PRIME Minister Anthony appears in recent weeks to have embarked on a public relations exercise to shore up the image of himself and his government.
Dr. Anthony has been quite prolific with public statements congratulating local sports, education and cultural achievers. He has also taken the lead in touting even such modest successes like the 52 jobs recently secured in the cruise ship sector at a time when providing employment for the people continues to be a major headache for his government.
While the Prime Minister is out front accentuating the positives, however, issues that are in dire need of the attention of his government are escalating and threatening to get out of control, the biggest being the running stalemate in the Police Force.
The Police Welfare Association this week had its say on the prolonged leave of absence of Commissioner Vernon Francois and the effect it claimed this was having on the morale of the police rank and file. It also became evident that there was the potential for tension between the Association and the acting Commissioner as a consequence of Francois’ absence from his post. This situation has been festering for the past four months, ever since the Prime Minister’s March address to the nation on the IMPACS investigation into allegations of unlawful killings by policemen.
Since then, despite the unsubstantiated claims of IMPACS—we say this because we have heard nothing to the contrary—Commissioner Francois appears to have been singled out for attention, in fact punishment, even in the absence of any form of due process. Francois himself has on many occasions maintained his innocence and has actually challenged the authorities to come out and present the evidence they have against him.
There has been no movement that we know of from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in whose lap the Prime Minister apparently dumped the IMPACS report while delivering his March address, in terms of filing charges against the allegedly rogue cops in the Police Force said to have been highlighted in the IMPACS Report.
But we repeat that this has been a four-month-old sore and the police force that is our society’s only defence against crime and lawlessness finds itself being destabilized by government inaction. But maybe we and the rest of the St Lucian society are a little over-anxious about all this. Look how long it took the former Chief Fire Officer to be terminated and after a government-appointed Commission of Inquiry at that.
The government must understand that in any assessment of its stewardship by the public, the manner in which it deals with this and other issues, will be thrown into the mix. At the moment, its handling of the matter of the Commissioner of Police and the IMPACS report leaves a lot to be desired and is doing great harm to the government’s image.