DEAR EDITOR:
WHAT is it about the people of St. Lucia? Are we all fools, cynics, morons or clowns?
I have watched the debate over St. Jude Hospital these past few months in amazement and have come to the conclusion that there is something seriously wrong with the thinking processes of our people. We are exposed to the outside world via the media (especially television) but we learn nothing. In fact, we have become ignorant to the max, unable to discern even right from wrong, or so it seems. We don’t seem to understand the written or spoken word and can’t even pass judgment even when the facts are in front of us.
I say so looking at the debate over St. Jude Hospital. Any fool can see that there is a matter of accountability here that must be addressed and answered and it is the responsibility of the Kenny Anthony government of 2011 to 2016 to answer by virtue of the fact that they not only had oversight of this project for an entire term of five years, but also that they left the hospital in the mess it is currently in.
Instead of being called to account, the same Labour Party with the same Dr. Kenny Anthony in tow are going about threatening people with wrath and anger if the hospital is not completed. We are getting this Labour Party reaction even in the face of professional advice that the present structure built by them to accommodate St. Jude simply will not do. We are being threatened with this unrest even in the face of the conclusion that having spent over $100 million on this failed structure that we need as much to correct its flaws.
The grandstanding by the Labour Party is a massive insult to the intelligence (?) of St. Lucians because they should be explaining to us what really went wrong with this project. They are being allowed to take the high ground and assume the leadership role in agitating for a conclusion on the hospital while in the process totally absolving themselves from any responsibility. What a masquerade and we, the people, we dumb people, are allowing them to get away with it and want to blame someone else.
The people of St. Lucia who claim to be “concerned” have not seen the need to call on Dr. Anthony and his party to account. The media of St. Lucia has not seen it fitting to call on them to account because, traditionally, the media and the people have been afraid of crossing Dr. Anthony and the Labour Party. The VOICE that claims to be the leading newspaper in the country has suddenly lost that leadership role and has failed to challenge the Labour Party and Dr. Anthony to account for St. Jude.
The Labour Party has a reputation for massive wastage of public funds and we see it again in the St. Jude debacle. How many St. Lucians remember the famous Soufriere to Vieux Fort road that cost three times more than originally budgeted for under Dr. Anthony’s party? The matter was the subject of a Commission of Inquiry conducted by Fenton Ramsahoye which determined that there was serious maladministration on this project. In the end, there was no accountability.
We are still waiting to get an accounting on the Grynberg matter that has already cost the country some big money. There was no accounting on the Juffali matter. No accounting of the funds that were allocated to the National Conservation Authority (NCA) during the Labour Party’s term. That was the subject of another inquiry that unearthed corruption under the SLP. We also had the Rochamel scandal.
And on top of all this, we have these people parading up and down the country as paragons of virtue and good governance and the party in power is too weak to expose them for the liars that they are.
Dr. Anthony now seems bold enough to show his face in the company of the so- called Concerned Citizens of Vieux Fort who were obviously asleep for the 20 years that he has been representing them, producing nothing for the town that has now died. Where will this hypocrisy end?
I believe that Dr. Anthony and his party must be fully exposed for the mess that they left the country in with everything broken down, failure to grow the economy in three successive years, the record unemployment etc. Yet, he and his Ministers were paid to make conditions better for the people.
At a press conference last week, the current Prime Minister said he really had no interest in telling St. Lucians about the mess he inherited from the Labour Party of Dr. Anthony. Immediately, we see here two very different personalities. Would Dr. Anthony ever make a statement like that? I think he would have been absolutely ruthless in hounding down the government he replaced.
Dr. Anthony was not only a political failure. He and his party destroyed our country and it is time he be made to account for that.
–William Cheddy Prospere
Mr prospere i must take issue with you on counts: Dr Anthony made no threat if the hospital was not completed. He made his remake in relation to the hospital being taken down as Guy Joseph, Chastanet and Isaac are threatening to do.
The second point is the figure you quoted is a UWP figure which quotes. Others quote a much lower figure (at least £20mil less).
You are dealing with a country not anyone’s private estate. So be fair and nonpartisan. That’s a surer for a better future than this partial support.
Really it us people like you who encourages Kenny to make us look as fools. Two days before Dr Kenny made threats, at the conference in VFort, about the demolishing of St Jude, PM Chastanet made it categorical clear that the hospital will not be demolished. So the reporter is absolutely correct. He us right about everything. Kenny treated VFortians as monkeys and we are still making excuse for him. He need to tell us, why wasn’t the hospital completed after spending over $100 million dollars according to his own admission.