Last week, another utterly bizarre statement was issued from the office of Prime Minister Philip Pierre.
It is becoming increasingly clear that just as he did before and during the 2021 general election campaign, it is the Prime Minister’s intention to continue to lie and misinform right through his party’s term in office instead of spending time devising a strategy to deliver to the people a better Saint Lucia than the one he inherited last July.
Mr. Pierre does not understand that in the eight months in which his Labour Party has been in office, Saint Lucians and indeed the rest of the world have come to see him and his government for what they truly are: a bunch of misfits, tall on talk and bravado, but with no discernible talent that can be put to positive use for the development of Saint Lucia.
In eight months in office, Mr. Pierre and the SLP have not announced a single major economic or social initiative that has the potential of taking Saint Lucia and its people forward. He claims that poor decisions by former Prime Minister Allen Chastanet resulted in a 24 percent decline in the economy. He also returns to his old bogeyman: the borrowing profile of the Chastanet government between 2016 and 2021, instead of coming up with a coherent plan to place Saint Lucia on a better footing.
But how does Mr. Pierre forget so quickly that he and his party were in power for five of these months in 2021, during which they not only did absolutely nothing to help improve Saint Lucia’s economic and social standing, they actually did many things to cause regression in both areas: stopping a number of projects (the Hewanorra Airport, St Jude Hospital, the Rodney Bay Road, the housing etc. among them) that were bound to boost the economy and provide jobs for our people. In fact, we all know that Saint Lucia lost hundreds of jobs because of these reckless acts by Mr. Pierre and his government. Having wasted five months and taken these negative decisions, didn’t Mr. Pierre expect the economy to decline?
We repeat, in those five months, there was not a single intervention by Mr. Pierre’s government that Saint Lucians could have looked to and said, yes, the Labour Party is on the ball. All we had was a series of minor give-aways that benefitted selected small sections of the population, mainly supporters of his party. Yet, Mr. Pierre in his press statement under discussion had the gall to state:
“Over the last eight months, Saint Lucians have seen the rollout of socio-economic policies which have ameliorated the lives of thousands of people, especially the poor and the marginalized. The country has witnessed a reprioritization of expenditure with a focus on educational assistance, housing repair, diversification of agricultural produce, income support for bus drivers, training and financing for businesses, and the creation of a relatively safe environment for citizens during COVID-19”.
Really? The last claim by Mr. Pierre about creating a “safe environment” for COVID-19 is the most laughable and another example of his love affair with telling untruths. Is the Prime Minister serious? A simple check would reveal to him how ludicrous his statement is. This is the Prime Minister under whose watch more than 300 Saint Lucians died from Covid 19 and another 20,000 contracted the virus over a period of just five months. These figures were more than 10 times what obtained under the United Workers Party over nearly two years.
But really, does Mr. Pierre honestly believe that these little plasters will do anything significant for economic development? Further, we challenge Mr. Pierre to produce the figures to indicate the “thousands of people” he claims benefitted from these measures. It’s all another blatant lie and he knows it.
It is Mr. Pierre who is being “disingenuous” and “irresponsible” (words he used to describe Allen Chastanet) when he chooses to discuss Saint Lucia’s debt situation, but fails to tell us that $300 million of our debt was negotiated at half a percent interest with a 10 year moratorium, and a 40 year payback period; that that money was used in large part to pay salaries and operating costs of government and to meet budgetary shortfalls as a result of significant declines in revenue caused by COVID-19.
Compare the performance of the Chastanet government with that of the last Labour Party government of which Mr. Pierre was part. When it left office in 2016, in spite of functioning in good economic times, Mr. Pierre’s Labour Party caused Saint Lucia to record successive years of negative economic growth, with the highest unemployment levels of all time and a heavy debt burden not to mention a number of the island’s important sectors and institutions in disarray through neglect.
All Saint Lucians know that at the time COVID- 19 hit, Saint Lucia was well on the way to fulfilling Mr. Chastanet’s promise to turn around the country’s fortunes in three years after the SLP’s dismal 2011-16 performance.
CREDIT RATINGS
One month before the 2021 election, Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services Limited (CariCRIS) reaffirmed the assigned ratings of CariBBB- to the several debt programmes of the Chastanet government, indicating that the level of creditworthiness of Saint Lucia’s debt obligations, adjudged in relation to other debt obligations in the Caribbean, was “adequate”. CariCRIS has also maintained a “stable” outlook on Saint Lucia’s ratings, which it said was premised on its expectation of “strong construction activity and a partial recovery in tourism in 2021, and that debt to GDP would not breach the current rating category’s limit”.
Furthermore, CariCRIS said, it expected that Saint Lucia’s debt to GDP would plateau with borrowings for the Hewanorra International Airport’s redevelopment but would thereafter decline as: (i) COVID-19’s negative fiscal impacts began to taper off, (ii) GDP improvements led to better fiscal performance and (iii) fiscal consolidation towards achievement of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union’s (ECCU) debt to GDP target of 60% by 2035 was pursued.
Said CariCRIS: “The ratings on Saint Lucia continue to reflect: (1) its monetary and exchange rate stability underpinned by membership in a quasi-currency board arrangement, (2) sound financial sector despite COVID-19 challenges, and (3) economic activity is broad-based although dependent on COVID-ravaged tourism; moderate GDP strengthening is expected in coming years”.
So let Mr. Pierre continue to lie and distort things. Let him hope for an improvement in the Saint Lucia economy without putting in the work that will make this possible. The thing about Mr. Pierre is that he now heads a political party that has been voted into government on five occasions since 1964 (the year the UWP was formed) and has never been able to advance the cause of Saint Lucia’s development.
Labour has been a dismal failure. It has however been fortunate on each occasion to inherit projects and programmes left over by UWP administrations to piggy back on and make it look like it was doing something. In fact, this is the case at this very moment. We challenge Mr. Pierre and his rag tag band of political misfits to identify their achievements on behalf of Saint Lucia during the years they were in power. All they have done over the years is to bluff the people with grandiose promises and spout nice-sounding slogans that remained unfulfilled.
One year, it was a “Contract of Faith” that they repeatedly broke. Then there was commitment to transparency and accountability when they refused to investigate wrong-doing within their ranks. Next came a promise of “better days” that instead were “bitter days” and a promise of “jobs, jobs, jobs” that resulted in our highest rate of unemployment ever. Last election, they promised to put Saint Lucians first. We wait to see how this pans out.
The truth is that the Labour Party has never had any ideas about developing Saint Lucia. It has never had a plan or vision, All it ever had was some loud mouthed pretenders from its leadership down. It is no secret that both Mr. Pierre and his predecessor now enjoy the distinction of representing the two most neglected and backward constituencies in Saint Lucia, Castries East and Vieux Fort South (in each case, after five terms or 25 years). That is the kind of performance Labour is now famous for. Contrast that with the United Workers Party and how it was able to transform places like Soufriere, Choiseul, Castries South East and Micoud and Anse la Raye and Canaries, all within five years.
So it does not surprise us that Mr. Pierre has chosen lies over truth in his quest to lead Saint Lucia. He promised us money in our pockets should he win the 2021 election. It was a lie. We have received nothing. He promised that his would have been a government for all the people. Another lie. He promised there would be no victimization, but now there is both victimization and repression. More lies. He pretends to be an anti-corruption and anti-crime crusader. Really, Mr Pierre? Are we supposed to believe that lie as well?
Long before he became Prime Minister, the consensus among Saint Lucians, even many in his own party, was that Mr. Pierre was not Prime Minister material. Inept, immature and usually incoherent, he however landed in the Prime Minister’s chair so we are stuck with him, maybe for five years.
It is time for Mr. Pierre to grow up and assume the responsibilities that go with his office and the massive mandate that he often boasts about but cannot seem to transform into benefits for our people. It is time to get down to work, Sir, and stop bellyaching about the UWP that is no longer in power. It’s your baby now. Time to show slate.