Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was spot-on: He said: “(Allen) Chastanet is undoubtedly the worst prime minister in the Caribbean in the 21st Century. He had one chance to run St. Lucia. One single chance. And by the halfway mark, people wanted to kick him out. They were just waiting to kick him out.”
Chastanet provoked the proverbial hard-slap from Dr Gonsalves when he picked an OECS Assembly in early July to spew his usual ill-advised, divisive, petty political rhetoric. Delivering some remarks he whined: “So imagine if we had the tenacity to pull out of CARICOM and renegotiate bilateral agreements with Jamaica, bilaterals with Trinidad, bilaterals with Guyana and bilaterals with Barbados. “Would we be better off?”
Note that Dr Gonsalves, a political scientist, former UWI Lecturer in Government, arch-regionalist, and currently serving his fifth consecutive term as Prime Minister of an OECS sister state, placed his former OECS colleague at the very bottom of Caribbean leadership quality over the years. In other words, as low as a regional rating can go. Chastanet is undeserving of the formal diplomatic courtesies among regional statesmen, because they would have learnt about his word salads, in a fancy accent, about stuff he has not read, researched or prepared. How many times has a Chastanet statement been found to contain half-truths, exaggerated interpretations, jibes with racial/cultural undertones or outright falsehoods?
Most recently, he appeared at a Party meeting claiming that buildings on the St Jude Hospital Reconstruction Project (SJHRP) site were painted red, implying that the incumbent Saint Lucia Labour Party was using the Project as tool of election campaigning. The evidence later showed that the dominant colours of the buildings on the construction site were blue, and yellow, (the colour of the UWP). Chastanet said he noticed the ‘red’ from afar while being chauffeured on a visit to the Party’s Vieux Fort South candidate. All that’ red’ Chastanet said he observed turned out to be just a small highlight paint job around the entrance of one of the buildings.
When Chastanet’s untruths are smashed with the facts, he either doubles down on his original claims, stays silent, or simply moves on to another fantasy. He was the only Prime Minister of his time whose colleagues in the OECS could not defend on any one of his litany of mis-steps and mis-communication on matters of regional relevance, such as his claim that “colonialization had a conscience”. His very pronunciation of the word serves to underline the degree to which he takes Caribbean History for granted at a time when there is a determined campaign for reparations for enslavement by European powers, and other injustices of the past.
“The worst thing that colonialism did was to cloud our view of our past,” the great Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, is quoted as saying. Considering Chastanet’s remarks on the subject thus far, it is easy to conclude that his orientation on Caribbean History is from the perspective of the colonizer. If a Caribbean politician can be so generous and apologetic to a system so exploitative, inequitable and racist as European colonialism, then he certainly deserves the rating given him by Dr Gonsalves.
Chastanet is a failure on national affairs, as well as regional affairs. Saint Lucia has a proud heritage of regional leadership and recognition. At the Prime Ministerial level, Sir John Compton and Dr Kenny Anthony were treasured for their leadership and financial support to the OECS and CARICOM, through prompt payments of subscriptions to affiliate regional bodies, and their willingness to sign on early to integration agreements and projects. Dr Anthony distinguished himself as a megaphone for Caribbean integration and as a peacemaker. In January 1998 he brokered the Hudmanstan Accords, a peace treaty between warring political parties in Guyana, following disputed general elections in that sister territory.
Internationally, on the other hand, Chastanet offered Saint Lucians as guinea pigs for experimental Covid-19 vaccines produced by global pharmaceutical companies.
Conversely, Chastanet’s loose mouth and lack of commitment, lowered the good reputation of Saint Lucia on the regional scene. He presided over the missed opportunity of Saint Lucia landing the fifth home campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), the flagship regional institution that has produced most of the brightest minds serving locally, regionally and internationally. This was a disgrace to the work and honour of the Lewis Family (Sir Arthur Lewis, Sir Allen Lewis, and Dr Vanghan Lewis), Dr Kenny Anthony, Sir Derek Walcott, Prof. Hazel Simmons-McDonald, all of whom had distinguished themselves, both in regional academia and as contributors to the growth of the UWI into the modern, world class educational institution it is today.
Chastanet’s mis-opportunity to make Saint Lucia the fifth UWI physical Campus (an opportunity grabbed with both hands by Antigua & Barbuda) was also a disgrace to the hardworking Resident Tutors (the original title of non-campus heads) like Pat Charles, Marilyn Floissac, Matthew Roberts, whose collective efforts had contributed to preparing Saint Lucia for Campus Territory status.
Dr Gonsalves’ ‘dissing’ of Mr Chastanet’s leadership is justified. Mr Chastanet was given a chance, but he squandered it. He was sworn-in as Prime Minister of St. Lucia on Tuesday, June 7th, 2016. Chastanet’s party won 11 out of the 17 seats in the House of Assembly.
At the first Budget Debate Chastanet made an undemocratic statement that will forever remain beyond redemption. He declared that the opposition had lost the right to speak – presumably on matters of government because it had lost the general election. Such politically reprehensible statements raised legitimate concerns about Chastanet’s intolerance of criticism, and respect for the Saint Lucia Constitution. This was further confirmed by his disregard for the standing orders of parliament and his complete lack of statesmanship regarding the non-election of a Deputy Speaker for nearly all of his government’s parliamentary term because, according to him, the Constitution did not state a penalty for failing to do so..
When he finally announced the date for the last elections, Chastanet said that it would be, “an election for the ages”. The current election atmosphere is increasingly proving him right, as he and the UWP seem headed for the “ages”, but on the dark side, which most people would like to forget.