WHO is the ‘Oswald Augustin’ who wrote a Letter to the Editor in The VOICE Newspaper of September 8 that forced the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) to write Police Commissioner Severin Monchery complaining about contents of the said article?
Could it be the General Secretary of the United Workers Party (UWP) who also bears that same name? Or someone else?
The question came up at yesterday’s press conference called by the UWP, which the party’s General Secretary gave a somewhat befuddling response to.
For instance, he cautioned SLP Chairman Party Moses Jn Baptiste about using his name in anything he says or writes.
The Letter to the Editor speaks of a female personality impersonating someone in authority by way of providing misleading information to the nation with the intention of creating fear within the nursing industry in the country.
The article also mentioned the SLP march a week ago and certain information about law enforcement agencies on island. The article, at its end, had in brackets the name ‘Oswald Augustin’.
Jn Baptiste, a few days after publication of the article, at a press conference, penned a letter to the Commissioner of Police in which he asked how was Augustin able to possess information that law enforcement officers had.
“We view Mr. Augustin’s statement as a suggestion that in his attempts at getting after political opponents, he has the benefit of access to the machinery and operation of the police in Saint Lucia,” wrote Jn Baptiste in his letter to the Police Commissioner.
Jn Baptiste also wrote that the statements made by Augustin in the newspaper article were ominous and should be a source of grave concern to the country’s citizens.
Jn Baptiste even called on Monchery to use his office to properly investigate the basis for such bold announcements by Augustin so as to help calm anxieties that such announcements may cause to the citizens who rely on the impartiality of the police force.
The question is again asked: Who is the Oswald Augustin who supposedly penned the article in the newspaper, now that the well-known Oswald Augustin as UWP General Secretary is stopping short of categorically denying he was the author.
At the SLP press conference it was made clear that the Oswald Augustin who authored the letter was indeed the General Secretary of the United Workers Party. However, the Oswald Augustin who is the UWP’s General Secretary yesterday sounded like he was not the one who wrote the newspaper article, stating that there are ‘more than one Oswald Augustins’ in the country.
“He (Jn Baptiste) should first find out how many Oswald Augustins there are in Saint Lucia before he says it (the letter) was written by the General Secretary of the United Workers Party. And I want to caution him, next time he calls or writes my name anywhere, he had better make sure he has facts and knows what he is talking about,” Augustin said.
“Since he (Jn Baptiste) has written a letter to the police, he needs to get his facts straight and find out which Oswald Augustin wrote that article, because the last time I check there were five Oswald Augustins — and one passed away. He has to be careful who he is talking about…”
Unfortunately, despite being pressed by reporters, the UWP General Secretary did not conclusively confirm or refute whether the Oswald Augustin who appeared to have authored the newspaper article was indeed him.
