THE EDITOR:
I recently listened to the rape debate on RCI’s News Spin during the week and I must say, it has left me to wonder whether there is any ounce of hope for progress in this nation of ours.
While I understand the argument of host Timothy Poleon to call on “the powers that be” to issue statements or to condemn the heinous act of the recent rape of a British woman at Case n bas and a local woman at Mongiraud, I cannot help but ask, why?
Now, don’t get me wrong – in no way am I in agreement with one of his callers whose argument was to defend the Minister of Health or the Prime Minister. I am not saying that you should not call upon “the powers that be.”
What I am asking is ‘WHY?’
You see, we have always been calling upon them to speak out or do something about our crime situation. The Opposition party or parties do it. NGOs do it. Citizens do it. Talk show hosts do it. Most of us do it and within our right to do so. After all, we did elect them into office to do something about it, no? Is that not one of the reasons we elect politicians into government – to deal with the myriad of problems affecting society – to find solutions to some of our biggest problems?
But you see, I am beyond that argument and I think I speak for not only for myself but many of the young critical thinking Saint Lucians when I say, I am beyond that argument. I have gotten to a point when I don’t even want to call on “the powers that be” to issue statements or condemn an act.
What can that do for me? When a statement is issued or a minister condemns an act of crime, how has that solve the problem? I do not want to hear anymore rumblings about calling on that minister or that person in authority to speak out on an issue – what I would like to see is ACTION.
We are past talking. In fact, there is too much talking and NO action. We allow ourselves to let these responsible people in authority get off the hook too fast with just a statement.
How will a statement prevent a rapist from committing the crime again? These criminals are now more organized and intelligent. Think about it, if you are a criminal and you committed a crime and no one has been able to catch you – the police are still operating with constraints and limited resources – CCTVs are still down – no finger print database exists – crime lab is still closed – and all you hear is a statement to condemn your crime, wouldn’t that make you more confident to commit yet another crime knowing the chances are still high for you to get away with it? Knowing that all that will happen after is the issuing of a statement and public reaction? Then a few days later, there is no more talk and people are back to normal.
I tell you without a doubt that if all that keeps on happening is ‘TALK’ and no ‘ACTION’ crime will continue because criminals will always know that nothing will come out of the talk. WHY?
Because we have some people in authority who, for whatever reason, cannot do their jobs. They are not the “action” type of people. They are lackadaisical and a waste of the state’s money when we could have hired the right people to do the job.
Saint Lucians need to fire these people. Enough talk. We need ACTION, ACTION, ACTION. So I don’t want to hear people say call on “the powers that be” to speak out. We are tired of hearing talk with no action.
We just need to see things are done. We expect that they will speak less and do more. If they don’t then we need to fire them and hire people who are more capable.
This is why I think a Prime Minister should not appoint Parliamentarians as ministers. parliamentarians should be given a salary to manage their constituency. That should be their focus and aim. A Prime Minister should appoint qualified people to lead the various ministries and if after a year or two they cannot get the job done, they should be fired and replaced. But that topic is for another show.
— McKinley Joseph