Sista B will be Present at Friday’s Inaugural House Meeting

Denise “Sista B” Barrow will represent Queen Square in the House of Representatives during Friday’s ceremonial opening of the thirteenth National Assembly, but there are still many questions surrounding her role in the opposition.  For one, she has asked to remain in the background working for her constituents, as opposed to shadowing a P.U.P. minister.  Secondly, she was not present for the swearing-in of the Leader of the Opposition.  Admittedly, “Sista B” isn’t one for pomp and circumstance; nonetheless, her absence and secondary role begs the question of her involvement in parliamentary activities.  When we put the question to Opposition Leader Faber this afternoon, he said that there has been no swearing in of the members of the House of Representatives until Friday, but that Barrow is committed to her responsibilities.

Patrick Faber

Patrick Faber, Party Leader, U.D.P.

“One of the members of the house, Sister Denise Barrow, and before people start making mischief and giving trouble, let me say that Sista B, as we affectionately call her has indicated that she will focus her energy on the people of Queen Square which we know she can do very capably and in fact she wants to focus on that and so she has asked us to excuse her from many of the duties of the shadow cabinet and that we can count on her full support.  So we will not be mentioning Sista B in the shadow cabinet but she is a dedicated member of this party and a parliamentarian who was duly elected and she assures us that she will give her pound for pound in the house representing the constituency which she was elected to serve. There has been no swearing-in of any members of the House of Representatives yet.  In fact, it is our point why so many of the ministers are illegally operating because they’ve not been sworn-in as members of the house.  As I understand it, they are only members of the senate, two or so, that have been sworn in as parliamentarians, but nobody has been sworn in.  What happened at the Belize House was the swearing in of the Leader of the Opposition and I did invite my colleague Sista B.  In fact, if you know Sista B, she’s not into all the hype.  She’s told you this many, many times before.  So she didn’t go to my swearing in, that does not mean that she is not taking on the role.  In fact, we now know that the swearing in is going to be on Friday for members of the house and senate and Sista B will be there.”