During a Prayer, Praise and Worship service event put on by the opposition United Workers Party (UWP), Political Leader and Leader of the Opposition Allen Chastanet called for a healing of the nation – in an effort to rid the country of unsavory criminal elements.
Addressing the gathering at the Vigie Multi-Purpose Complex, Sunday, the UWP leader said, “our country is hurting and there are some of us who feel that pain every day” and generally, “most Saint Lucians feel that pain every day.”
He noted that the day’s sermon resonated with the message that, “so many of us have lost our touch of humanity because we’re not practicing what the Lord said”.
“What we came here to pray for is the confidence to know what we are supposed to go and do. The Lord is only going to help those who (help themselves),” said Chastanet.
“Love thy neighbour as I love myself that is the message. I pass around this country and I am seeing too many people suffering; suffering from loneliness, suffering from abandonment and that is something that doesn’t matter how wealthy you are you can give,” he added.
The Micoud South MP continued, “We’re all in this together, and the only way that the suffering is going to stop is if we all show our love. If we all are not going to be scared of showing our love and not just for our family members, but for the strangers amongst us and in particular the people who have the least.
“Loving yourself is not about just doing things for yourself…. We are naturally good people and that love grows when you share that love.”
Chastanet said his involvement in politics is “because it nurtures me as a person. I don’t know what I would feel or how I would be if I knew I could help somebody and I didn’t do it. However, he remarked, “and it’s tough sometimes because you ask yourself, do some people really want to be helped because when you speak to them you know that they are lying to you.”
Added Chastanet: “The reality is if we all genuinely loved each other and we respected each other and if we loved as human beings and you felt that in heart, you could not do something to hurt somebody.”
He denounced the physical violence meted out against women in the country, and generally, stating that while a traumatic fear grips the citizens of this nation, women are mostly at the receiving end of rapes, physical and sexual assaults and other forms of abuse.
“You must know love to be able to love and there are too many children who are growing up in our society who have not been given love and we know it,” declared Chastanet. “We see them and we wait until it’s too late and there are certain people who tell you well we need to skip a generation.”
The UWP political leader contended: “No, we are going to have to do the impossible, we’re going to have to find a way to make it work but you must love yourself, you must love your family, you must love your country and you must have faith in the Lord. He is the one who is going to give us the strength to do it.”
Leader of government business on the opposition side in the senate, Senator Dominic Fedee that it is “peace that will overcome the agony and the pain that we feel, because some of us have lost people in this crime wave… and so it’s not just a symbolic showing here tonight, it is an important step of what we’re all going through.”
He said the political organ’s role was “not to give spiritual leadership” but rather, “to create a political atmosphere so that the church and the state can collaborate more … to deal with a lot of the problems that we face economically, socially and psychologically.”
In the midst of the economic, social and psychological interventions being undertaken by different groups in society, Fedee said the UWP is offering “spiritual interventions… by embracing the church in this very powerful way.”