Imitiation Not Best Form Of Flattery

By Stephen Lester Prescott

OF late, the United Workers Party appears on a mission to simply duplicate Labour. If Labour announces a meeting, so does the UWP. If Labour schedules a launch, so does the UWP. Unfortunately, for Chastanet and company, it isn’t as easy to duplicate Labour’s quality of candidate and leadership. At the candidate level, it is a “no contest.” Can one really compare Dominic Fedee to John Victorin or Jerome Gedeon to Edmund Estephane, or for that matter, Spider Montoute to Emma Hippolyte?

The chasm widens even more at the leadership level. Can one really say Ezichiel Joseph and Alva Baptiste in the same breath? And it is almost a sign of impending insanity to compare Gale Rigobert with the Lion of the East, Philip J. Pierre. Let us never forget that it was Keith Mondesir who publicly stated that Chastanet was not fit to lead a constituency far less a country. With that in mind, how can Chastanet even appear in the same sentence to the tried and tested Kenny D. Anthony?

It was but a few months ago that Chastanet and his UWP announced Peterson Francis as their candidate for Castries Central. They claimed Francis would be victorious at the upcoming polls and that Labour’s Stanley Felix would be sent to his political grave. It did not take long for Chastanet’ s boast to be proved terribly wrong as even the polls undertaken by the UWP showed Stanley Felix ahead in the race by some distance. It soon became time for “Operation Save Face.” No doubt urged on by his Barbadian consultant- known throughout the region as the “brown paper bag man” – Chastanet would prevail on Francis to quit the race. But even that simple task could not be properly undertaken by the inept Chastanet.

In a badly executed Press Conference last week, the UWP announced Francis was exiting the race due to “family concerns”. It did not escape keen political observers that it was UWP Chairman, Guy Mayer’s – yes, he of Operation Restore Confidence notoriety – who would first announce the departure of Francis. Seated next to Mayers was Chastanet who thanked Francis for stepping up when the party needed him.

It was soon time for Francis to say his piece. He was clearly not at ease. He seemed to be someone speaking from a prepared and rehearsed script. It was a pitiful sight! A man who mere days before was informing constituents of his plans to construct several structures on their behalf was now indicating he was leaving because of family concerns. Presumably, these concerns were nonexistent over the past few months.

No doubt wishing the floor would simply open up and swallow him the soon to be ex-candidate announced that he would be supporting his chosen successor. But wait a minute. If family concerns caused him to drop out of the race how could Francis be saying in the same breath that he would be campaigning full time to ensure Sarah Flood-Beaubrun’s election. Clearly, Francis’ departure had more to do to with the whipping the polls predicted he would get than with anything to do family concerns.

Earlier this year, when the incumbent MP for Anse La Raye/Canaries announced to a press conference, his intentions not to contest the upcoming poll, Chastanet’s UWP was quick off the mark suggesting that the MP was forced to make way. The UWP told the public that the fact that the Party Chairman and General Secretary were present was an indication that Dr. Long was speaking under duress. What then to make of the fact that the UWP’s leader, chairman and replacement candidate were also present at the press conference? Unlike Dr. Long who himself announced his impending retirement, it was Guy Mayers and not Peterson Francis who read from a prepared text announcing the departure of Francis?

How is it that Francis was forced through a run-off but his successor was simply installed?

No doubt buoyed by her new position – in a subsequent article I will show Flood-Beaubrun’s two-faced personality – it would not be long before replacement candidate Flood-Beaubrun was back to attacking her favorite target; Kenny Anthony. Curiously, I have long suspected that Kenny Anthony has a story about Sarah Flood Beaubrun but for some unknown reasons, he refuses to tell. In an earlier life, Flood-Beaubrun had accused Anthony of stopping prayers at Cabinet meetings and of encouraging abortion. Though both these allegations were proved entirely untrue, the holier than thou Flood-Beaubrun would not be stopped form taking liberties with the truth. This time she indicated that whilst she was a member of his Cabinet, Prime Minister Anthony had told her she was spending too much time on the mentally challenged. She stated further that the Prime Minister’s rationale was that these people could not vote.

Prime Minister Anthony is clearly a forgiving man for to date he has not publicly responded to the latest untruth spoken by Flood-Beaubrun. Perhaps he knew the very works he had accomplished spoke louder than any rebuttal. After all, was it not Kenny Anthony who insisted on a modern Wellness Centre for the mentally challenged? Was it not under the UWP that the size of the Centre was reduced? Is there a Prime Minister who has championed the cause of the differently-abled as solidly as Kenny Anthony?

What is even more interesting is the fact that notwithstanding what she claimed was Prime Minister Anthony’s lack of empathy for the mentally-challenged Flood-Beaubrun not only contested a succeeding election under his leadership but she also accepted the invitation to serve in Anthony’s second Cabinet of 2001. If as she claimed, that Anthony had done such a dastardly thing, why didn’t the bible-quoting Flood-Beaubrun denounce him and refuse his offer of another Cabinet post?

Having quit ministerial office in 2006, why didn’t Flood-Beaubrun raise the issue in that year’s bye-election? Next came the General Elections, also in 2006, and Sarah Flood-Beaubrun was a prominent platform presence. Why wasn’t Kenny Anthony’s supposed hatred for the mentally challenged made an issue in that election either?

Is it that she only now recalled the alleged incident more than 15 years later? Or, is it that such a discussion never took place?

Is it any wonder that Stanley Felix is now even more confident of victory at the upcoming polls? And why shouldn’t he be? After all, he has as his opponent, not Peterson Francis, who despite his obvious political inexperience was, nonetheless, a likeable individual within the constituency and someone whose family roots run deep in the city, but instead Sarah Flood-Beaubrun, who has shown that her self-preservation is more important than the welfare of her constituents. Who can forget that: Sarah Flood-Beaubrun abandoned Castries Central for New York; Sarah Flood-Beaubrun never kept in touch with them even when her New York stint came to an end more than six years ago; Sarah Flood-Beaubrun who mere months ago was more interested in Micoud South than Castries Central. By the way, why was Sarah Flood Beaubrun so silent during the tenure of the Stephenson King regime? Why?

Poor Sarah! Poor Chastanet! Poor UWP! Now if only their ability to mimic Labour extended to getting the right candidates!