Letters & Opinion

All Saint Lucians have a right to express their views freely

THE EDITOR: I supported the UWP in the last election, but I have also worked with Rayneau Gajadhar for a long time and I know the real truth and the lies that are being told about him. I will therefore not have my party’s general secretary (or whatever new position he has now) to just come out and attack Mr Gajadhar in public just like that and accuse him of accusing our government of causing the crimes happening in the country.

Mr Rayneau is as much a Saint Lucian as Mr Augustin and he has as much right as any other Saint Lucian to express his views too like Mr Augustin. Mr Rayneau was asked a question by a news reporter and he answered it, so what’s wrong with that?

From what I saw and heard myself at the UWP convention and on my TV, Mr Augustin wasted people’s time while he was looking for a piece of paper with something about Mr Rayneau, that he just could not find. Was it a dirty piece of paper with mud about Mr Rayneau? We will never know, but whatever it was, why is Mr Augustin attacking Mr Rayneau and declaring him an enemy of the government just because he spoke his view?

Mr Augustin may have made more millions much quicker in customs brokerage than Mr Rayneau has made in construction, but that does not give him the right, as a businessman, to declare political war against another successful businessman.

The fact is that from what I can see, Mr Rayneau employs more Saint Lucians than Mr Augustin and pays more taxes than Mr Augustin and his companies contributions to Saint Lucia’s development is much more than Mr Augutin’s own.

Tell me: What has Mr Augustin done for Saint Lucia? Does he help schools and contribute to causes like Mr Rayneau? Does he know that it is the same Mr Rayneau who rebuilt and repainted the recommissioned Central Police Station on Bridge Street FOR FREE? Does he know how many schools Mr Rayneau has repainted FOR FREE? Tell him to go to the Methodist School on Darling Road and he will see what Mr Rayneau is doing there right now, again FOR FREE. Tell him to go and see the Camille Henry and Carmen Renee Schools in Castries and see how Mr Rayneau painted them, more than once, FOR FREE. Tell him to go to the Red Cross building at Vigie and see what Mr Rayneau has done there, again FOR FREE.

Again I ask, what can Mr Augustin show me and other UWP supporters that he has done to give free help to places and people in need?

Mr Augustin may not be able to survive without Massy Stores and the Hess Oil/Buckeye BUSINESS arrangements he enjoys exclusively, but Mr Rayneau has demonstrated that he can survive under any administration, UWP or SLP.

Mr Augustin criticizes Mr Rayneau for what he got paid for the work he did with the US Army Corps of Engineers on the Bois d’Orange Bridge and even mentioned the unfortunate death of a driver on that project. But what has he got to say about the over $900,000 that a UWP contractor charged to do an investigation at St Jude Hospital that concluded with a report that was not even worth one dollar?

Ironically, Mr Augustin seems to have conveniently forgotten that when the UWP administration wanted to build nine roads in one week at Cap Estate for the 2011 general elections, it was the same Mr Rayneau that was contracted – and he delivered.

Mr Augustin was lucky enough to inherit his mother’s shipping brokerage company, which she worked hard to build. He has also supported the SLP and the PLP against the UWP and was an election candidate for GeogeOdlum and the PLP against the UWP. Now he is more of a UWP than Sir John Compton’s daughter.

On the other hand, Mr Rayneau left school and sold ice cream to get where he is today. He did not inherit his mother or father’s business and he has no political God Fathers in the local business community. Instead, UWP and SLP governments and business people all know that Mr Rayneau is reliant and can deliver on time and in full, all the time.

Mr Augustin likes to talk out loud, but when it comes to standing up for himself and defending his name, he claims he is not the only one to have that name. However, Mr Rayneau has only one name — and he stands by it, come what may.

My final point, however, is that Mr Augustin revealed to me just how low he can go when he lifted his veil and let everyone know who he was talking about, when he accused the person of “storing explosives” where workers are working.

Mr Augustin knows very well that this case is a complicated one involving law and insurance and affecting many victims’ families, yet he proceeds to make reckless references about a matter under investigation.

I hope that Saint Lucians and fellow party members have now seen and heard how Mr Augustin thinks and acts. If this is his thought process, as a senior member of the leadership of our party, and he has influence over government policy, then I can only say that I, as a UWP supporter, am starting to see no hope in the future.

I can only hope that Mr Augustin sees the real light of the flambeau and stop behaving like he is still a member of the PLP getting ready to contest Castries North against Stephenson King again (Yellow Man)

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