Regional Opposition Leaders Form New Grouping

On Saturday, seven opposition leaders from the Caribbean region convened in Saint Lucia to inaugurate the ‘Leader of the Opposition Political Parties Forum’. The gathering included Allen Chastanet from Saint Lucia, Doctor Keith Mitchell from Grenada, Doctor Godwin Friday from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Jamal Pringle from Antigua and Barbuda. Additionally, Moses ‘Shyne’ Barrow from Belize, Doctor Ronnie Yearwood from Barbados, and Roy McTaggart from the Cayman Islands were present. As stated by Chastanet, the initial meeting focused on enhancing awareness regarding the constitutional significance and ensuing responsibilities associated with the Opposition’s role.  Here is a clip courtesy of HTS Channel Four Saint Lucia.

 

Allen Chastanet, Leader of the Opposition, St. Lucia

“The preliminary meeting brought into sharp focus the need for higher levels of awareness On the constitutional significance and resultant responsibility that comes with the office of the leader of the opposition. The solution meeting also seeks to develop a framework for parliamentary oppositions. Caribbean countries to share best practices to further strengthen the effectiveness of their constitutional rules in government.”

 

Moses ‘Shyne’ Barrow, Leader of the Opposition, Belize

“How egregious is it to present the budget to the leader of the opposition days before two days. You’re talking about in our case, it’s about  three, four, 5 billion.  I don’t know how much it is in St. Lucia, but such a crucial undertaking as far as analyzing the budget and making sure that the people’s monies are being spent and being able to come to parliament and to debate how the people’s monies would be spent. That’s what I mean. Or we mean when we say best practices, we should get that we should have meetings with the Ministry of Finance and the public officers to help plan the budget.”

 

Dr. Ronnie Yearwood, Leader of the Opposition, Barbados 

“Come up with standardized understand what this consultation when a government say it consults look like. The Guyanese constitution is a perfect example that actually defines the term consultation. It sets out what that consultation is to look like, how you are not prime minister is supposed to write to the opposition parties, the timing, the response, a whole process. And perhaps that’s something that needs to be formalized in each of our different countries, depending on the culture, but consultation has to be real. We cannot have this facade that governments often have this consultation. And we have to figure out what is the best practice for real consultation.”

 

Dr. Godwin Friday, Leader of the Opposition, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

“I do believe, you know, that it’s an important initiative for us.  to say that irrespective of the tendency we see all over the world towards authoritarianism, that we are seeing in the Caribbean, we have reached a stage where our political process is sufficiently mature for us to recognize that opposition is an essential part  of governance in our country.”