Former Government Minister Calls for Job Description and Extended Retirement Age for Members of Parliament in Barbados

By Jenique Belgrave

A former government minister and senator is calling for a job description for Members of Parliament who he said are seen and treated by many Barbadians as the “modern-day sugar daddy”.

And while suggesting that the pensionable age for MPs should be increased by at least another ten years, Rudolph Cappy Greenidge said the issue should not be used as a political football.

Greenidge, who served under several Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administrations, was a guest speaker at the third town hall meeting of the Parliamentary Reform Commission (PRC) which was held at the Princess Margaret Secondary School on Thursday night.

Presenting on The Role of the MP, he recommended that a job description be created for parliamentary representatives since Barbadians seemed to believe that their responsibilities to constituents had no “cut-off” point.

“People are no longer turning to friends and relatives to assist them. They turn to the MP. The MP is what somebody may want to describe as the modern-day ‘sugar daddy’,” said Greenidge.

“The MP is called upon to help young mothers with uniforms, with lunch money, and even to help solve a lot of their personal problems. For instance, the fathers not supporting the children, so the MPs are asked to support the child. You don’t have money to pay the rent, so the MP is asked to pull his pocket. On top of that, the MP is asked to attend every function – every school fair, every church luncheon, every fundraising activity, every funeral . . . . The MP must help the fire victim to get a house, and the MPs do. But the only point I’m making is that it is no longer about just the roads and talking in the House of Assembly. That is not all it is,” he stressed.

Greenidge also insisted that contrary to popular belief, MPs did not get any significant perks.

“I know that not far away from Barbados is a place where an MP can get duty-free cars, maybe every two years. MPs in Barbados get no duty-free concessions. MPs have no medical insurance as MPs. They get no sickness benefits. MPs in Barbados, with two exceptions, are not chauffeur-driven, and at the end of it, an MP is only as good as his last favour,” the former representative for St Philip North.

Contributing to the discussion, former MP Stephen Lashley, who served as a minister under the Democratic Labour Party for two terms, said the role of parliamentarians has become multi-faceted and changes should be made to accommodate that.