Walters seeks DLP seat; revival of party
An aspiring politician wants to see the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) revived and rise from the ashes of its utter defeat in the 2018 General Election.
Ryan Walters, who is eyeing the St Michael North West constituency seat is ready to assist the 64 -year-old political party in doing so.
He made his intentions known while offering advice on the way forward during a presentation to the DLP St James South Branch on Sunday evening.
“Learn from the past but do not live in the past,” he urged branch members.
“If we are not learning from our mistakes, then we are not advancing…Find out what we have done wrong, own up to them and move on. Very often people are holding the past and dragging it behind them and it is pulling them back. We need to pick up and more forward.”
Stressing the need to be prepared, he reminded members that “by failing to prepare you are preparing to fail”.
“I want to suggest that to be prepared we need to first have the right attitude, we need to demonstrate humility and empathy”.
“We need to remove arrogance from our very nature. It is often said that when a politician gets into office he or she becomes arrogant forgetting about the people who voted them in. I heard it up to yesterday; that their numbers change, you can’t hear or see them. So, we need to be very humble, emphatic – we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the constituents,” he said.
Walters, the local General Manager of Burger King also explained the need to embrace the social media revolution, as the party seeks to increase its voter base.
In fact, he queried “What is our scope as a party on social media versus others. Who has the social media presence, who has the voice to the people? So, we need to address this. It takes time to build character on social media, it does not happen overnight, so we have to start early to build that presence on social media”.
The 40-year-old prospective candidate is seeking to replace former Finance Minister Christopher Sinckler who was defeated by Barbados Labour Party (BLP) newcomer Neil Rowe.
Hailing from the Fernihurst, Black Rock community, Walters shared why he stands committed to the Democratic Labour Party.
“I have always voted for the Democratic Labour Party and this political party in my opinion, has always looked out for the interest of the people. They have always brought policy for the poor people in the country and for the development of the normal working class…I come from a very poor family and I was able to get free education. I was able to operate in a community where people were friendly, where people looked out for you and people encouraged you to go to school, learn and become someone.”
Furthermore, he expressed that his interest in becoming a candidate is by no means too early, explaining that his foundation of candidacy is representation.
“You can’t represent six or eight months before an election,” he pointed out.
“You have to represent, and people feel representation three, four years out. So, even if I am unsuccessful I have to identify myself and I have to start the process because I can’t wait until anybody that ran before to come and decide that they are going to or not going to do it.” (TL)