The 2021 general elections is now ninety days of age and as of November 30th the public should have a fair idea in which direction the nation is heading. The Pierre administration will then appreciate the dilemma of running a country with a fifty percent revenue shortfall based on the Covid 19 presence. The SLP in opposition hounded the UWP administration for borrowing and endeavouring to keep the economy afloat with infrastructural works, indirectly putting St Lucians to work. The UWP were able to negotiate several loans for forty-year periods at half of one percent to keep the home fires burning. Mr. Pierre on the other hand has recently been on TV receiving a handout of US $600,000 from the Taiwan Government and literally pleading for another one million if possible.
This behaviour was distasteful and degrading for any Prime Minister to stoop to such a level, but it clearly displayed the cluelessness of the individual. The current Prime Minister keeps highlighting the state’s debt situation making it appear that the former administration is totally responsible when he has been a member of parliament for twenty five years. He should be well aware of the borrowings over the past twenty five years and the two factors which stand out clearly are the fourteen percent increase for the CSA workers which the SLP pushed and endorsed while in opposition against the Stephenson King administration and by 2015 the SLP leader advised the nation that St Lucia did not qualify for any further borrowings. Is it because the nation was debt free or over indebted?
St Lucia, like all Caribbean nations, will continue borrowing for many years until all administrations clearly understand that the number of civil servants employed is far too many for the present revenue of the state. The former PM realized the predicament and made a concerted effort to grow the economy to neutralize the situation, but the myopic vision of the opposition fed their misunderstanding propaganda to the underprivilege who went along with the nonsense.
If a situation has not been working for fifty years, how will it change if the structure is not addressed and therein lies the difficulty for the region. With major changes created by Covid 19, we need an administration with foresight, determination and resilience to make those changes as pandering to our young men on the block is no longer an option, neither is sympathizing with teenage girls bearing children and not being unable to raise those infants in a meaningful manner.
Any administration which undertakes their responsibilities seriously must address those concerns in a like manner and put aside the political pandering like putting people first without the meaningful input of the individuals. Various administrations have been taken to task over the years for the escalating criminal activities and soaring number of homicides, yet the problem remains consistent. Poor education and the failure of successive administrations to grow the economy and create jobs remains the preliminary factors. We now take the opportunity of including in our article a script presented in 1933 for our readers to compare what the former Prime Minister attempted to accomplish, and we quote: –
“The first 100 days of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency began on March 4, 1933, the day Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd president of the United States. He had signaled his intention to move with unprecedented speed to address the problems facing the nation in his inaugural address, declaring: “I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require.” Roosevelt’s specific priorities at the outset of his presidency were getting Americans back to work, protecting their savings and creating prosperity, providing relief for the sick and elderly, and getting industry and agriculture back on their feet.”