While many opposition supporters might see Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves as the problem in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Member of Parliament for Central Kingstown, St. Clair Leacock disagrees.
“A lot of people talk about Ralph, Ralph, Ralph, Ralph. Well, that’s your choice, but Ralph is on the way out. Ralph is no longer the problem of SVG. The problem is what he has left behind,” Leacock, who is a vice president of the New Democratic Party, told a party rally in Georgetown on Saturday.
“When it happened a few years ago a Commissioner of Police could have put on all red and come to a political meeting, that’s what he has left behind. When you have a man who would be chairman of a Public Service Commission and treat people in the way that has been done to them, where you don’t have any promotions in place and favouritism and nepotism, the damage has been done,” Leacock said.
“When you could have a Supervisor of Elections putting her reputation on the line and allowed what happened in these petitions case, the damage has been done.
“When you could have a budget presented in a country that is dishonest in every form, short by over $200 million and the IMF had to come here two years ago and say we left off 112 million and this year, in three days, you have to jog around the figures to balance the budget, knowing you don’t have the money to run the country and present it to our people and having us following that hook, line and sinker, I say, like Ninja, ‘St. Vincent Gone’.”
He said that democracy is not just about one
person, one vote, which was attained in 1951, but about citizens being able to
look after themselves.
“That you are not in a home watching your young daughter prostituting herself. Democracy is about the fact that you can earn an income that you can take care of your own illness. Democracy is about having pride in yourself, democracy is about believing your self-worth and democracy could never ever mean that only one set of people are allowed to grow and progress in a country,” Leacock told party supporters and media audiences.
“You can’t have a country when you see a policeman you say, ‘he is ah Labour police.’ You see a nurse, ‘She is a Labour nurse.’ You see a teacher, ‘Is ah Labour teacher.’ You have a funeral; you say is a Labour funeral. Yuh have a wedding, ‘Is a labour wedding.’ Every single thing is labelled in a country because we have been so divided that this country cannot go forward. That’s the battle you have to fight. That’s the challenge that Dr. Friday and your colleagues in the New Democratic Party have to fight because, indeed, we can have a better St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The New Democratic Party cannot afford to be halfway. We have to go all the way,” he said.
And this will be the enduring legacy of eighteen years of the much-heralded socialist revolution of St Vincent and the Grenadines where enforced poverty, fear, nepotism and cronyism have held sway for the entire time.
Where one extended family dispensed their patronage on their friends and family alike as is now seen in Venezuela.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/venezuelans-growing-desperate-crisis-hits-fishing-industry-190320103107718.html
Such is our first desperate hell, as this ruling family elite take us on a terrible journey, in imitation of their counterparts in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The NDP has done as much as the ULP, former Labour Party, former MNU party, and former Peoples Political Party (PPP) to tribalize politics in this two-by-four country, a sovereign nation-state in name only that should amended its Constitution long ago to abolish the destructive phenomenon called party politics.
Yes, a 110,000 people entity, a country the size of many small cities around the world which are efficiently, productively, and fairly run without political parties, could easily prosper without nasty political parties.
This is the closest citation to the reality of our SVG culture (we people); that I have read for the past few years…” Democracy is about the fact that you can earn an income that you can take care of your own illness. Democracy is about having pride in yourself, democracy is about believing your self-worth and democracy could never ever mean that only one set of people are allowed to grow and progress in a country.”
I have no doubt that PM Ralph is in full agreement with Leacock’s message as I have quoted above. When one visit his or her birth land and in packing their luggage, has to be mindful of the wardrobe colours to be worn on that island, there is no doubt that we are a culturally political divided people, and sadly have created an unfortunate wedge within our nation.
Yes, due to age, PM Ralph may appear to be on his way out but there is something call ‘recompense’ that which no one are ever favoured with included our Comrade. So, this is the time for ‘Labour Love’ to seek the forgiveness of an infected society with the understanding that the good you do will live on but the damages are greater to the inheritance. Note that historical remnants to Prince Charles visit of late have not overcome the echoes to the cruelty of slavery over 200 years ago.
I am glad that Major can see this. But I am not sure that Ralph was ever the issue. This new issue that Major now sees was always a part of our culture, but in years gone by before the ULP time we could have pretended that wasn’t the case but the people who suffered its battle scares has a different story to tell. Fast forward to today, the ULP skilfully used this open secret to reposition people in an attempt to maintain power long after they are gone. There is nothing new here, NDP is just crying foul because of the one-upmanship of the ULP and the massive scale on which it was done. If the NDP ever got into power they have a serious swamp to drain.
We inherited a system of government from the British which relies on the neutrality of the public service for the effective functioning of government. The James Mitchell administration, in an attempt to stem the tide encoded this neutrality in the laws. The Ralph Gonsalves administration understanding its raw power repealed the law, thus freeing the public servants from their code of neutrality in the name of writing an historic wrong. This move I assume was to reward the public servants who stood by him during the Roadblock revolution. But the public servants already had dangerous levels of power and adding this to their portfolio just made the country less governable. The ULP has been able so far to keep them at bay by keeping another power block the trade unions close to its chest, but moving forward an NDP government will have to engage in a lot of deal making if its going to be effective because as the most powerful pillar of government in this country, the public servants are going to surely have their way. The ULP made sure of that by pulling off a Gulen move on the system, infiltrate the key pillars of power with people who are sympathetic to your cause. When called upon they will surely answer. Now, whether the ULP is directly in government or not they will continue to pull the strings. Any attempt by an NDP administration to purge the system will be seen as victimization and for that to work it will have to be a massive purge. What a calamity.
Desperation. You just cant win
he is still breathing so yes he is
LOL….YOU GUYS ARE HILARIOUS
Solid and powerful wordz from the root……Roots politic
He might not be the problem but socialist and a communistic mind set is