Potential Threats to Property Ownership: Democratic Labour Party's Vice President Raises Concerns

Who’s next?

That was the question the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) first vice president Andre Worrell posed to Barbadians as he contended that any one of them could lose their property if the Government saw it fit for its purpose.

He drew reference to the Government’s acquisition of the Bay Street, St Michael property on which Asha Ms Ram Mirchandani’s Liquidation Centre was built to facilitate the construction of the Hyatt Hotel and, more recently, the Government serving notice that it wanted to take back lands sold to businessman Allan Kinch along Bay Street to construct a car park.

“When they did it to Miss Ram, we did not speak out about it. . . and they put a whole bunch of people out of work . . . . Some Barbadians didn’t mind, because who it was being done to.

You have now a Barbadian who invested money to buy land to redevelop that land. [He] did an excellent job in terms of restoring a building which was an eyesore.

“And just because this administration does not believe that he should be the person to benefit from that investment and having that property, they are doing everything to frustrate him, and if they can do it to him . . . all of you who live on beachfront property with a complexion like mine, or who come from humble origins such as myself, they ain’t gine care for you. They just gine come and give you 60 days notice to move from your property, and they will take it. We have to speak out against these things,” the former senator said at a political meeting at Deacon’s Farm, St Michael on Sunday night to endorse businessman Ryan Walters for the leadership of the DLP.

He further charged that the Government was not working with average Barbadians to develop their businesses and only a “chosen few” were benefiting from incentives.

“The incentives are only going to the elite and the outside investors but not to the average Barbadians. And these are things that we need to talk about and recognise are an injustice and things that ought not to be happening in Barbados,” he said.

The former St John candidate for the DLP, supporting the meeting’s theme, Rebuild, Renew, Restore, Reclaim, pointed to the need for the DLP to be a strong opposition with a voice in places that matter.

“We need to rebuild, restore and reclaim that ground to represent the people of Barbados. They are crying out. Some of them are crying in shame because of what they did the last two elections. . . But we care for them, we love them, and we want to see this country prosper for its people because we are the ones who live here,” Worrell said. (BT)