News, Politics

SLP Down But Not Out

Secretary Says Party Can Hold Its Head High

THE St. Lucia Labour Party may be down but it certainly is not out, said its General Secretary, Leo Clarke Thursday.

According to Clarke the St. Lucia Labour Party can hold its head high on demitting office because it fulfilled the task it was given from 2011 – 2016 which was to stabilize the country.

“The reputation of St. Lucia has been re-established overseas,” he said, adding that persons were beginning to show a high interest in investing in St. Lucia.

Clarke referred to the SLP and the UWP (United Workers Party) as institutions with large followings in the country that cannot simply disappear because of an electoral defeat.

The Labour Party lost last Monday’s general elections 6 – 11 to a United Workers Party led by hotelier, Allen Chastanet, who led the party into an election for the first time.

The margin of victory for the six Labour candidates, some of the seats won considered to be Labour strongholds were much smaller when compared to the 2011 general elections, an example being the Vieux Fort South seat which the party’s leader, Dr. Kenny Anthony won on Monday by just 240 votes after the preliminary count, compared to 2011 when he won by 1,241 votes.

On the issue of alleged vote buying that emerged during the June 6 election Clarke said that it did not really play a part in his party’s loss.

“The St. Lucia Labour Party does not, as a practice, buy votes. But there was visible trading going on between UWP operatives and some members of the public. We were dealing with an electorate that wanted to get rid of the SLP. That was not achieved by the purchasing of votes,” Clarke said.

He disagreed with those who claimed that the national swing towards the UWP was a nation frustrated with Dr. Kenny Anthony as its leader. He believes that mood of the people last Monday was a reflection of a national dissatisfaction of both the party and its leader.

Clarke, however still holds great admiration for Dr. Anthony saying that the former Prime Minister is still capable of providing leadership to St. Lucia as he did from 1997 – 2006 and in 2011 – 2016.

He believes that the former Prime Minister managed the business of the country with skill and attracted goodwill to the country.

“I hope this new government will not squander that good will,” Clarke said.

Regarding the decision by Dr. Anthony to resign from the post of political leader Clarke said that this was not surprising since Dr. Anthony would not have remained in the position long if he had won the election.

“Having lost there was no need to delay it,” Clarke said.

The party was expected to receive Dr. Anthony’s formal resignation Thursday afternoon and according to its constitution meet within seven days of receiving the resignation to appoint the deputy political leader as leader until convention time when every position on the executive will be up for grabs.

Micah George is an established name in the journalism landscape in St. Lucia. He started his journalism tutelage under the critical eye of the Star Newspaper Publisher and well known journalist, Rick Wayne, as a freelancer. A few months later he moved to the Voice Newspaper under the guidance of the paper’s recognized editor, Guy Ellis in 1988.

Since then he has remained with the Voice Newspaper, progressing from a cub reporter covering court cases and the police to a senior journalist with a focus on parliamentary issues, government and politics. Read full bio...

2 Comments

  1. I am a proud Labour supporter.Thank you Dr Anthony for making the hard discussions. It cost you the elections but you still have your dignity and pride. Thanks for the lap tops, the bursaries for teachers and students. The NICE, SMILES and STEP programs. You had the VOICE against you , the media against you, the police and teachers against you…but the whole Caribbean and the world respect you. I fear for the future of my country and I will continue to be a watchdog against any form of corruption in the land of my birth.

  2. This SLP Ostrich has only its tail in the air as any indication of its existence. It may be lame-brained, pea-brained and for that matter, brain dead too.

    When an officer of the SLP suggests that leadership was shown only in the years that a PM held that title, you know that the paucity of intelligence betrayed by such mental geriatric statements is what has the SLP today, in such deep doo-doo.

    When supposedly key persons in the hierarchy of any organization do NOT KNOW that leadership is NOT A TITLE, but a displayed set of behaviours, then you know that their capacity to make critically logical decisions is way down in the latrine.

    When supposedly key persons at the top of an organization have no inkling what leadership is, then the dictator as the product of our hand-me-down governmental system has such kowtowing supine, spineless stooges as pure putty in their hands.

    Leadership is displayed or exercised whether or not someone has a title, or one holds a formal position in a group or organization. Why?

    There is formal leadership (from the structural titles), and informal leadership (like Dr. Fletcher had from his technical knowledge and skill sets) outside his ministry. In fact that is what gave him the sense of presence that ordinary Saint Lucians could not even appreciate. Much more than this, a title or just giving one a position or just throwing on a person’s shoulder the mantle of leadership, with a tittle of leadership does NOT in itself convey wisdom, capacity, nor ability to lead, as was more than demonstrably and disastrously shown in the last 4.5 years! The spate of crime, business closures, suicides, and growth of a ghettos like Grave Yard, Bois Patat, Egard, Bruceville and Grass Street bear ample testimony to this.

    We are free to bury our heads in the sand, if we will on these.

    The PM was obviously out of his depth most of the time. The decisions made were way above his head. again, most of the time. Unfair and unjust, the details of VAT, and the CIP attest to this.

    Always at the deep end, the marshaling the minimal technical capabilities required for Frenwell, Black Bay, Grynburg, were glaringly absent. The number of zeros in the billion dollar budgets presented, appears to have confounded even the technocrats in the Ministry of Finance. Up to now, a past law lecturer does not know what are the loopholes to be blocked with due diligence language, when designing an international contract. A product of UWI Law School, that is classic folly!

    Anyone who has lived abroad under the British system of government would know, that those taking over the Ministry of Finance today, had better seek technical assistance from either Canada or Australia. The amateurs in that ministry today, cleverly insert numbers into budgets, but have no clue as to how to run this vitally functional area of government in this, the 21st century.

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