A recent article by an acclaimed local author of Vieux Fort pedigree offers an interesting disclosure and assessment of persons who may be interested in offering themselves as possible candidates for the Vieux Fort South constituency – for both major parties – in the next General Elections, officially two years away.
The article is a colourful quilted couture of facts and mythical fictions, threaded with supposition and speculation based on hearsay, a couple of which I will identify.
The article claims, for example, local laws were changed to accommodate Dr Kenny D. Anthony becoming a Senator and serving as Minister of Education after the SLP’s 1979 victory.
The article also claims that, ahead of the 2016 General Elections the SLP lost under his leadership, the then-Prime Minister side-lined then-Deputy SLP Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre as his chosen successor, in favour of then-Castries South candidate Dr Ernest Hilaire.
But it’s wrong on both counts: Dr Anthony came-of-age (qualified to be legally appointed a senator) before the law was amended; and Dr Hilaire, in his first local press interview after winning the Castries South seat, said he and Dr Anthony had “never, ever” discussed succession.
The article infers a supposed bruised relationship between Dr Anthony and Prime Minister Pierre.
It also claims the Labour Party’s loss of the 2016 was like the-best-thing that could have happened for the Castries East MP Philip J. Pierre to become Leader (back then) and Prime Minister (now).
But one cannot reasonably tie the SLP’s loss to the Castries East MP’s gain – and equally disingenuous to suppose anyone else was a more-worthy contender for the position he already solely qualified for.
Nor can anyone ignore that his own popularity and astute political craftiness would also have contributed to Philip J. Pierre’s equally-successful quarter-century record as one of Saint Lucia’s two longest-lasting elected MPs today.
His haughty critics still refer to the Prime Minister as ‘The Little Black Boy from Marchand’ – even though he actually lives in Water Works Road in Castries-North and cannot vote for himself.
They simply refuse to accept that this Prime Minister patiently built his political longevity from scratch, over-25 years ago — or his and Dr Anthony’s overall contributions, as Party Leaders and Prime Ministers (both and each) — to Saint Lucia’s contemporary political history.
Dr Anthony led the SLP to inflict the UWP’s worst defeat ever, winning 16 of the 17 seats; and Philip J. Pierre led the party into the second-worst UWP defeat (13-4) in 2021.
The 2021 margin almost-overnight metamorphosed into a readymade Labour-led 15-2 parliamentary majority, through a process some political scientists are still trying to understand, while pretenders still try to wish-it-away.
The article claims Dr Anthony singlehandedly changed the SLP’s constitution to do-away with Term Limits to ensure he could continue serving as Prime Minister – which, if the writer truly believes, will defeat the claim that the MP is about to throw-in the white towel, two-years-early.
Equally interesting is the village nationalism espoused, suggesting only someone born in Vieux Fort can give the constituency its best parliamentary representation – a yardstick, if used, will defeat the fact that Sir John Compton was one of Saint Lucia’s best prime ministers.
Nor does it help that the writer’s yardstick measures qualifications for candidacy along the lines of university degrees.
The writer also seems not to yet appreciate the function of a ‘Backbencher’ in the Westminster parliamentary system Saint Lucia inherited and still employs.
The article mistakenly suggests the wise counsel offered by the former Prime Minister and constitutional lawyer to his colleagues on both sides in the House of Assembly – based on his four terms as Chairman of Saint Lucia’s Cabinet of Ministers, as a former General Counsel to the CARICOM Secretariat in Guyana and as a former Head of a UWI law school in Barbados — is somehow negative.
Dr Anthony’s patented objectors conveniently mis-understand and selectively reject the positive role of a Backbencher — even around a horseshoe table like ours, with no ‘back row’.
The two past-and-present PMs continue to confuse their opponents, who are still speculating as to why the former isn’t in the latter’s Cabinet of Ministers, or why the Vieux Fort South MP would accept appointment as Deputy Speaker.
Instead of acknowledging why such quiet and unprecedented accomplishments should be appreciated at home and abroad, the usual naysayers continue to say ‘nay’ where everyone-else (sees and says) ‘yea’.
But I will apply a broad brush and rule-out the positive benefit of this early indication of just-how-wide the floodgates may be for potential candidates for the Vieux Fort South seat.
Dr Anthony and Prime Minister Pierre will be neither amused nor amazed by this latest crystal ball analysis of their political futures.
But Prime Minister Pierre will be even-more-amused that so-many of the crystal-ballers who wrote-him-off so-long-ago still continue to blind themselves to the crystal-clear fact everyone else sees – that the Castries East MP continues to weave an unchallenged reputation as what I predicted (before 2021) would be ‘The best Prime Minister Saint Lucia never had’.
The article compares the two politicians, instead of exploring their unique historical complementarity and what it meant to the SLP’s amazing political successes at the polls in 1979, 1997 and 2021.
Unable to mobilize effectively on-the-ground, the usual online partisan suspects have shifted to more sophisticated razzle-and-dazzle, complete with light-studio smoking mirrors, to belabour anti-Labour points that always fizzle-away with every new set of government announcements of projects Putting People First.
The SLP and this Government of Saint Lucia, under Philip J. Pierre’s joint leadership and with Dr Anthony as a front-seated backbencher in this parliament, continue to set unprecedented regional records for delivery of election promises.
But truth, like science, remains true – whether you believe it or not – an inevitability the eternal cynics and critics will eventually come to face, even though at their own pace.