Barbados’ High Commissioner to London, Rev Guy Hewitt, delivering the Astor B. Watts Lunchtime Lecture Series at the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Headquarters.

Barbados’ High Commissioner to London, Rev Guy Hewitt, delivering the Astor B. Watts Lunchtime Lecture Series at the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Headquarters.

The Barbados, Singapore connection

Barbados and Singapore have had quite a lot in common.

In fact, this Asian country’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, had to embrace the same challenge as Barbados’ father of Independence, the Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow.

“The challenge of how do you move forward,” explained Barbados’ High Commissioner to London, Rev Guy Hewitt.

Singapore, which become independent only one year before Barbados, in 1965, was at that time a poor, small country 210 square miles with few natural resources; no assets other than a deep-water port; rapid population growth; substandard housing and very limited education. However, Rev. Hewitt observed that today, 52 years later, Singapore can be described as “a gleaming hub of trade and finance”.

The High Commissioner, who was at the time delivering the Astor B. Watts Lunchtime Lecture Series at the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Headquarters on the topic “Singapore and the Barbados Mirror Image Revisited”, reminded Party supporters that these men, who led their countries into independence were personal friends and that the late DLP Leader often referenced to Singapore, including in his Mirror Image speech.

According to Rev. Hewitt, the four pillars of Singapore’s success have been the economy, security, social development and leadership.

“Lee Kuan Yew had to decide how do they move forward. One of things he said was that while not all are born equal, he was going to provide equal opportunities through education, employment, healthcare and housing. It sounds very familiar to us. It is the same thing that Mr Barrow did when he took over the leadership of the country,” the High Commissioner pointed out.

Furthermore, he observed that Lee Kuan Yew stressed no one was owed anything by the state – while the state was willing to heavily subsidise investments and social development, it was not a welfare state and nobody was entitled to free services.

“So, his whole philosophy was that everyone had to play their part and pay something towards the services they received from the state. In a sense, creating a sense of self resilience so that people understood how they had to do something for themselves. Within that social development, he focused on three areas – the first was to place emphasis on education…,” he highlighted.

Rev. Hewitt also pointed out that Lee Kuan Yew was very pragmatic, like Errol Barrow “he thought about what needed doing and he got it done”.

“One of things that we have to appreciate is that Singapore is a different society. The influences of their culture, the influences of their region, the influences of their political system where they did not a strong opposition, meant that Mr. Yew was able to do things in a very aggressive way, that may not have been possible politically in Barbados.”

High Commissioner Hewitt, who recently visited the Asian country, further acknowledged that “Singapore says it is not a model and it’s not a model for Barbados, but it is an example of what can be done by a country that was 40 square miles bigger than Barbados, but really had a strong sense of where it wants to go”.

“What we as a nation need to do is to interrogate our mirror image, to ask ourselves again what are our goals and aspirations. But, not just as a country, but as citizens – that we take on that responsibility to say to ourselves – What can we do? How can we make a difference?” (TL)

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