultra vires in law by taking this policy decision.

The Municipal Solid Waste Tax Act has not given it the legal power to adopt this position.

The Authority cannot act on its own whim and fancy outside of the laws as enacted by the Parliament of this country.

Furthermore, the Minister of Finance, who has cabinet responsibility for the Authority, has been at pains on numerous occasions to contend that this municipal solid waste tax, easily one of the most pernicious taxes ever passed in the 375 years of Barbados’ parliamentary history, is not a land tax.

He immediately ought to, as he is empowered to do under the new Act, give written directions to the Authority that it has no legal power whatsoever to adopt such a policy that is so contrary to and is in breach of the existing Laws of Barbados. Again, under the new Act, the Authority will have to comply with his directions.

The Authority will surely very shortly be sued under administrative law if it does not reverse its stance in the very near future. This will certainly incur very high legal costs to the Government when it loses the case.

On another but connected issue, Minister Sinckler, during his interview last Sunday has given the public the impression that the Municipal Solid Waste Tax Act has to be given parliamentary approval to be extended beyond one year.

That impression is erroneous since nowhere in the Act does it say that it will only be of one year’s duration. What the Order which was made under the Act by Minister Sinckler on 12^th May this year says is that the rate of the tax at 0.3 per cent of the site value of improved land shall be applicable for one year between 1^st April this year and 31^st March next year. The Finance Minister can in fact either lower or raise this percentage rate without parliamentary approval.

 The only parliamentary approval which he requires is to repeal the Act which we in the Opposition will readily agree to and support at next Tuesday’s sitting of Parliament.

This Minister and this Government have repeatedly caused confusion, hardship and misery as the DLP continues to impose more taxes on an already overtaxed people.

This new development by BRA to prevent the issuance of land tax clearance certificates is patently wrong.

The Minister and Government must correct this unlawful move and iron out the many fundamental flaws in this tax.

But this is what happens when you introduce an ill-conceived, draconian and unjust piece of legislation.

July 10, 2014

EDMUND G. HINKSON

Saint James North Member of Parliament