Opposition Leader and Leader of the People’s Party for Democracy and Development (PdP), Bishop Joseph Atherley.
Leader of the People’s Party for Democracy and Development (PdP), Bishop Joseph Atherley, has objected to that party being labelled as a pressure group.
The Opposition Leader sought to correct this perspective and defend the “emerging party” as he spoke yesterday during a call-in radio programme.
“I simply want to reject the label of pressure group or merely interest group attaching to the PdP. I want to establish clearly in the minds of those who hear us that the PdP is not a pressure group or interest group. The PdP – whether we like it or not, whether we like how it came about or not – now has one member sitting in the Lower House of Parliament and two members sitting in the Upper House of Parliament. Now political parties seek to pursue an electoral purpose and we have.”
He further argued the PdP has brought “the balance of power in the constitutional configuration in the Barbados Parliament and therefore we are in position politically to affect policy”.
Meanwhile, defending his rationale for establishing the party, Atherley said PdP was formed out of a desire to preserve democracy in Barbados, to ensure that there was the natural pursuit of justice for all in the country.
He added it came about to ensure “that the economic orientation upon which the government and the country would have been embarked would have ensure in a far better way shared prosperity, more universal sharing in the blessings that the country enjoyed in a material way. We believe that we were at a stage in our political development where we needed to see some very meaningful, robust and revolutionary reforms in relation to the economy, in relation to governance and in relation to social policy perspectives”. (MG)