Negative publicity hurting country

THERE is no silver lining in recent news that former Member of Parliament of Barbados and Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss, was arrested and charged in the United States with conspiracy to launder money and money laundering.

This is the opinion of Former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, who also holds the view that the negative publicity has attracted international attention in the wrong way and on the wrong issues.

In fact, as he addressed the 63rd Annual Conference of The Democratic Labour Party (DLP), at the DLP George Street Auditorium yesterday, Stuart said if he was to insist on seeing some kind of positive coming out of recent events, it would have to be that the issue of corruption has now gone beyond national boundaries and has become international.

“Whoever has a foreign bank account now has to assume that he or she is under observation since, like local accounts, foreign accounts have to be fed. Movements of money to foreign accounts have to be a matter of concern for not only politicians, but also for all foreign account holders.

“The canvas of surveillance is now cast wider to include professionals, business persons and others who have to replenish their foreign accounts from time to time,” he said.

He said the DLP must wish Inniss well and respect the fact that the matter is sub judice and should do or say nothing to imperil his entitlement to a fair trial.

“He, like every other accused person, is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” he said.

Noting that issues of corruption have always been discussed across Barbados’ political landscape, Stuart reminded the packed auditorium that throughout his entire incumbency as Prime Minister, he had always exhorted the people of the country to set high standards for themselves, and with resolve, to pursue those standards.

He said that is Barbados’ only guarantee against the many perils and treacheries by which modern life is bedeviled. He noted that if a man or woman is going to be corrupt, however that corruption may be defined, he or she would not call a press conference to announce it, or place paid advertisements in the newspaper to notify the public.

Stuart further reminded that corruption, in its very essence, and by its very nature, is based on secrecy and stealth. He said the objective of the perpetrator and his or her abettors is to escape notice. He alluded to the fact that the more materialistic society becomes, the more alert the nation must be to the possibilities of corruption.

“Recent events in the public life of Barbados are not for the comfort of any of us. They reflect on all of us and, while we may be inclined from our respective vantage points to gloat over these happenings, in all of this we must have regard to what is happening to the good name of Barbados. As a result, recent events life in the public and private sector will never be the same again,” he said. (AH)