THIS week I wish to write about the governance of St. Lucia, within the context of its achievements under both the U.W.P. and the St. Lucia Labour Party. The historical reality which the older folk should make their children aware of, is that the Labour Partyâs historical record is one of a reactionary position, against all the major social initiatives and development projects for the economic, physical-infrastructural, and philosophical advancement of St. Lucia.
First and foremost the aspirations for St. Lucia to become an independent nation, was resisted by the Labour Party in the most violent way. This will remain as a black mark in the SLPâs history which will tarnish its image into perpetuity. The records also show the reality, in which there has always been economic prosperity for the citizens of St. Lucia under the U.W.P. in contrast to the regression and disharmony that we are faced with any time the S.L.P. is in power.
While the Labour Party persists in the pursuance of a failed oppressive and dictatorial ideology, the U.W.P.âs political and economic philosophy is one of âliberal democracy,â which values individual freedom, equality, and justice for all, instead of the oppressive features of a failed ideology in which there is the restrictive and coercive nature of the state apparatus which stifles human creativity and aspirations.
The liberal policies of the U.W.P. have proven to be the most economically successful system in the world, which provides every citizen the equality of opportunity for achieving prosperity based on the hard work and creativity of the individual.
Another of the principles of the U.W.P. which the S.L.P. is not concerned about is the spiritual development of our people. The SLPâs governance is a purely secular concept for development and the lack of a spiritual dimension, which may well account for the failures of its policies, and the countryâs decline into hopelessness and despair, manifested in the record number of suicides and the casual committal of the most brutal murders of burnt and headless bodies, unprecedented in our nationâs history.
The historical records also shows the reality in which there has always been economic prosperity any time the U.W.P. is in office, in contrast to the regression and upsurge in violent crime anytime the S.L.P. takes control of the governance of our country.
This intelligence of our people and their innate common sense is reflected in our political records, which show that despite the Labour Partyâs efforts to frighten the St. Lucian electorate during election campaigns, by creating turbulence and an atmosphere of violence and fear, the U.W.P. has always won the hearts of our people with their Protestant and religious ethics. The sober minded citizens of this country could see through the machinations, falsehoods and deception of Labour. The electorate fell for Labourâs false promises and deception in 2011, because of the disenchantment over certain elements within the U.W.P, who have since been put to pasture.
The percipient citizens of this country, despite the political upheavals created by Labour during the election periods, have always chosen the U.W.P. overwhelmingly to manage the affairs of this blessed, green and pleasant land of ours for the following periods: U.W.P. 1964-79, 15 years; 1982-1997 another consecutive 15 years; 2006-2011, 5 years, a total of 35 years, in contrast to Labourâs failures and internal strife 1979-1981, 2 years, followed by an interim government for 1 year; 1997-2006, 9 years, the longest uninterrupted period that Labour has been in government, and I predict their last. Finally 2011-2014, 3 years, making a grand total of 14 years.
The citizens of this country have overwhelmingly voted for the U.W.P., because this is the party that has always delivered economic prosperity. The U.W.P. during its extensive periods in office has been able by its deeds and actions, not the empty rhetoric of âbetter daysâ, to catapult St. Lucia into the position of the most developed and economically advanced country in the O.E.C.S. During the first period of U.W.P. governance of 30 years, the party transformed the physical landscape of St. Lucia to a modern mecca which is the envy of the other O.E.C.S. territories. The infrastructural and social achievements deserve repeating to the Labour ostriches with their heads buried in the sand, who canât bear to hear the monumental achievements our country has accomplished under the U.W.P. compared to the minimal contribution of Labour: the transformation of a one vehicular road in which one vehicle had to give way to another coming from the opposite direction, to construct the Castries Gros Islet Highway; the dredging of a mosquito and sand fly infested swamp to create the picturesque Rodney Bay Marina with its premier housing developments in the surrounding areas; in addition to the fastest growing commercial area and valuable real estate in the country. The construction of the Pigeon Island causeway, the platform for two of the most luxurious touristic resorts in the country; the John Compton Dam, the brewery; the expansion of the West and East coast roads; the Sandals Hotels, with more hotels in this island than the other Caribbean territories. I could exhaust the reader with landmark achievements of the U.W.P. to use a common phrase, but they are âtoo numerous to mention.â
However I must add that the most radical and revolutionary social programme for workers introduced by the U.W.P. in St. Lucia was the National Insurance Scheme now the (NIC). This social initiative was based on the knowledge that workers do not voluntarily save, and were forced to make deductions from their salaries, so that they could spend their retirement in dignity. Even this initiative the Labour Party was against. Today the NIC has the largest financial assets in the country which the Labour government resorts to when in financial difficulties.
The political philosophy of the U.W.P.âs liberal democracy which has always attracted all the major investors to come to St. Lucia, will only escalate with the business acumen of the leader of the U.W.P. Allen Chastanet, who inherited this knowledge and wise business contacts from his father Michael Chastanet, in addition to management of the family hotel, Coco Palm.
It was the U.W.P. which lured the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (the ARC) to St. Lucia. Therefore all the architecture which surrounds us in St. Lucia and the activities which attract thousands to our shores such as our iconic Jazz Festival were the ideas of the U.W.P. which the Labour Party likes to bask in any time these events come around on an annual basis.
In contrast what is the legacy of the Labour Party that it can boast about that is comparable to the magnificent achievements of the U.W.P.? In the last three years this government has increased the burdens particularly on the poor. Let us not paper over the cracks as the agents of this administration attempt to do. There exists in our country young men and women with no jobs, idling, with no hope for the future. What does a rational person expect them to do?
Jeff, is the chicken and rum another one of the principles of the U.W.P ?…..So that’s the party responsible for creating the give me mentality. You enlighten me on who were the ones that did not develop St. Lucia educational system. You see a pattern here: keep them uneducated, have them on the chicken and rum diet and have them always begging. then: ” The citizens of this country have overwhelmingly voted for the U.W.P.” in your own words Jeff. Peace
St. Lucians are impatient for General Elections.
There is much confusion and anguish in St. Lucia as the people languish in an economic and social purgatory , with no end in sight. We can even link the increasing number of suicides with the sense of doom felt by many in once Fair Helen. It is interesting when people try to separate economic from social issues as they defend the immorality of the liberal policies and memes that now make up our societal environment (promoted by the SLP and their UWI liberal inculcated adherants) , yet the increasing suicides shows what happens when we have nothing truthful or of substance to hold onto in our lives.
We have come to the end of the lifespan of the fraudulent Kenny and Tony show. His supreme self confidence in the face of his 11 years of utter economic and social mismanagement as the leader of this country, no longer holds any water.
It is a pity that we (as I predicted years ago) have had to hit rock bottom before we were willing to admit and see his incompetence. It is also unfortunate that we have further to go. For years we heard of the Rochamels, the NCAs, the costoveruns, etc. For over a decade we saw the crazy borrowing followed by drunken spending followed by no auditing of billions in government accounts.
Since 1997 we felt the tension as the SLP big shots split the country asunder with their selfishness and tribal politics. We watched without comprehending as our national debt went from $400 million to $800 million to $1 billion to $1,200 million to now close to $2,000 million for a little population of 170 thousand !
Yet we sat there arrogant and intellectually dumb as we continued to live off of the wealth created in the 60s and 70s by âGreen Goldâ refusing to see that we were only using and not creating anything of value. We have been increasingly happy with the ill discipline, the weed, the rum, the cell phones and the sex. Walk down any street in Castries to see how our women dress and the language spewed out and the garbage on the street. We can only pity the state of the homeless also!
It is also amazing how SLP hacks instead of lauding Sir John Compton for the conservative handling and development of the banana industry and promoting the ‘tripod’ economy, instead choose to say he did not ‘prepare’ us for development. The fact is Sir John Compton gave us the framework for economic development but it was the SLP that gave us the mendicancy and victimization mentality that has the boys sitting on the block smoking weed and waiting for a government to” give them a ting”. It was the SLP that developed the freeness mentality that has destroyed our culture and family life. It was the SLP for votes that instead of developing the stability of family life promoted the sexual freeness culture and single mother family that ensures that our young men have no discipline and our girls are initiated by 12 and 13 to sex and motherhood. It is the family that developes the discipline that our country needs but under the SLP our out of wedlock birthrate stands at the highest in the world at 86%!
It was Kenny (or maybe Tony) that demanded the freeness of huge civil servant salary increase when we could not afford it during a huge global recession as part of the freeness for votes of the SLP campaigning.
We have been happy with believing the myth that we were âcatching up with Barbadosâ, that we were the next San Tropaz , that we are the âHoneymoon Capitol of the Worldâ that we were so great that tourists would automatically come over the horizons to our shores even as we continued to debase the society that once made all seem possible.
So finally from the bottom of the pit we want Elections called.
Let the people decide if they have finally seen through the clown that has ruled the roost for 11 years. Who knows â maybe they have not! Maybe the race hustlers have convinced enough St. Lucians that the alternative cannot do anything good for St. Lucians because he is of a lighter shade than most St. Lucians. Maybe one âbig belly white manâ whose life spent in the upper socio economic strata is not trustworthy whereas another âbigger belly white manâ who scrunted for the early part of his life before latching onto the money trough that is the taxpayer speaks in the language the majority understand.
The SLP will not call elections until the last minute unless they do an internal poll giving them the advantage therefore we can expect that we have to wait until 2016 or 730 days hence. Till then we suffer in tense frustration , in economic misery with no hope of an answer from the few who fill their pockets daily from taxation and borrowing.
But maybe we are only on the receiving end of what we deserve.
In spite of my awareness of the brilliance of Sir John Compton in his first two periods in charge of St. Lucia’s affairs and therefore supportive of Jeff’s article I am also aware that subsequent to Sir John’s initial leadership , that the UWP has underperformed.
In fact the only reason that Kenny Anthony has been at the helm of this country in spite of his raging incompetence is that the UWP has been unable to present any type of leadership that would contrast with the management inability and crass political opportunism of the Kenny Anthony administrations, and let us make no mistake it has also been about the utter lack of skill, amateurishness, ineffectiveness and sheer destructiveness of the supporting cast of Philip Pierre, Alva Baptiste, Walcott and the other clowns that make up the leadership of the SLP. In 2001 the UWP leadership was comatose and in 2011 it had proved to be incompetent and incapable of managing us out of a paper bag and there were serious issues of mismanagement and possibly even corruption.
The UWP have no clear philosophy except to say that they are ‘better’ than the SLP and that Chastanet can possible attract investments.
The question now is if that is enough for St. Lucians to vote for someone they do not appear to have much of an affinity for or if things are so bad that they will vote for anything but the incompetent Kenny and tony.
The fake opulence and ME-MYSELF & I decadent lifestyles of the POST GREEN GOLD era where country and town dweller inherited an insatiable Nuevo consumerism; akin to an underground black market economy, fuelled the grand recession and pervasive inflation that has us in the current economic quagmire..
Average folks needed to emulate the big city lifestyles of the diaspora which issued their Western Union handouts. No benedictions, novenas or dirges to the saints or heavenly hosts were needed- just a swift electronic bypass to “GIMMEE DALLA, POUNDS- NO SHILLINGS or PENCE!
We wanted so much for our offspring to eclipse our hut like existence that we eliminated the virtues on their pathways to adulthood and independence..
AS a former educator Mr. Fedee has had intimate binocular view of the insidious patterns of false opulence and near nihilistic decadence that permeates our current economic malaise.. I would be first on line for his book on the topic.
The People need to be on trial -also- for the nation’s economic demise-sela.
There should be more open critiques of the economic behavior of individual citizens- as JFK alluded “Ask not what your country can do for you”