Moontown

The reason why I am asking this, Sir, is that I have
a situation in front of me where we are guaranteeing $42.6
million to the Barbados Agricultural Management Company
to be repaid in three years and the Honourable Member for
Christ Church South said that this would be financed from
the surplus from local sugars.
Aside.

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Yes, you said that. I am
saying, Sir, it is true that over the years that the surplus
from the local sugars went into the Sinking Fund but that
was when the borrowings were redeemable over a longer
period and I am saying that we cannot finance these bonds
in three years. The only way that these bonds can be
financed in three years is if the Honourable Member for
Christ Church South has a plan to increase the price of
sugar and then the taxpayers in this country will not be
able to pay for the price of sugar in order to finance these
bonds in three years.

We have here, Sir, that by June 30, 1995 they will be
repaying $3.745 million. That amount is possible from the
imported sugar. I would like to find out from him how in
1996 they will finance $11 million from the surplus. That
is not all. On June 30, 1997 they will be looking for $27.7
million from the surplus of the imported sugar that will be
sold on the local market. I would like to know where they
will be getting this money from and that is why I ask the
question whether this is a loan or a grant to the Barbados
Agricultural Management Co. It is true I would like to wish
the new Chairman well and I know he has a difficult job.
I have another problem. It is said that this is for the
purpose of financing the sugar industry and I have a
problem with this because in my previous statement I said
that the sugar industry would never be profitable.
Aside.

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: The Honourable Member
for Christ Church South said that also, and the Honourable
Member for St. Peter said it also, so you disagree with us?
I am saying that if you have a Resolution asking us to
guarantee something for the sugar industry I might have a
problem but if you ask us to guarantee something for the
agriculture industry I will support it. If the wording here is
wrong correct it quickly so that I can support this
Resolution. Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, on the last
occasion I said I would support the Resolution that was
brought before this Honourable Chamber, but this
afternoon, Sir, while looking at this document I have some
problems. I want to know from the Government if this is
a loan or if this is a grant to the Barbados Agricultural
Management Company.

It can only be a grant, Mr. Speaker, because to ask
the sugar industry to repay $42.6 million plus interest in
three years’ time is impossible. I would like the
Honourable Members from the other side to tell me how
they are going to finance this because if they do not,
they are misleading the House and I know that you would
not allow that so you would have to ask them to correct
that.

In 1982 when Portvale Factory was being built the
Barbados Labour Party guaranteed a loan for the Barbados
Sugar Industry Ltd., and part of it was borrowed on the
overseas market so I cannot understand now how there can
be one argument in 1982 and the Honourable Member for
Christ Church South is using another argument today about
local borrowings. I might agree with you that if in 1982
you had borrowed the money on the local market we would
not have found ourselves in a situation where we had to
pay back a lot of money to the Japanese because we
borrowed that money, and the Honourable Member for
Christ Church South would agree with me that we
borrowed the money from the CDB when the yen was low
and we repaid it when the yen was high.
Aside.

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, imagine the
Honourable Member for St. Joseph talking about bullet
loans in this House and is sitting next to the Honourable
Member for Christ Church South when he helped borrowed
one, and he is again, Sir, guaranteeing another bullet loan
for the Barbados Agricultural Management Co. where they
are borrowing a loan to be repaid in three years’ time.
Bullet loans? It seems to me, Sir, every time they get a
new term they get bullet loans, thanks to the Honourable
Member for St. Joseph.

It goes further, Sir. We had been accused of allowing
plantation owners to subdivide land but now I can
understand why the Barbados Labour Party would
guarantee a loan to the Barbados Agricultural Management
Co. to be repaid in three years because the Honourable
Member for Christ Church South said that there are
plantations in my constituency that all they have to do is
get land permission and they do not have to worry about
the debt. The plan is that they will lend the Barbados
Agricultural Management Co. $42 million. They will not be
able to repay it and then they would get some of the
plantation to subdivide. I can only have that analysis and
I can only make an analysis of that based on the
information from the Honourable Member for Christ
Church South. He gave us all of that information.

The Honourable Member for Christ Church South
also said that the equipment has not been paid for and there
is no other person who can inform this House better, why
the equipment has not been paid for on the plantation than
my friend, the Honourable Member for Christ Church
South. He knows that there is a valuation problem and he
knows that there are lawyers who will advise their clients
and the two sides will not agree, and that is why the
equipment has not been paid for.
Aside.

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Sir, the Honourable
Member knows that accountants and lawyers do not agree
because the lawyers even believe today that accountants
should not deal with offshore business.
Aside.

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, I always
have good sugar. I still have some.
Mr. Speaker, I have also said in this House that I do
not believe that we should guarantee money to pay the
private sector unless we put some conditions. I am having
problems again. This is the second time I am speaking on
a Resolution like this and I am not hearing the conditions
because when you are talking about $42 million, at first I
thought this $42 million was for the BAMC alone but I am
seeing today that it is for the sugar industry which tells me
that it is going to the BAMC to be passed on to the other
sectors. I am saying that, if some of this money is to be
given to the other sector we as Honourable Members
should have some say in what they are doing on their
plantations.

We cannot come in here and set policies and where
we give people money and they have no conditions set to
that money because we would find ourselves in the same
situation as the Honourable Member for St. Joseph found
himself in 1982 where he was able to give price support,
no conditions in place and they did whatever they felt like
doing. We cannot have this. We must have conditions.
Once we have conditions the policy set in place by the
Barbados Labour Party will go far. I am quite prepared to
support them in this Resolution but they must also be
prepared to set conditions and they must also explain to us
how they are going to finance this $42 million in three
years’ time.

I would like to believe the Honourable Member for
Christ Church South but I know that the amount of money
going into the Sinking Fund cannot be over $42 million so
it tells me that the Government of Barbados would have to
find money to redeem these bonds. If they are only
pretending that they are guaranteeing these loans when in
truth and in fact it is really their liability, they should tell
the House that this is their liability and this is part of the
capital they are putting into the Barbados Agricultural
Management Company.

I believe this is the plan because if one listened to the
speech by the Honourable Member for Christ Church South
he talked a lot about capitalisation so I believe that this is
a back hand way of capitalising the Barbados Agricultural
Management Co. but, at the same time, it is a way to
help give assistance to the private growers. If that is what
the Honourable Member for Christ Church South was
saying, I would like them to admit it on the floor of the
House. We should not be coming to this House having to
ask questions like these. We should have all of these things
put in front of us where we could come and say we agree
with this or disagree with that but I should not have to be
speaking on a Resolution like this.

I should like to support this, Sir. But I am still asking
them before they bring it to the vote to explain these things
for me because the sugar industry, I agree, has value and
has always been an industry that provided foreign exchange
for this country and it is the only industry that you could
guarantee the foreign exchange from. Whenever I have
spoken, I have always said that if the Central Bank of this
country could tie the other industries down like how they
tied down the sugar industry this country would go far. I
know that the Honourable Member for Christ Church South
would agree with me. If we could do the same thing in the
tourism industry, we would have no problems.

Soon I will be coming to this House and I will be
asking the House to do something like that for the simple
reason that we have a situation where we are getting
involved in other industries where all the money stands a
chance of staying outside. As a citizen of Barbados I have
a right to come to this House and ask the Minister of
Finance to do everything in his power to make sure that all
the foreign exchange that should come into the country
comes in. The Honourable Member for Christ Church
South knows what I am talking about. He will agree with
me on this, that if the sugar industry can bring in all of its
foreign exchange, the manufacturing sector and the tourism
sector that the Central Bank should put something in place
to make sure that all the foreign exchange comes in.
Whenever they want some they apply to the Central Bank
and they get it.

I have nothing more to say on this matter, Sir. Thank
you very much.

PHILIPSBURG, St Maarten (CMC):

Tourism officials have expressed outrage at a recent decision that prohibits French nationals from travelling to St Maarten/St Martin without a passport.

President of the French Hotel Association, Maurice Perrin-marechal, said that the decision would have far-reaching financial consequences for not only St Maarten/St Martin, but neighbouring islands as well.

He said nobody knew where the decision came from and it has resulted in a number of people, including families being left stuck in Paris because they could not travel back to St Maarten/St Martin using their ID cards.

“This is a terrible decision. It came down on us like an axe, because nobody had told us that there would be a policy change,” Perrinmarechal said.

“We only found out about it when the airlines refused to board people without a passport.” (Jamaica Gleaner)

Prime Minister Golding.

DAYS AFTER Prime Minister Bruce Golding told Parliament that the United States (US) had refused to budge in the extradition saga involving alleged drug dealer and gunrunner Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, a key member of the governing party had asked that Jamaica’s sovereignty be observed.

Karl Samuda, the general secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), told a press conference in Ocho Rios, St Ann, on Sunday that Jamaica could not allow the US to break the laws in its bid to arrest Dudus.

“We are a sovereign state. We respect the laws of our country. We expect that the United States will honour the respect that we give to our laws and we will not resile from that because the moment we do that, then we compromise the freedom of every Jamaican,” Samuda said.

Kingston and Washington have been locked in a battle since a New York grand jury indictment for Coke was unsealed last August.

Coke is aligned to the JLP.

The Jamaican Government had refused to pave the way for his extradition, arguing that the treaty between both countries had been breached. Jamaica also charged that telephone conversations which the US intends to use against Coke were illegally obtained.

Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Golding told Parliament that the matter of the extradition treaty between Jamaica and the US had become one of “significant controversy”.

“The United States government has remained virtually intransigent on the matter … or intractable or inflexible,” Golding said.

But in a dramatic turn of events last night, Golding said his attorney general would be signing the order to proceed against Coke.

Prime Minister Golding was strident that he was willing to demonstrate that “constitutional rights do not begin at Liguanea” - the home of the US Embassy in Jamaica.

“Christopher Coke is wanted for an alleged crime in the US for which he ought to be tried and the Government of Jamaica, consistent with its obligations under the treaty, will do everything to facilitate his extradition once it is done in accordance with the provisions of the treaty and the laws of our country,” the prime minister had said.

He had told Parliament “Govern-ment will, without hesitation, facilitate the extradition of any Jamaican citizen wanted to stand trial for extraditable offences once the obligations under the treaty are met”. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Prime Minister Bruce Golding. - File

Dr Hume Johnson

Dr Carolyn Gomes

Claude Clarke

Michael Williams

Anne Shirley

1 2 3 4 5 6 >

The government has decided to send the extradition request for west Kingston strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to the courts as Prime Minister Bruce Golding struggles to get back into the good graces of Jamaicans.

Under pressure from a wide cross section of the society, Golding last night faced the country with an apology over the Manatt affair and a promised that the justice minister, Dorothy Lightbourne, would sign the extradition request despite claims by his administration that the United States breached the rules of engagement.

Golding pleaded with his critics to back off on the calls for his resignation as he accepted that he had done wrong.

“I am aware that trust can only be restored by forgiveness and atonement. That will take time, and I am committing myself to do everything that is humanly possible to repair the damage that has been done to that trust. In return, I ask for your forgiveness.”

“In hindsight, the party should never have become involved in the way that it did and I should never have allowed it, but I must accept responsibility for it and express my remorse to the nation,” Golding said in his national broadcast.

“I crave your understanding. The Government has never refused … never refused … the request for the extradition of Christopher Coke. It has simply asked the US authorities to provide additional information that would enable the minister to issue the authorisation in compliance with the terms of the treaty.

“In the controversy that has ensued, we sought the opinion of one of Jamaica’s most eminent lawyers, Dr Lloyd Barnett, who advised that the issues involved were not sufficiently settled in law and, therefore, the attorney general should seek a declaration from the court before exercising her authority,” added Golding.

The prime minister repeated the Government’s claim that it was not trying to protect the Tivoli Gardens ‘President’ who is wanted to answer charges of drug dealing and gunrunning in the United States.

But Golding argued that the issue provided a particular dilemma.

“I wrestled with the potential conflict between the issues of non-compliance with the terms of the treaty and the unavoidable perception that because Coke is associated with my constituency, the Government’s position was politically contrived.

“I felt that the concepts of fairness and justice should not be sacrificed in order to avoid that perception. In the final analysis, however, that must be weighed against the public mistrust that this matter has evoked and the destabilising effect it is having on the nation’s business.”

Golding repeated his claim that he authorised the decision of the Jamaica Labour Party to contract the services of US law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips but he argued that his instructions were not followed.

“Having sanctioned it, I cannot escape responsibility for it or the developments that have ensued, although I was not myself involved in those activities,” said a pensive Golding.

The prime minister was penitent as he admitted that the changing stories from his administration were enough to spark distrust and erode his credibility.

Golding said he should not have been surprised that several persons and organisations have raised the question of trust in relation to the way in which the Manatt matter was handled. “I had raised the bar as to what they should expect of me and what has transpired has fallen short of their expectations,” he said.

As they see it:

Michael Williams, general secretary of the National Democratic Movement

One word - platitudes! He told us all the things that we knew he should have been doing and saying from the day he has been inaugurated. I am not impressed. There is much left to be desired from the speech.

Anne Shirley

The prime minister hit all the right buttons in the first couple of paragraphs of his presentation. My problem was the second section. While the apology can be accepted, there should be some demonstrable changes in his manifesto instead of continuously referring to his manifesto. I don’t think the proposals he enunciated are enough. It is like a slap on the wrist and moving forward.

Claude Clarke, public commentator and former parliamentarian

I think the apology is for Golding’s benefit because it gives him time and breathing space and wiggle room. The resignation would have been beneficial to the country and his party because it would help to give his party a new lease on life and give the opportunity to reinvest its faith in a new leader. (But) … if the extradition of Mr Coke was such a simple decision to make as he has just made, then why has he put the country through the pain, the agony and the excessive cost and loss of international reputation?

Dr Carolyn Gomes

It was a good mea culpa (my fault). There are still some questions that need answering. I am still a little disappointed that the prime minister did not take the opportunity to lead by example of accountability and probity and resign. We can seize the opportunity to try and make these nice words turn into actions; if they do, they are good actions.

Dr Hume Johnson

The severity of the damage that the JLP has done to itself and Prime Minister Golding has called upon his reputation and image as well as that of the country in the international media, a deep and genuine apology was appropriate. It came and it appeared contrite, but it was not sufficient. The apology should have been the precursor to his resignation.(Jamaica Gleaner)