‘Staying focused’ is a vital attribute for successful leadership and Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre on June 18 reiterated, in the House of Assembly, that he “won’t be distracted” by His Majesty’s Opposition.
His implementation and delivery record card are incomparable alongside that of his predecessor, who seems to revel in related reverse.
The PM’s remarks (on the bill for increasing government pensioners’ earnings last week) also clearly-showed he wastes no time chasing shadows or trying to read flashing mirrors by night.
Indeed, between the MPs for Castries East and Castries Central, long strings of allegations financial misbehaviour and Sins of Commission and Omission were laid against the former Guardian of the Treasury – from bad decisions leading to worse deals that together cost taxpayers hundreds of millions, badly-spent or borrowed.
The Castries Central MP barred no holes or holds as he bore into his counterpart, opposition MP representing Micoud South; and the PM catalogued enough during his presentations to show the vast difference between a leader and a government who actually put people first and one that only remembers citizens when General Elections approach.
Halfway through his first term as Prime Minister and Minister for National Security, Finance, Economic Development and The Youth Economy, the Castries East MP was able to deliver scorecards in each of the three Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure he’s presented, each dwarfing any of his predecessor’s five.
The Micoud South MP had so-often absented himself from House meetings during the first-half of this term that loud questions were asked publicly about how-much representation he was giving those who voted for him as one of their party’s only two MPs, after an election in which – under his leadership – they also lost the Micoud North seat they’d held since the island’s first general elections in 1951.
Interestingly, since the Opposition Leader’s unexpected appearance at Tuesday’s sitting, the buzz has been that he was possibly forced or influenced by the popular calypso by veteran Herb Black, about wanting a leader who will walk his talk instead of one only talking, then walking and staying away.
However, be all that as it may – or may not – all things supposedly equal, it must take quite some guts for any MP to endure such relentless criticism based on his or her own doings.
The Micoud South MP wore a laughing mask throughout the accusations and allegations of improper or imprudent decisions and actions that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of hard-earned post-COVID dollars that could have been saved with more attention to simple basic money factors like cost of borrowing and size of interest rates.
The former PM often offered light-hearted responses to inquiries about his trademark heavy expenditure, even revealing a new claim that lands involved in the Desert Star Holdings (DSH) project in Vieux Fort were not ‘leased at $1,000 per acre’.
The House patiently awaits the former PM’s provision of the proof his finger-pointing former party parliamentary colleague has promised to request that he table as a ‘Document of the House’ — which, whether he delivers or not, will lead to more questions, either way.
The Castries East MP and Finance Minister has again demonstrated, in clearer terms, that while he’s developed a capacity to disallow himself from being distracted enough to take his eyes off the ball, it doesn’t-at-all mean he’s unaware of who says what, when and where – and why.
While his detractors feathered their nests online and off, this PM and his administration continue delivering the ruling party’s 2021 General Election promises at every sitting of the House since his Cabinet of Ministers was appointed by a PM with a 15-2 majority.
While they cooked-up saucy billion-dollar ‘CIP’ stories on air and online at home and abroad around matters in US courts, the PM attended international meetings addressing solutions to problems of small-island states and attracting financing support for projects at home — from affordable housing to tourism, ports, hospitals and other infrastructural development.
And all that, while also tending to the poor and needy and restoring lost benefits withdrawn willy-nilly by the previous administration — from the Distress Fund to benefits from the STEP (Short Term Employment) and NICE programmes (the latter described in derogatory racist terms).
The long and short of it all is that Tuesday’s House Meeting, followed online by the world and still available to the metaverse, was yet-another crystal-clear example of the difference between what Herb Black described as ‘wrong and right’ and ‘black and white’.
Some quipped that the Opposition Leader was ‘whitewashed with bleach’ by the government side, others similarly claiming he was ‘washed with Blue and hung to dry in Blues…’
Taking a page from the PM’s book and how the likes of us grew-up, I won’t kick a man when he’s down.
I’d rather just say that if what we witnessed on Tuesday is anything to go by in mid-term, then, it’s ‘bal fini’ if the opposition doesn’t choose to bite the bullet and ignore the advice from the song by ‘Tower of Power’ about not changing horses in midstream.
The Opposition Leader preceded and outlasted his mentor Donald Trump in office, but while Trump is on-the-way-back up the US presidential ladder, Saint Lucia’s ‘Tropical Trump’ is presenting his party with the same choice facing the Democrats today over President Joe Biden.
Luckily for him though, while the Democrats have only four months to decide whether to change horse before the November race starts, the local horses still have 30 months – giving their leading stallion as-much time to start qualifying for re-selection as one worth betting on.
The House and Senate met again this week and – as per usual – you’d think the opposition was never in office, or that it’s squeezy-clean, continuing to major in minor matters.