Freundel Stuart Speech About Owen Arthur

"I have listened to, with amused interest, to the Honourable Member for St. Peter who has delivered economic and policy statements in this Chamber for the last 14 years and as he spoke I kept asking myself if all that he was saying was true, what it was that the people of Barbados was dissatisfied about in the month of January.

"What it was that they were dissatisfied about for the last three/four years in this country if all of these solutions were within his embrace. Are the people of Barbados stupid? Don t they know when they are feeling pain? Don t they know when a government has divorced itself from their interests? Don t they know when the policies of a government are inimical to their ideals? And I am prepared to err with the people of Barbados rather than to get swept along by all that I heard from the Member for St. Peter over the last half of an hour.

"The most reassuring part of the Member's speech was that no private citizen in this country had to fear tonight being abused from the floor of this Chamber. No Civil Servant had to endure today although telephone calls were made over the last few days any threats from the Member for St. Peter and for the very simple reason that he spoke in this Chamber tonight as a naked man, stripped down to the skin, of all of the arrogance and all of the hubris that the people of Barbados had to endure particularly over the last ten years.

"He did not even speak in here tonight as a man with any special motivation to see the Democratic Labour Party never rule Barbados again. Even that was missing from the contribution which he made to this debate. And if there is any lesson in all of this it is that we should never forget the source of our power. We should always remember that power comes from the people. It is theirs to give and theirs to withdraw.

"So tonight, this very lonely man stood up in this Chamber, can reach out and touch no one in Barbados really, not even anyone on his side of the House, because when I survey, not the wondrous Cross, but the Opposition benches, the Member for St. Michael North has no particular reason to love him since he had to throw a Cabinet position back in his face. He cannot expect the affection of the Honourable Member for St. Thomas since the Member for St. Michael North East has pre-empted that affection.

"The Member for St. James North has been treated like a football, abused and insulted by the Member for St. Peter for the last ten years or so and I know whereof I speak; and although the Member for St. James North is perhaps the most rounded and most intelligent politician in the Barbados Labour Party, he has had to take insults and abuse from the Member for St. Peter for a good ten/twelve years and tonight sits in his seat a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. The Member for St. George North, of course, is perhaps the only friend that the Member for St. Peter has on that side and for obvious reasons. Their habits are not dissimilar. Missing from his seat is the Member for St. Andrew.

"Now I have to congratulate the Member for St. John because whatever else this Budget did not do, it certainly made the dumb to speak. So the age of miracles is not ceased. The Member for St. Andrew stood up in this Chamber today and made a full speech. But he too has been at the receiving end of the implacable ire and rage and spite in some cases, of the Member for St. Peter, and you know I don t think anybody in Barbados rejoices more than the Member for St. Andrew that the nakedness of the Member for St. Peter is now so cruelly exposed.

"The Member for St. Joseph well, he will follow anything. You don t have to bother about him. He will follow anything; but I know this: the Member for St. Michael North East, too, was at the receiving end of no small bit of undermining abuse, backstabbing from the Member for St. Peter. Again I know whereof I speak and the Member for St. Michael North East also knows whereof I speak. Politeness may make her nod her head to say no and I appreciate the politeness, but I know whereof I speak.