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The views expressed herein are those of the writer and do not represent the opinions or editorial position of I-Witness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].

According to The News newspaper dated Feb. 7, 2014, there are three persons showing interest in being the Unity Labour Party’s candidate for South Leeward in the next general elections. Among those showing interest are former ULP senator, David Browne, Financial Intelligent Unit head, Grenville Williams and new ULP senator, Jomo Sanga Thomas. I listened with a witty smile on my face to these prospective candidates announcing their candidacy and thought to myself that “some things will never change”.

As an educator and an active member of the South Leeward constituency, I am obligated to critically analyse this situation. There is no doubt that, both Grenville Williams and Jomo Thomas are academically certified. However, in my opinion, they both lack the necessary prerequisites to represent the people of my constituency. These intelligent men constitute what Vifredo Pareto termed the “circulation of elites”. All elites tend to become decadent. They “decay in quality” and lose their “vigour”. They become soft and ineffective with the pleasures of easy living and the privileges of power; they are too set in their ways and too inflexible to respond to changing circumstances. In essence, “nothing ever really changes”. These men come to us with the same old stories and excuses as did the men before them — “SAME OLD KHAKI PANTS”.

The Feb. 7, 2014 edition of The News newspaper quoted Thomas as saying, “When you say Jomo Thomas I think people know the name, they recognize the name and, more than that they would be able to point to some of the issues that I have dealt with and dealt with forcefully. And that’s why I think that I would be the best candidate that the ULP can put forward in South Leeward.” On the contrary, we do know your name, Mr. Jomo Sanga Thomas, because you spent so much time trying to be popular at the expense of many other qualities that the ordinary citizen looks for in a leader and/or representative.

Moreover, we are able to point to some of the issues that you have dealt with. Most notably is the issue of the alleged ill-disciplined student and the hardworking educators who work tirelessly to instil the good, old, long-lost values of our society. You were so busy trying to make your name that you neglected “leading by example” and supported “slackness”. And that’s why I think you are not the best candidate for my constituency. You chose being a lawyer over a leader.

Mr. Grenville Williams! Reading your rationale for aspiring to represent South Leeward is like reading from a textbook. The citizens of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are tired of the “sweet talks”, over and over. We desire real representation, not a textbook representative. The elites are unconcerned about the struggles of the average man. They pass us on the streets without recognition, then expect us to vote for them. We have never seen Jomo Thomas nor Grenville Williams in our community, yet they claim to be living in South leeward for umpteen number of years. How could you represent us if you don’t know our pain and disadvantaged situations? In the past, when different societies wanted to unite then a marriage was in order. Is it possible that Grenville Williams fantasizes about a marriage between the ULP and the NDP?

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The “down-to-earth”, David Browne is more in touch with his constituents than any past candidate for that area. However, he was at a disadvantage last elections, having been named as the candidate for South Leeward during the last few weeks running up to the elections. He never had the time to properly prepare for that election, unlike the majority of his colleagues. Nevertheless, the underpinning fact is that we only see politicians around “election time”.

Evidently, our Prime Minister is the best leader our country has seen up to date. His charisma and intellect has surpassed that of all other leaders in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His policy to school every citizen through the “education revolution” is the greatest contribution of an ideal leader. Nevertheless, schooling is not education, according to many philosophers. Education must result in some worthwhile change in behaviours. Yet many of our politicians have not changed their ways of dealing with citizens. Therefore, would it not be fair to say that many of our politicians are philosophically uneducated? Philosophers posit that we can judge a leader by the men he keeps around him. It follows logically that PM Gonsalves has a lot to contemplate when selecting his team for the upcoming general elections.

Vanrick D. Williams
Email: [email protected]

The opinions presented in this content belong to the author and may not necessarily reflect the perspectives or editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].

4 replies on “Voice From Below — A letter to Jomo Thomas, Grenville Williams and all citizens of SVG”

  1. Mr Williams i like where you went with this, but I am going to take it a little further. One of the issues with politics in SVG, is that often times, the people in government believe that because they have a degree that they are better than the people they represent. They look down on Vincentians, and ridicule them with big words and nonsensical statements and the people who have trust in them follow them blindly over cliffs.
    The PM we have now has been the worst that the country has ever have, and this is not my saying, the Data backs up my claim, IMF data for SVG going back many years can back that up.The corruption can back that up, the bad roads can back that up, almost everything can back that up. They have been in office for 13 years, and crime has risen, cost of living has risen, Taxes has risen many times, the cost of electricity has risen, the cost of food has risen and many other things have risen to hardship levels. The lives of Vincentians for the last 13 years has been deteriorating, and again the data backs that up.
    But there is another side to the story, and it’s one that most Vincentians don’t want to face, and that is SVG is a very racist country, we seen it our selves and pretend not to, many people in SVG believe that white people or people of another races are superior to them, and again the data backs that up, Vincentians have some of the highest rates of caribbean nationals dating and marrying outside of their race in the diapora. We see in when we go into office jobs in SVG and the people with the biggest jobs most often than not have lighten complexion and so on and so forth.
    So when a person like the PM who thinks that he’s white although he is not Vincentians who have inferiority complex are under some kind of spell, and that is why you can have an ignoramus like Prime Minister, who in my opinion is nothing but a loud mouth who know a few things about the law. This guy brought SVG down to such a state that the lives of Vincentians for many years to come will be full of hardship. Debt is through the roof, we built an airport that was suppose to cost us nothing, with our entire treasury, corruption is like a norm. I can go on and on, but I will end with simply saying this, if it was a man who Vincentians deem to be black that was in office, they would have gotten him out of office a long time ago, so Vincentians have no one to blame for the state of SVG but themselves and their inferiority complex.

  2. WOULD JOMO THOMAS PLEASE TELL US WHY \YOU CHANGE YOUR NAME FROM LEROY THOMAS TO JOMO ,MYSELF AND ALL MY BROTHERS WENT TO SCHOOL WITH YOU AT RC SCHOOL ,I WONDER WHO FOOLING WHO.

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