No to kings!

In 2001, the ULP was elected by the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to conduct the policies and affairs of the state, in other words, to govern, not to RULE.

The ULP was swept into office at the polls based on a manufactured crisis (the “Roadblock Revolution”) created by a power-hungry Marxist, Ralph Gonsalves, who has held on to power with an iron fist up to today.

I wouldn’t consider it extreme to say that the book “Animal Farm” is a good analogy of the past 25 years of ULP rulership.

Gonsalves entered politics in 1979 after his return to St. Vincent from his position at Cave Hill University, contesting the North Central Windward constituency, and was soundly defeated at the polls, losing his deposit on one or more occasions — if my memory serves me correctly. After languishing in the political wilderness for more than two decades, his insatiable thirst for power saw him using skill and cunning to outmanoeuvre Vincent Beache and secure leadership of the SVLP in a merger with his MNU to form the now ULP.

From 1979 to 1984, Vincentians were warned by the late R.M. Cato, James Mitchel and other senior politicians that Gonsalves was a wolf in sheep’s clothing and should not be entrusted anywhere near the halls of government in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Unfortunately, Vincentians did not heed that warning and elected the ULP in 2001.

With his lifelong goal accomplished, he set out to accomplish another, which is to entrench himself as maximum ruler over the state and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

To accomplish this, he stacked his government with family members and trusted lackeys. And finally, to guarantee himself victory at the polls, he set about to deliberately and systematically create a subservient electorate. An electorate that has been manipulated to believe that their very existence and survival is dependent on the maximum ruler, Ralph Gonsalves.

The past 10 years have been one of flagrant corruptible practices by this regime, using the state’s resources, judicial and administrative, to punish dissenters, reward lackeys and feed scraps to the unsuspecting electorate in the form of Poor Relief, day jobs, building materials, food vouchers, home appliances, outward bribery and even explicit threats. All these in one last desperate act to secure their patronage and cling to power.

The people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines do not want someone to rule over them. They want someone to govern for them. A ruler dominates through superiority and exercises ultimate power and authority over a country and its people, something Ralph Gonsalves and the ULP have done for the past 24 years.

On Thursday, the people will go to the polls to elect the NDP and a true leader who will govern, in conducting the policies, actions, and affairs of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the interest of ALL Vincentians, regardless of colour, class, creed or political affiliation.

D. Eric Williams

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