Ten years later: Owen Arthur, National Petroleum Corporation, David Shorey and GEMS Hotels

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Not much has changed since 2000

An anonymous BFP reader sent us a copy of the The Sunday Sun for November 19, 2000 showing a photo of a very smug Prime Minister Owen Arthur heading up the article “The Question of Corruption”.

To read the article is to see that time has stood still for ten years. David Thompson and the DLP are still making corruption allegations against the BLP Owen Arthur government – but no charges have ever been placed before the courts. We still have no Integrity Legislation, Freedom of Information laws, conflict of interests standards or Ministerial Code to prevent elected or appointed public servants from profiting by their office.

Thompson’s allegations against Owen Arthur’s friend David Shorey never made it further than newspaper innuendo and the public never did learn the truth about the GEMS Hotels and Resorts fiasco or the strange goings on with the National Petroleum Corporation.

One could almost put any date for the last ten years on this article and it would still be good copy – so little has changed.

Watching Bajan politics is the same as taking in a professional wrestling match. The moves are carefully choreographed to maintain public interest while ensuring that no one really gets hurt. The outcome of each fight is known before the wrestlers step into the ring. The Bajan public is the audience – and just like real wrestling fans, Bajan citizens don’t seem to realise that when the match ends, the political wrestlers retire to a shared dressing room and make small talk.

There is only one political party in Barbados, and the sooner that Bajan voters realise this truth, the sooner we will be able to reclaim our democracy.