Time to Resign! Part 2

IN Part 1 we touched on the character of this current administration’s governance. Today, we look at what it has led to.

Rather than adopting a forthright approach to the identification of solutions for our economic difficulties, this government seems intent on framing every issue in a political light. So that today, we are told that the DSH deal is apparently not so bad because the Labour administration had considered it.

We are told that the Private/Public Partnership (PPP) approach to the Hewanorra Airport redevelopment under the Labour administration was not the best way forward for the Airport, but in the next breath we are told that a PPP approach is the ideal one for operating the OK-EU hospital.

Two years after assuming office and still unable to open the OK-EU, this government chooses to remind us that the Labour administration had similar difficulties. Then we are told that the government cannot find the money required for operation of OK-EU, and that we also cannot afford Universal Health Care. And so this government boasts of engaging an EU consultant to advise it on the PPP for OK-EU.

But one of the steps that this government also took, and one that has affected the opening of OK-EU, was that of termination of the services of Dr. Stephen King following expiry of the first year of a three year contract. Dr. King had been engaged by the Labour administration to assist the Ministry of Health with the modernization of our health services, and according to him “… we’ve defined a package of services, we’ve costed, we’ve identified an approach to how we can finance and we’ve presented this to the government” (stlucianewsonline, July 21, 2017).

Dr. King has been a fixture on St. Lucia’s health landscape for longer than most can remember, and brings a wealth of talent and experience to that sphere. That talent has however been discarded in favour of EU talent, only that now the government tells us that there is no way we can afford OK-EU other than through a PPP with an offshore partner. Where is Dr. King’s report?

But, while this government is intent on its PPP approach, nobody thinks it relevant to explain how this will translate to affordable health care for citizens.

The government assures nurses, however, that while everyone working at Victoria Hospital will have to resign and reapply for employment at OK-EU, no jobs will be lost as those not employed at OK-EU will remain at Victoria.

Ironically, in the same statement that it details why we cannot afford OK-EU, this government tells us that, somehow, we will now be able to afford both OK-EU and Victoria — and St. Jude. On top of which this government has confirmed that it is also going to construct a new hospital next to, or near to the reconstructed St. Jude hospital.

Add to all of that confusion a new EC$5 million health polyclinic for Dennery now about to begin construction, this after having re-opened the Dennery hospital in July 2014 following its World Bank funded EC$2.4 million refurbishment. And add a new EC$10 million hospital proposed for Soufriere.

We have now been subjected to nearly two years of the substitution of this nauseating nonsense for government policy, particularly in the health sector, and to the complete inability of the Prime Minister to instill some sense of direction in his government.

We say direction, not leadership, as leadership is a quality that cannot be remotely associated with our Prime Minister. Obstinate, vacuous, and completely lacking in an agenda for the holistic development of our country may better describe our Prime Minister, who seems satisfied to have put all of his eggs into “the chasing of the tourism dream” basket.

This is coupled with a complete lack of sensitivity for the impact of his proposals on citizens, an insensitivity on display not only at St. Jude, but in the Dolphinarium proposed for our national landmark at Pigeon Island, the proposed DSH Maria Islands disgrace, the proposal to relocate the Cultural Centre, and in the appointment of a new Governor General.

While chasing his tourism dream, however, our Prime Minister has apparently left the management of the country to others and has placed the most important Ministry, that of Economic Development, in the hands of a member of his government who is least qualified, by training or experience, to head that Ministry. The result is that this Minister has spent the last two years demonstrating possibly the only skill that he possesses, that of political machination, a skill that however brings no benefit to the country.

Added to all of this is this government’s penchant for secrecy, and for the dissemination of information that is at the very least misleading. Not only have numerous instances of the latter been recorded in our discussions of the St. Jude hospital reconstruction project, but the recent Budget Address marks the third time in six months that Prime Minister Chastanet has told the country that his Cabinet would shortly be making a decision on the future of this project, seemingly oblivious of the fact that his Minister of Economic Development has twice previously confirmed that his government would be constructing a new hospital.

And the Prime Minister should reconcile his government’s claim that the economy is on the path to recovery, (stlucianewsonline, March 14, 2018), with the Social and Economic Review’s statement that the country’s fiscal performance deteriorated in the last year, 2017 (pg. 53), and he should explain how that recovery is to be sustained.

Within two years of the life of this administration the country has learnt that it cannot trust its Government, and it is on this sword that the Prime Minister must fall.

It is time for Prime Minister Chastanet to resign.

This is however not a call for a change of government, as we remain faced with the question of “Who we go put?” (David Prescod)

Next week: “Who we go put!”