Mia Mottley on first 100 days: DLP has not kept a single promise!
Monday, 28 April 2008, 9:07 am
We agree with Mia Mottley. This useless DLP government has not kept a single one of its promises of what it would do in the first 100 days of coming to power.
De Standpipe Crew
http://www.nationnews.com/story/326099964326301.php
ALL GAS
NOT A SINGLE PROMISE kept!
That’s the charge from Opposition Leader Mia Mottley as she accused the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) yesterday of unrealistic promises during the heat of the January election campaign.
The DLP Government marked 100 days in office last Wednesday.
Those promises were made “purely for the sake of winning that election”, according to Mottley in a statement issued to the Press yesterday.
“The major achievements of the Government in its first 100 days in office are the increase in the cost of living and an increase in apathy and cynicism among the voting population,” Mottley said.
She said the making of unrealistic promises during the campaign were in its simplest form “irresponsible, and reckless when taken to extremes”.
“For the Democratic Labour Party to have raised public expectation by setting a 100-day benchmark as the agents of change, is either a mark of incompetence, recklessness or both. Having created a false framework on which to build their policies, their performance for the remainder of this parliamentary term will indicate which one it was,” she said.
Mottley said the DLP was a party with considerable experience in Government, and thus could not claim ignorance of the complexities of Government or of the international situation.
In their own manifesto, she said, the DLP stated: “The price of crude oil consistently hovers around [US] $100 per barrel. Reliable forecasts suggest that oil prices are likely to remain in this range for the foreseeable future.”
“Oil is now at [US] $115 a barrel and their most recent action of passing on the full weight of the increase to Barbadians is only one example of the Government availing itself of options that do not allow it to appropriately protect the average consumer in Barbados.”
The Opposition Leader said Barbadians were still waiting for the Government to do some real work that would have a positive impact on their lives.
In a statement last night Prime Minister David Thompson said his new Government was grappling with the challenging realities it inherited and those that surfaced thereafter.
“We are supremely confident that with the continued trust, cooperation and reasoned thinking of the people of Barbados, we will deliver meaningfully to the people of Barbados, notwithstanding the deteriorating global energy and food supply environment,”
he said.
He said since the January 15 election, he and his team of ministers and support staff have been working assiduously to move the process of development of Barbados forward.
Entry Filed under: Happenings. .
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1.
CHERYL BLACKMAN | Tuesday, 29 April 2008, 11:58 am at 11:58 am
thank you for an opportunty to share my views.I feel that the DLP brought that trap of 100 days on themselves. It simpy demonstrates that they lack the competence and experience to govern. I however am very concerned about the rise in fuel. I listened to brasstacks and was not told by the gov’t why in the light of rising food prices, it was necessary to remove the protection from the direct fuel prices too, given the vulnerabulity of so many of us Barbadians. I could not believe that the reasons given was ‘they have to face reality’, they have to take the medicine sooner or later. High prices for food and fuel, as far as my common sense tells me has never been a cure for any disease. Rather it is the disease that gov’ts normally seek to protect their citizens from and do all in their power to shield where the purchasing power is limited and its small businesses are vulnerable. Even the welathy US is looking at ways to shield. Our gov’t instead seeks to remove in the name of ‘facing up to reality’. Tek dat – high food prices and tek dat – high fuel prices. Do Barbadians have more reosurces to meet this challenge than others? have they considered the harm to us, busfares, transport, food, house rents will increase and jobs in letting all the costs flow through. Why not bring the support the same time or was this increase not part of your overall plan. Why do it now and not later. You only take this decision when your people can take it, otherwise you do it slowly and allow time for adjustment. It cannot be money becuase they have put foward a higher budget 3.2b, the highest barbados ever had. They are going to boroow money to build St. John polyclinic to provide for 4000 people how about to protect 270,000 people. I was very disappointed in Maxine McClean and Darcy Boyce because I cannot believe that they could propose, support or accept a radical and far ranging impact such as this only for the vague reason, Barbadians need to face reality. The others really have no experience or it seems any sense. You really cannot be thinking about the ordinary citizens.
Options: maintain same level of subsidiy, and allow the additional to flow through; float the bond or use the oil money as suggested by Senator Kerrie Symmonds; develop the supports and put in position at the same time as the increase. what has happened boggles my mind. where is the care. The only thing they have done of significance is to hasten the demise of little people in this country, and accomplished in 100 days. I feel betrayed, and I am really concerned about my life and other Barbadians. this is callous
2.
Stanley Clarke | Tuesday, 29 April 2008, 7:33 pm at 7:33 pm
CHERYL BLACKMAN,
Thank you for sharing your views… I can really feel your disappointment about the way things have turned out. My own disappointment started on election night, because I knew from the start that these DLP promises were only LIES designed to deceive people and get into power.
Despite my dislike of the DLP, I don’t share the view that we should be “shielded” from higher prices for imported products. I believe that we should seek to bypass these higher prices by boosting our own regional production inside CARICOM, because Barbados on its own cannot produce everything we need. A country like Guyana could produce so much agricultural produce to help feed the populations of CARICOM and to supply raw materials for so many food products. Our science and technology brains should be finding solutions and alternatives to make us as self-reliant as possible. From Belize in the north to Guyana in the south, we have a lot of resources which I am convinced that we are not making the fullest use of.
Why can’t we make our own flour, rice, corn and cereals? Why can’t we produce our own fuels and bio-fuels? The principal aim of CARICOM should be to make this Caribbean region as self-sufficient as possible in food and energy. To that end, the present hardships of “facing the reality” of higher food and fuel prices could be the trigger to a new era of doing things in a more sensible and self-reliant manner.
Stanley Clarke.
3.
Cheryl Thompson - Houston, Tx | Tuesday, 13 May 2008, 6:57 pm at 6:57 pm
Re: Mia Mottley on first 100 days: DLP has not kept a single promise!
What is wrong with Mia Mottley’s thinking and who is she trying to fool? I guess that she would like to blame our new PM for the chaos that is happening in the world today. Gas prices have climbed to record levels all over the world. The trickle down effects of those extreme prices means that every sector of the community has been touched in some way… because all commerce relies on transportation in order to flourish. There is nothing that David Thompson or any member of his party can do to alleviate the pain that high gas prices are inflicting on world economies today!
The PM is working hard! In January, shortly after being sworn in, he met with the Vincentian PM on a range of issues. That same month, he was warned by Professor Michael Howard of the Central Bank that “expansionary policies of the former [Owen Arthur] administration had led to “overheating” of the economy, which he said was caused by bunching of capital projects, heavy expenditure on Cricket World Cup and what he termed high levels of “conspicuous consumption” and was therefore advised to leave VAT and focus on the economic management of the country. Thompson has been working hard across the board to put Barbados where it needs to be.
February saw him meeting with Trinidad’s PM to discuss issues affecting the two nations. He also built his government by making key appointments.
In March, he promised his intent to “halt wastage and prevent squander mania, while focusing on prioritizing the use of the country’s finances”. The poor man was appalled to discover that the previous system showed a lack of accountability by helping out people, which resulted in the raiding of the treasury. At that time, he pledged to “operate only on the basis of fairness, by being accountable and transparent.” Meanwhile, Mia laughingly stated that she “was also quite interested in how the Government would be able to finance all the programs she continued to hear DLP ministers talking about each day in the media” while knowing full well that the coffers had already been raked over and depleted by her previously ruling party.
That woman Mia keeps pushing her own agenda, trying to make David appear to not be following through on his promises, when she knows how difficult that would be when the previous lack of fiscal accountability from her government has resulted in the coffers having a limited amount of resources left to do anything.
Even so, an April announcement indicated that “DESPITE worries about the state of the economy, Government would still honor all promises made to nurses last year.” The nation’s people still complain that this should not be honored given the state of the economy. It can clearly be seen that the man is trying his best to make good on his promises in spite of the heady depletion of our money chests. Yet when he tries his best to make good on his promises, the lack of funds or skepticism of our people try to bring him down.
And then, when May came and the PM insisted that he would still work to try to make cost of living a priority, he is still facing criticism from folks who claim that his goal is to increase cost of living rather than lower it.
What is wrong with you people? You must accept that when the promises were made, they were done so with little knowledge of how much the treasury was bleeding. If there is no money to make things happen, you can’t just go out and print the money. Give the man a chance to get the country in order and then you will see that he will make good on those promises. I have faith in him and you should too.
The election is over and done with. One party has lost and the other has been seated. Now is the time to support your government and stop acting like those in other parts of the world who continually trash their leadership. We should be different! We have always been different! Whatever happened to that Bajan pride?