Not a week has passed in the past year without the Office of the Prime Minister issuing Press Statements attesting to the seriousness of this administration about delivering on its promises and commitments during the July 2021 election campaign and since taking office a month later.
Every meeting of the House of Assembly and Senate since August 2021 has featured discussion on Order Paper subjects delivering on election promises, from health and housing to crime and corruption, from steps towards Food Security to better care for the aged and disabled.
As in any democracy of our type, the opposition will continue to oppose just for opposing sake and making statements on national issues that suggest it was never in office.
The current Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Economic Development and The Youth Economy Philip J. Pierre took office promising to change governance for the better and this administration has indeed delivered, never mind the opposition’s continuing denial that the economy is in fact visibly improving under this administration.
The United Workers Party (UWP) has behaved in the past year like it’s simply refused to accept that it lost the election freely and fairly and has been replaced by the biggest parliamentary majority since 1997, again defeating the then-ruling party in the worst possible way.
With more than a two-thirds majority in parliament (15-2), the current administration can and is doing much that today’s opposition simply can’t prevent or otherwise negatively affect, but continues to oppose loudly — as if just to be heard opposing, if only to maintain its relevance by staying in the headlines, its spokespersons calling for this administration to do, in one year, everything they failed to do between 2016 and 2021.
Of course, this administration has not been taking its cue from the opposition and therefore has not been delivering what the members of the former government are frantically calling for after just one year warming the two opposition benches in parliament.
But it’s certainly been delivering on two major fronts the preceding government didn’t and which the voters of Saint Lucia, at home and abroad, are grateful and thankful for: Fixing The Economy and Putting People First.
Upon assuming office last year, this administration did what the previous one didn’t: devise mechanisms to use the income from energy imports to subsidize, gas, fuel and transport costs for average citizens ravaged by the COVID crisis, the Supply Chain problems, the Ukraine War — and a failing economy.
It’s difficult to think that no one in the previous administration could have thought of anything even near such an approach, but it’s got to do with the opposition party’s historical ideological preoccupation with the old approach of ‘Putting Projects Before People’ – concentrating on costly short-term job-creating infrastructural development projects that benefit preferred contractors more than anyone else.
The opposition embraces the ‘trickle-down’ economic theory that holds that the best way to help the poor is by making the rich richer – as with UK PM Liz Truss’ insistence on not increasing the taxes of the super-rich but raising income taxes.
The British people stoutly rejected that (trickle-down) approach, resulting in Truss being the shortest-serving UK PM and her administration the briefest – ever.
Saint Lucian voters, with the benefit of having lived under four alternating administrations following each of the last four general elections, were in the best position in 2021 to make a sensible choice – and they more than just repeated the trend of simply changing government.
Instead, where the previous three elections ended with the same 11-6 result, the electorate decided last year it had enough of repeating “the same old…” and delivered a stinging 13-4 verdict (already a two-thirds majority) that eventually resulted in the current 15-2 majority – again as a result of an innovative and unprecedented change in approach by the winning party.
Instead of going home with all its marbles and going-it-alone in government, the winning party invited the two victorious independent candidates — one a former Prime Minister and both senior Cabinet Ministers in previous UWP administrations – to join the new ‘inclusive Cabinet’.
Halfway through its first year in office, the current administration had so-well-managed the scarce finances and started to overcome the economic disabilities it had inherited, that international agencies in the business of measuring national economic performance gave the new Labour-led government an early tap-on-the-shoulders for its economic and financial performance, which significantly improved and altered what the national economic performance figures and statistics would have been, without the change of government.
But, unwilling to give ‘Jack his Jacket’ (or ‘Pip his Packet’), the opposition simply claimed the new administration was reaping the benefits of its good financial performance between 2016 and 2021.
But the time has come again for fact-checking and the same international agencies are continuing to heap praise on the current Saint Lucia government for its performance — this time after its first year in office.
The Prime Minister’s Office released the following brief press release on Monday:
“2022 is poised to end on an encouraging note for Saint Lucia.
“The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has indicated that GDP growth for the Caribbean region [excluding Guyana] is forecast at 3.1% in 2022.
“ECLAC has also revised Saint Lucia’s economic projections for 2022.
“GDP growth is on course to move upwards from 8% to 9.5%.
“ECLAC’s revised projections were made public on October 19, 2022.”
ECLAC’s assessments are that Latin America and the Caribbean region will continue to endure unfavourable international conditions in 2023, which could slow economic expansion.
“However,” the press release added, “the Pierre Administration’s strategic fiscal interventions and prudent monetary policies, as evidenced in 2022, is expected to shield Saint Lucia from some of the adverse impact of inflationary pressures and volatility affecting international markets.”
Again, the experts have spoken loudly about the positive performance of the Saint Lucia economy.
Now for the detractions!