IT’S embarrassing and disgusting to witness Hon. Ernest Hilaire PhD., Minister responsible for the Citizens by Investment Program and Deputy Prime Minister, publicly attempting to disentangle himself from the web of secrecy, half-truths, and lies that he and the Prime Minister calculatingly spun to hoodwink and distract the people. This desperate attempt to deflect accountability only serves to accentuate the absolute mess and carnage their leadership has inflicted in handling the sale of our citizenship and passports.
Hilaire’s Address to the Nation, in June of this year, was a complete and utter farce. His speech, which barely skimmed the surface of the catastrophe at the CIP, was a deliberately concocted complot with two less than noble objectives. The first objective was to administer a crimson placebo to an increasingly apprehensive ‘Red Army’ in furtherance of conjuring up the illusion of transparency and accountability in their susceptible minds. Their second objective was ostensibly contrived to slow down the pace and simultaneously cool down the heat produced by Philip Martinez’s relentless, damning revelations. Shocking revelations of the impropriety, inept management, and gorging by gluttonous foreign investors, local government officials, lawyers, and sales agents of the CIP.
His discomfort during the pre-recorded charade was glaringly obvious, as he stumbled awkwardly through a litter of fragile crockery of secrecy, lies, and blame-shifting, while wearing a nervous smirk on a buffoonish visage. His performance was met with mixed reviews by his fan base, but in the eyes of the non-partisan observer, all he accomplished in this ostentatious masquerade was to hammer a proverbial nail in the coffin of his political career.
The second Installment of Deputy Prime Minister Ernest Hilaire’s “Trilogy of Shame” was an equally distressing spectacle for the nation, as he exploited the parliamentary privilege afforded by the Minister’s Statement in the House of Parliament. By utilizing this protection, he effectively shielded himself from scrutiny, denying the Opposition the opportunity to challenge or interrogate his contentious and borderline assertions. This ruse also deprived the people of St. Lucia of their rightful access to transparency and accountability from his office as the Minister responsible for the Citizens by Investment Program. This blatant evasion of accountability is another shameful act of Minister Hilaire’s habitual lack of commitment to openness and good governance.
The third and final episode of Hilaire’s “Trilogy of Shame” is currently downloading, as three contracts signed between the Citizenship by Investment Program and Caribbean Galaxy Real Estate in 2022, the Government of St. Lucia and Bemax LLC in 2023, and the Government of St. Lucia and Caribbean Galaxy Real Estate in 2024 have providentially gone viral on social media and the internet. These documents reveal that Minister Hilaire was less than economical with the truth and intentionally withheld important information from the public to conceal the gravity of the situation at the CIP. He deliberately kept the people of St. Lucia in the dark about the allocation of 11,628 citizenship/passports valued at approximately $4.95 billion in exchange for a mere EC $1.42 billion investment in the Honeymoon Hotel Development in Canelles, Vieux-Fort; the Rockhall Housing Development and; various other infrastructure projects which the government has yet to announce. Plus, approximately EC $200 million in administration fees for the Government of St. Lucia. This staggering EC $3.33 billion profit was handed over to two foreign companies, one from China and the other from Serbia.
Meanwhile, the people of St. Lucia continue to be crushed by brute financial hardship in the slowest-growing economy in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union in 2023. The people live in fear in a country that is plagued by one of the highest homicide rates in the Caribbean and ranks among the top ten globally. Additionally, St. Lucians are compelled to pay some of the highest prices for gas and diesel in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and are serviced by a healthcare system that has been described by the President of the St. Lucia Medical and Dental Association as the worst in the country’s modern history. Over 80% of the population cannot even afford the miserable healthcare service. While the cost of living continues to spiral out of control, making it unaffordable for the vast majority of the citizens. Many parents struggle to send their children to school, and the country’s infrastructure, particularly its road network, is in deplorable condition. Half of the 3.3 billion dollars profit given away to the Chinese and Serbian by Hilaire’s government would have given desperately needed relief to tens of thousands of our people and placed our country on the path of prosperity for all. How could this government be so inconsiderate of the plight of the people of the country it was elected to serve? How could the Philip J Pierre administration treat the people of this country so callously? This is unconscionable!
One cannot help but wonder: is our government truly naive and incompetent to agree to foreign direct investment that involves giving away such substantial profits to foreigners? Or is there something more sinister hidden beneath the voluminous shrouds of political manoeuvring, secret deals, bald-faced lies, and unscrupulous obfuscation? The answer to this question will hopefully be revealed as Hilaire’s CIP “Trilogy of Shame” continues to unfold. Stay tuned.