Former Member of Parliament for Christ Church East and Former Minister of Environment and Drainage, Dr. Denis Lowe.
The current administration cannot solve the difficult issues facing this country.
That’s the contention from Former Member of Parliament for Christ Church East and Former Minister of Environment and Drainage, Dr. Denis Lowe. Speaking at a joint meeting of the St. Philip Branches of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), which was held recently at the Princess Margaret Secondary School, he told the large gathering of supporters that no real progress has been made with the economy, and argued that Barbadians are suffering more than before.
“Things were hard yes, but people understood that is part of the course, and people understood that they had to hold faith with the Government,” he said.
Lowe argued that since coming to office the Barbados Labour Party Government has borrowed more and taxed more, which is putting added burden on the people.
“They wanted to kill us for the [National Social Responsibility] levy that we implemented, the NSRL, and they said they were going to take it off and they came in and they took it off. Look, it is like a man taking off a dirty pants and shirt and putting on a pants and shirt that even more dirty than the previous one. So they came in and they taxed us,” he said.
The former minister further pointed out, “Look, they tax us at the pipe; Dr. Estwick was solving the water problems in St. Joseph and St. Andrew and all up through Indian Ground, a lot of infrastructural work was done relative to the water, and low and behold now, St. Joseph people can’t get water for weeks. They had to get people from town to go up to their meeting and advocate for them.”
His comments came as he charged that the government is unable to diagnose the real problems facing the country, including the problems at the state-owned Sanitation Service Authority, and he hinted that is the reason for the garbage pile-ups across the country.
“If they said that the problems with solving the problems in the past was a problem of competence, then I want to know what is the root of the problem now. I want to know what it is now,” he maintained.
Lowe’s remarks came as he also took issue with the large Cabinet of Ministers and the number of consultants on the Government’s payroll. He noted that even though this Government when in Opposition criticised the size of the then Cabinet, they have come to power and made their Cabinet even larger.
“We were criticised for having too many ministers… 17 ministers and now I understand they may be about 40 in the current government – you have the formal ministers appointed by the Governor General and the informal ministers,” he argued. (JRT)