Tuesday 16, November-2004
Trevor Prescod: BLP used Pan-africanists.
PRIME MINISTER OWEN ARTHUR used us to gain political power and we used him to try to further the cause of Blacks in Barbados.
That's how Government backbencher Trevor Prescod has rationalised the relationship developed between Pan-Africanists and the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) in the mid-1990s.
He was speaking Sunday at a rally in honour of former director of the Commission for Pan-African Affairs, David Comissiong, at the Israel Lovell Foundation, My Lord's Hill, St Michael.
Prescod said they knew that existing systems in Barbados did not favour blacks and therefore they had to find ways to work within the system to improve the lot of the marginalised majority in the country.
He added that when he and Comissiong joined the BLP, they knew that some day the difficulty would emerge where there would be a fundamental point of difference and something would have to give.
"We made no mistake when we joined the BLP. We understand and Owen Arthur also understood that there was utilitarian value and that if you used the right personnel at the right time, the combination was important for victory. He understood it and we understood it as well," Prescod said.
Stressing his commitment to the Pan-African movement, he added: "When the arrangement occurred between us and the BLP, we knew that conservatism was deep; we didn't expect to change it. Nobody expected to change it, because it would be a sad thing and I would be rather surprised at the naivety of the Pan-Africanist movement if it thought it could change deep-rooted conservatism in the BLP."
The St Michael East MP reasoned that if the movement in Barbados was today in a dilemma, then the BLP was also in a dilemma.
He said "white shadows" were still very present in Barbados, but worse were the anti-black Blacks in society. He said these were being used more effectively by Whites than people of Eurocentric origin.
"They have done some of the most sinister things to their own people and yet are placed at the top of society to govern their people, and that has to change," the backbencher said.
He remarked that anyone was subject to have a contract terminated and no one could have a problem with that. But, he added, the manner in which Comissiong was terminated was distasteful and inhumane.
He also said a system existed where over a number of years mechanisms had been put in place to ensure that nothing that was black would be able to enjoy substantial benefits.
Prescod added that there might be a few peripheral benefits, a few crumbs that would drop, but the reality was that in such a system Pan Africanists were sandwiched between a number of external forces.
The director of the Israel Lovell Foundation said that people who rose to great heights of leadership should live with a firm commitment to improve the quality of life of those who had given them that elevation.
He suggested power was always temporary and if it wasn't taken away by man, then it would be by divine will.
http://www.nationnews.com/StoryView.cfm?Record=55297&Section=LO&Current=2004%2D11%2D16%2000%3A00%3A00
Author
