“THE biggest losers are the people who voted for the Opposition MPs”.
Did the nation clearly hear the deputy Prime Minister, correctly as he tried to justify the debacle which took place in the House of Parliament on Wednesday, by stating those insightful words on RCI’s Newsspin?
There seems to be a clear and present disrespect for the people of this country by politicians, and a sheer disregard particularly for the right to know, of the people who did not support the Saint Lucia Labour Party in the last elections. Regardless of why debate was not stimulated by the Opposition, matters of national accountability should not be coloured at the expense of the people.
This is the People’s House where the interests of every Saint Lucian ought to be represented. This is the highest office of the land and the integrity of this esteemed House should not be trespassed or compromised in any way by both sides of the House of Parliament over petty partisan shenanigans. Although customary, in the absence of the Opposition leading on the debate, the government should have taken up the mantle.
The deputy Prime Minister ‘s comment which has already been referenced, may suggests to the public, especially the persons who understand what democracy means, that the government is probably nursing a grudge against Saint Lucians who did not support their Labour Party. There is the underlying impression that those people ought to be estranged from government representation. Has this attitude overshadowed the level of representation that these officials have pledged to collectively impart to one and all as a nation? When the government presents the Estimates of Expenditure, or presents an Address to the Nation, is it only for the benefit of the Saint Lucians who supported this government? Are the people who voted UWP any less human or less Lucian than those who voted SLP?
The complaints of the Opposition that they are continually not furnished with relevant information and documents, in order to adequately represent the People in the House were compounded by the unbelievable statements of the deputy Prime Minister sometime later. This unfolding scenario is most shameful and makes for the worst example of tribalism and alienation this country has ever been slapped with. Moreover when one thinks of Members of Parliament, who are expected to be fair and impartial representatives within their constituencies, which by the way is made up of a mixed bag of SLP supporters, non–voters, underage youth and UWP supporters, displaying such divisive mentalities to this degree does not unify or encourage persons to come together to work jointly for the advancement of their communities and nation.
It is high time the SLP administration headed by the Prime Minister appreciate that the Red and Yellow Model of representation that they are trying to implement is counter-productive, destructive, and exacerbates even further the existing weaknesses of the Westminister Model. Or perhaps there is the desire to replace the Westminster Model with the Red and Yellow Model?
If the government wants to clamour to transition Saint Lucia into a dictatorship wherein they could declare themselves “government for life”, then perhaps they can proceed to try their luck; however in the meantime the constitution of Saint Lucia fully allows for free and fair elections. In our country Saint Lucians of voting age are free to vote and support the party of their choice. No one should be clobbered over the head or in any way punished and shortchanged by a sitting administration because the party they supported was unsuccessful at the polls. As history would attest, Team Labour has indeed ended up being the Parliamentary Opposition far more times than UWP, so why tread on such dangerous grounds? Let us hope that instead of being blindly partisan, Saint Lucians will take an unequivocal stand against the discriminatory approach to governance that the current government appears to be practicing.
People of this fair land who support the United Workers Party or any political party have a right to do so. The distinction among them is perhaps that some political parties may demand blind loyalty while with others there is no requirement or vows to give servile compliance and deference to politicians. In doing the later, a large section of our electorate has lost sight of what governance is all about. They have abandoned their rightful roles as the overseers of the government’s performance in office.
The deputy Prime Minister’s shocking remark is a case in point. Labourites will not chide him for making this unfortunate comment which may have confused many people. It is the people’s job to recognize that if politicians get comfortable expressing dissent for some of the people ( covertly or overtly ) for whatever reason, then gradually they will become comfortable disregarding their accountability to the nation as a whole, while their personal priorities will take precedence above and before all else.
The scenario and dynamics played out in the House of Parliament on Wednesday was indeed disheartening; yet there lies great hope in the assurance that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time, because they have seen the light.
By Alexis B. Montgomery
Is this the new strategy emanating from the cobwebbed attics of disconnected dysfunctional think tanks? Awa mem!
The best you can do is provide a sentence OUT OF CONTEXT and forge it into a vitriol of gall of your own confabulation.
The no debate event staged by the opposition is the same NEFARIOUS strategy hatched by the ex unionist witch now hoed in sinator.
To NOT engage is a political statement!!!!!
It speaks multi levels of COWARDICE and or WICKEDNESS
The foremost job of a union leader or opposition rep is to PROVIDE a POWERFUL VOICE for the minority.
It was the unwavering voice of a minority of slave abolisonists who led the way for govts to end slavery.
The folks represented by the MUMMIFIED opposition reps are tuly LOSERS of their DEMOCRATIC and CONSTITUTIONAL rights for vigorous representation.
SURRENDER without a fight is a LOSER in any language -in any country.
Montgomery you bestow ca-ca on the great name of the General who outsmarted the Great Desert Fox at El Alamein
The heirs of the Viscount’s estate ought to sue you for associating their heroic name with ABJECT COWARDICE.
To the heirs of the Great General Montgomery who destroyed the more tech mech engineering superiority of Field Marshall Rommel’s Afrika Korps at El Alamein- by outwitting the wittiest, most daring of Wehrmacht generals-
by infusing bravery beyond the call of duty into the hearts and minds of his soldiers-
by his open for all to see valiant leadership-
it behooves your estate to mount a legal crusade againstany further use of the name Montgomery, from persons engaged in “yellow journalism” (like the one that negatively exploited the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor).
Please for all Commonwealth peoples who honor the great name associated with BRAVERY CHARACTER LEADERSHIP-
-sue for a cease order for the above writer whose nom de plume desecrates your family heritage and honor with his vile promotion y of COWARDICE.
You can rest assured that many astute barristers will defend your good name PRO BONO.
SILENCE IN THE COURT!!!
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The conspiracy of silence that was displayed in parliament after the Prime Minister presented the estimates of expenditure brought to clear focus what I have always bemoaned about our politics. That our elected leaders and I use that word advisedly, are no longer about the business of the people but about self aggrandizement, personal ambition, self interest, political one-upmanship, and gamesmanship.
Try as I might to find an excuse for the total abdication of duty and gross disrespect displayed towards the over-taxed taxpayers of this country who pay their salaries I have been nowhere close to something plausible.
While much of the denunciation for the charade that took place in parliament should be attributed to the opposition MPs that does not totally absolve the government MPs. The Prime Minister partially fulfilled his constitutional obligation to present the budget, the parliamentarians did not fulfill theirs to the people whom they took a solemn oath to represent. That oath was not to your party leaders or your party but to the constitution and the people of Saint Lucia.
We understand that there is no set protocol in the house standing orders as it relates to who speaks first in response to the budget address. However, common sense dictates that in a debate with two teams, proposition and opposition, traditionally the proposition opens the debate and the opposition counters. There is no simpler rule.
There was no shortage of points of information in the PM’s address thus offering the opposition ample opportunity to challenge assertions made, question statistics and metrics presented, critique plans, call the government to account for promises unmet, projections that woefully fell short, and so on.
It is obvious to me that this was a pre-planned strategy of both sides to see which side blinked first in this bizarre staring match. What would it have taken for MP Pep or the self appointed stooge to have stood up in support of the budget? Last time I checked the former has not been doing much of anything so he could have in the least waxed gloatingly about the remarkable job the government has done to tame the beasts of runaway deficit and debt, and growing unemployment. He could have praised the miraculous job the Dear Leader has done in turning around the moribund economy, to the extent that there is a chicken in every pot being cooked on the cheapest LPG, and a lap top in every school bag.
Having said that the onus was on the opposition MPs to exploit the same bully pulpit the PM stood on to highlight all that was deficient in the budget and seek to gain all the political points they could muster. Instead they punted. They stayed mute confirming the suspicions of those of us who think at least an inch deep that they were just as effete and hapless as we always suspected them to be.
One very important thing that seemed to have missed many of us is that there were three absences for such an auspicious occasion, two of which were for funerals, which begs the question: Are you representing the living or the dead? If you cannot do anything for the living what, pray tell, can you do for the dead? Mr. King had an opportunity to appear “Churchillian” in contrast to what passes for leadership of his beleaguered party and he muffed it.
That dumb strategy did not inspire any confidence in your party’s supporters; rather it might just have made them finally come to the deflating realization that the country will be a one party state for the foreseeable future.
The UWP has been on a self-destroy mission over the past years. The group of party executives have fumbled the compass and are a lost and abandoned case abiding in the lost world of dinosaurs led by an ignorant mulatto who has lied and made statements declaring the World is flat and the U.S. Civil War was fought over, “Taxation without Representation”.
Any group of retrograde Negroes who would call such an idiot a leader, needs to be on medication. One blogger Mach Beth, gave pictorial evidence of some such psychotic patients being housed at a Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Broadmoore, where certain voices which can be identified as Ezekiel, Gail, Peter, John Wayne, and an unnamed leader of the UWP voicing words of remorse for atrocities committed against the people of St. Lucia when he was an eighteen year old.
I say those things to ask the question: Why are people shocked and surprised at the behavior of a group of “mad” people, known for locking Civil Servants out of their workplace, and discarding the personal items of these workers from Prime Minster Kings’ office, in the Castries River, to satisfy the dictates of this psychotic leader of the Party. I will not expound on the coolie’s open admission of his practice of the Occult, but will allow you to judge for yourselves, the words of one of these insane people with their own speech as evidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzs5ZGGq10s
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Lots of blame to go around for red and yellow alike. This debate format is a waste of time and money anyway. There has been no real debate. Nothing changes as the estimates are already discussed in Committee. Better return to the old format and discuss the policies behind the Estimates
Mr Peter Thomas
I appreciate the extended clarity and balance you brought to the conversation.
SOM
Perhaps the rash of strange local suicides has tilted the pervasive Borderline Syndrome that is a hallmark of their inertia. The corrosive effects are evident in the seams and rivets of their command and control fuselage.
A HAM radio operator uses very gentle tweaking of the dial to establish or align a fix on a distant radio signal or beacon. The manner in which they handled their internal discord was ruthless a la Attila the Hun. They could have brought in a neutral personal image makeover professional to seminar with the pillars of the party so as to magnify their better attributes and sublimate or convert the attributes that jar/disturb the perceived slipstream of party conformity.
Another analogy is the old western stagecoach. A team of horses provide the thrust . However, any average rancher will testify that each horse is as different in temperament, stamina, etc as a fingerprint is to a human hand. A good coach driver uses the bell curve average as a strategy to get the best consistent and long term /range of productivity for the task.
They had their eyes on the prize (by any means necessary- before assessing the enormous responsibility demanded by the roles/job titles they sought. Their greed dictated their appetite. So, in true adolescent form they bit off far more than they could chew.
They chose speed over reliability-the Mustang 5.0 over the Volvo sedan.
Nouveau over consistent maintenance value
The latest curvy /sexy sports car over a Mercedes Benz
The trashing of the two popular Castries mps was unbearable and humilating even for the expected teflon coated skins of seasoned politicians .
If that’s the treatment accorded to WINNERS of constituencies., God forbid the fate of losers!
Is this Montezuma’s Aztec kingdom revisited?
Where the losing soccer team was punished by death decree for the entire team!
Or has this corn colored party been conned by a Jim Jones supreme cultist wanna be- to drink a tainted lemon Fool- Aid beverage?