Central Kingstown MP, St. Clair Leacock, has asked the people of Byera to consider how their lives have changed even as their MP, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, has evolved during his 25 years in office.
Leacock, who is a vice president of the New Democratic Party (NDP), noted at a campaign event in Byera that the village is part of North Central Windward, which the prime minister represents in Parliament.
“That’s a privilege. By the snap of the … fingers, you should be seeing in a meaningful and a practical way, how you have benefited from having a prime minister as your representative.”
Leacock, however, said that has not been the case and asked those who are old enough and those who only know about the ULP to reflect on five, 10, 15, 20, or 25 years ago.
“Remember when a seemingly humble individual approached you to put him into office, to serve you…” he said.
He said Gonsalves was someone whose promises constituents held on to, even as they did not know him so well.
“And watch how that person has changed over the 25, 20, 15, 10, or five years, from the person who appeared to have a modicum of humility, and before your own very eyes today, that same individual has become a World Boss; he has become a king; he has become bigger than life.
“Indeed, he has brought you to an understanding that in his family, there is royalty — some call it the dynasty — and that, as of a right, they have an entitlement to a better quality of life than anyone else.”
At the conference on Aug. 10 to confirm Gonsalves as the ULP’s candidate in the next general election, a banner was erected outside the venue in Colonarie, declaring him “King of the Caribbean”.
It was one of the latest monikers attached to the anti-monarchy prime minister, who is the self-styled “World Boss”.
In a previous campaign speech, Leacock said that Gonsalves should reject references to him as a king.
He told the audience in Byera that “without getting into family business, without being personal” to tell him where else in the Caribbean of the Commonwealth “you are likely to find a young man not working for a single day, in St. Vincent, in the public sector or in the private sector, and by the age of 30, they can own millions of dollars and to be on a yacht and the comforts of the world every weekend, while you go to your graves not even be able to own a bicycle in St. Vincent and the Grenadines?
“It cannot happen unless there is massive corruption and accommodation from the governing regime.”
He said an NDP government would make the Unity Labour Party administration pay for its corruption at the expense of the people.
Leacock said he had not come to the meeting to call Gonsalves “sore foot, or old clown or bull frog or any of the deserving names.
“I have come here in your constituency, and I will come again, because I will be in Park Hill, I will be in South Rivers, I will be in Colonarie, and every part of the constituency to ensure this is time that you said you are out, over and finished, we have had enough of you,” he said, referring to villages in the constituency, which Gonsalves has been representing since 1994.
Leacock’s speech is a masterclass in opposition politics. It successfully bundles policy failure, character assassination, and serious allegations of corruption into a cohesive and emotionally charged narrative. Leacock directly challenge Gonsalves and shows voters that Gonsalves has changed and forgotten his roots.
nobody fraid dat man, this place belongs to all ar we, de only people who fraud um ah those little black boys and girls who worships um , go ask batsoo