As election season unfolds in Antigua and Barbuda, a senior opposition lawmaker has sounded the alarm on a controversial campaign practice that she argues is eroding the nation’s social values and fostering a culture of dependence among young people.
Opposition Senator Malaka Parker recently raised sharp criticisms of politicians who distribute direct cash payments to children during campaign events, arguing that this well-worn tactic does far more harm than good. In an interview on Observer Radio’s current affairs program “Serpent in the Snakepit,” Parker made fresh allegations about observing this practice firsthand: she says she saw cash distributed to boys under the age of 14 at a campaign event in the Cedar Grove district.
Parker connects these individual cash handouts to broader, growing concerns about the harmful values being normalized for young people across Antigua and Barbuda, and she is urging parents to question and push back against the practice. The senator explained that she regularly encounters young people who approach her expecting automatic financial assistance simply because she holds public office, a dynamic that she calls deeply uncomfortable.
“When these young people will walk up to you and beg your money … as a politician, and they feel entitled to it, it’s the most uncomfortable thing for me,” Parker said during the interview.
She argues that this sense of entitlement is learned behavior, picked up from adults – including parents who regularly seek financial handouts from political candidates and sitting officeholders. Parker contrasted the culture of dependence she sees growing today with her own upbringing, noting that her parents raised her to serve community rather than seek handouts from politicians.
“I did not have parents who begged. My parents were servants,” she said.
Parker pushed for political leaders to reflect deeply on how their public conduct shapes the behavior and values of younger generations, particularly at a time when public discourse across the country is already focused on rising crime, increasing community violence, and declining social standards. She argued that cash handouts send a dangerous message to children that everything – including personal loyalty and public trust – has a price.
“Because the politicians have taught them that, one, everybody is for sale,” Parker said.
In closing, the senator maintained that any meaningful effort to address troubling trends in youth behavior must start with holding powerful adults – and especially elected political leaders – accountable for the examples they set for the next generation.