Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has attempted to paint opposition MPs as lazy, saying that their jobs as MP are not intended to be full-time and suggested things they can do on the side to make money.
For yet another time, the prime minister criticised Opposition Leader Godwin Friday, who is also president of the New Democratic Party (NDP), for keeping the Canadian citizenship he obtained as an adult.
“Friday born in St. Vincent. He voluntarily took Canadian passport. So, he got the passport proudly in his front pocket and his Vincentian one in his back pocket. You sit down, pon da one dey,” he said recently on NBC Radio.
“Well, he sit down all the time because he lazy, he weak, he’s indecisive and he’s a fake,” Gonsalves said as he segued into focused criticism on the opposition, saying that he had been “talking policy”.
“Let me talk some things about men now,” the prime minister said.
He said he ensured that the opposition leader gets the same salary as a minister of government.
“I want to keep him so comfortable that he’d like to remain leader of the opposition,” Gonsalves said, of the change in salary that came into effect before Friday became opposition leader in 2017.
“That’s how comfortable I want him to remain,” Gonsalves said.
“But with the other members in parliament from the opposition, the job is not intended as a full-time job.”
Gonsalves noted that Israel Bruce, a senator, has a law practice, adding that he, too, had a law practice when he was an opposition MP.
“You’re required to go to Parliament one day a month, sometimes twice a month, except in the budget, five days,” the prime minister said, adding that opposition MPs work “about 20 days a year in Parliament.
“… one day a month, and when I taking them past 10 o’clock the night, they say they ain’t staying later than that, I’m abusing them.
“Friday get up one morning with his lazy self. We discussing putting roof over people head. He want to go home? I say well, ‘Go home.’
“They waste my time during the day. I tell them, I’m going to finish the agenda even if I have to take you to foreday morning, and I’ve done it many times, and I will continue to do it.”
The Gonsalves government has Parliament up to 4 a.m., saying that it is doing the work of the people, even as most of the people are by then asleep and not paying attention to the proceedings.
Notably, parliamentary sessions have gone into the wee hours of the morning, when the government passed the law in 2021 that brought the COVID-19 vaccine mandate into effect, resulting in hundreds of public sector workers losing their jobs.
The session also went into the small hours of the morning in August, when the government approved borrowing EC$98 million for road and housing repair and completion of the new port in Kingstown.
“Now, let’s take [Southern Grenadines MP,] Terrence Ollivierre,” Gonsalves said as he continued his criticism of the opposition.
“Terrance got a university degree as a teacher. You want to tell me for 25 years as a grown man, every single day you get up, not for one year, not for two years, but for 25 years, that you only had to go to work one day a month.
“You mean you can’t set up a little educational academy, a little something, get some other teachers, organise it and charge people for some class?” the prime minister said.
“I understand that he did start a snack shop, selling corn curls that couldn’t even survive.
“Imagine you can’t sell corn curls and you wah be minister of government. Really? If you don’t have ambition for yourself, how do you have ambition for the people you represent?”
He said the situation was the same with South Leeward MP, Nigel “Nature” Stephenson, who has been representing that district for 15 years.
“Fifteen years, he get in he car, he drive round. Well, if you love to drive around, buy a taxi and run a taxi too while you’re an MP. Or, we have a lot of construction, go to the bank, borrow some money and buy a truck and drive it.”
He said that East Kingstown MP, Fitz Bramble, an economist, “ain’t hoist a stroke.
“You ain’t make a card, say he go be a consultant to some business or something. Come on, guys!”
The prime minister said West Kingstown MP, Daniel Cummings, a former manager of the Central Water and Sewerage Authority, harps back to his days there.
“One day in Parliament, I said to him, ‘But wait you left CWSA 21 years ago, have you not done anything meritorious, of merit, and worth, since you left there 21 years ago?’”
Gonsalves said that when Central Kingstown MP, St. Clair Leacock, returned to SVG in his mid-20s with a university degree in business, he said, “he’s armed with real knowledge and skill and by the time he’s 30, he’s going to be a millionaire.
“… he said the first million is difficult to make, but by the time he’s 35 he’ll be a multi-millionaire, and he’d be the richest black man in the country, and displacing as he, as he loved to put it, put Potogee and Dashta HIll Bajan.
“… He’s now 74, ain’t make he fuss million yet. And is Ralph fault? How it come my fault, and you tell me, you wah represent people.
“And a young man named Storm, who has a degree from London School of Economics, and who’s an entrepreneur, you wah pick on the fella,” the prime minister said.
Storm Gonsalves, the prime minister’s youngest son, who is in his early 30s, is rumoured to be a millionaire.
“Storm ain’t working with government, I ain’t hoist a finger in government to help Storm do anything with government,” the prime minister said.
He said people were cussing because Storm gave him on his 79th birthday a bust of the PM made by a Trinidadian sculptor.
“I have it in my study in Gorse,” the prime minister said, referring to his private residence.
“My son loves me. You want him to hate me on Facebook and cuss me? Guys, come on. Let’s have conversations of an elevating kind nuh,” Gonsalves said and urged discussion of issues.
He said the opposition was getting desperate and wanted to eliminate every conceivable tax without considering the cost.
“And they want to give away everything; they want to pay 13 salary,” he said, referring to the annual bonus the opposition has promised to pay public servants.
The Gonsalves government paid an annual bonus to public servants for about two years after coming to office.
He also criticised the NDP’s proposal for concession on new vehicles for people who work in the public sector for a certain number of years.
“And, naturally, if you give the public service, you gotta gi the teacher, you gotta give the police, you have to give the doctors. You gotta get the nurses,” the prime minister said.
“What about the fisherman? What about the store clerk?” the prime minister said.
Ralph Gonsalves’ speeches are dripping with fear. He is clearly terrified that the newly awakened Vincentian public will reject his brand of politics in the next election. The sheer venom he spews to save his own skin is unprecedented in my experience.
Spot on by the PM who nevertheless failed to highlight that these lazy NDP members of the House of Assembly are quite content with their perpetual opposition status because it gives them a well paid life of leisure, something they would lose if they ever gained power.
I imagine Ralf diss the entire NDP from top to bottom branding them as lazy and not enterprising, which is actually a reflection of the poor leadership style of this government. He had a brilliant opportunity to help reshape the way we run this country instead of the inherited colonial millstone that he is using to sink the NDP. I have repeatedly made the point that the current system of governance including the laws that guide it are outdated and the first past the post colonial style system needs to be booted permanently.
Why criticize an opposition when the current system only gives them the freedom to talk in Parliament……no real clout, just bark, no bite !
Dat system haffi change! All who are elected will serve this country in an active capacity. All persons who offer themselves for leadership of this country have skill, ability and vision, why can’t we harness all these skills, abilities and experience for the common good of this country and region. Why do we have to fall victim of the ‘divide and rule’ colonial strategy that keeps our nation divided and bitter against each other politically.
Aren’t we sensible enough to realize that going forward, this westmonster style of politics is cramping and paralyzing our country and region.
Try remember this line “Together we rise, together we prosper !”
Vincies wake up,
Don D.
too lazy fo get out ah bed fo go downstairs fo ge reassurance kiss and in my opinion fo rape and mek people go crazy home after enjoying dem? the disgraced bunch. and stop people from work , lost dem home and everything some lost lives , some sick, their children suffer, aryo wicked cruel evil