And now comes the hard part

By *Jomo Sanga Thomas

(“Plain Talk” Dec. 5, 2025)

Everything can be explained to the people on the single condition that you really want them to understand…The people must be made to realise that change does not mean reform, change does not mean improvement. — Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

The elections are over. The ULP suffered a humiliating and hopefully sobering defeat. The ministers of the triumphant New Democratic Party are sworn in. The government’s work has truly begun. Now comes the hard part — delivery on the many promises made by the party during its election campaign.

And there were lots of promises. My read is that the governing party will easily meet its commitment to fulfil its 60-day plan. NDP plans to cut VAT from 16 to 13%, issue a bonus salary to all public employees, double relief assistance from $250 to $500 and reinstate jobs and benefits lost due to the cruel imposition of the vaccine.

After the end of an era comes a new beginning. But a new course intended to chart the further development of our country must be based on data, statistics and knowledge. When Gonsalves assumed the office, he told the nation he inherited a bad hand. We believed him and gave the ULP leadership time to get the lay of the land. This new government, too, must be granted that courtesy.

If this government, over the next few years, develops a reputation for openness and transparency and acts in ways that foster good governance and democratic best practices, SVG could climb out of the fearful, comatose state in which the Unity Labour Party government left us in the latter part of its decades-long rule.

For starters, the nation needs to know the exact amount it owes. Is it EC$3 billion as the government claims? How much money do we owe to Taiwan? Is it EC$800 million as Gonsalves revealed on Oct. 10, 2025, or is the disclosed amount only an insignificant part of the “hook in the nation’s gill”?

Among other important issues begging for in-depth research, disclosure, and discussion is the current rate of poverty prevailing in SVG, the actual unemployment figures and the number of persons who actually passed away in the years 2021 to September 2024, when a public outcry forced the government to declare that within that period 4,127 persons died.

In 2019, Daniel Cummings, now the health and wellness minister, read from a leaked poverty assessment report that showed poverty had become much more pervasive than in 2008, when the last poverty assessment was completed. The government recoiled. PM Gonsalves nonsensically claimed that the report had to be peer-reviewed before being released. Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves told Parliament that the leaked report had become compromised and contaminated and had to be scrapped. Government, he said, had earmarked a further EC$4 million for a new assessment and promised release in 2025.

In 2019, 40% or 4 out of every 10 people lived in poverty. The government woefully exploited this level of vulnerability and dependence over many election cycles, making targeted giveaways and handouts intended to dupe citizens into voting for and perpetuating its rule. We need to know the actual percentage of our population that lives in poverty and those who exist just above the point of destitution.

The government has the machinery and wherewithal to know things, to discover truths, and, more so, to share the information with the public. What are the actual unemployment numbers? Camillo said it was the lowest since slavery. His father said unemployment had not been lower since independence in 1979. One day, they claim it’s no higher than 12%; another day, it’s under 10%. Now is not the time for guesstimates.

Because of the draconian and evil vaccine mandate and the crucial role it played in the voters’ decision to oust the ULP from power, people need information on how many persons actually died between 2021 and September 2024. Then, former Minister of Health Jimmy Prince disclosed that 4,127 persons died. In light of the fact that statistics on live births and deaths became a state secret, the new government owes it to the population to disclose the accurate number of deaths during this period. Moreover, the nation must be told by how much the death toll was above the annual average.

Transparency in government must become the hallmark of this administration. In this regard, PM and Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Dr. Friday must swiftly instruct the Governor General to sign the Freedom of Information Act, which has been debated and passed since 2003. The people should always know what their government is doing. The governor general’s assent to the Freedom of Information Act will go a long way towards this end.

The ULP administration was rife with corruption. Therefore, an anti-corruption/integrity-in-government law that will not only place guardrails on permissible conduct for those in public life, but also target the ill-gotten gains of the bigwigs and greedheads in our society should be high on the government’s good governance agenda.

As it stands now, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) targets, harasses and confiscates funds from those from vulnerable communities who risk everything to beat the system at its nasty, corrupted game. Ministers, friends and family of the administration benefited from insider trading, nepotism, special favours and other cushy deals. It is well known that some government ministers are the prime beneficiaries of businesses and corporations awarded government contracts. They got rich behind the people’s backs.

How under heavens does Eloise Gonsalves, the former prime minister’s wife, get the contract to provide meals to workers and volunteers in the Southern Grenadines in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, which allowed her to make hundreds of thousands of dollars while smaller, struggling businesses had no knowledge or opportunity to make a decent living? How does the PM’s wife and brother-in-law get to control the space used for restaurants at the international airport? What is the monthly rent? Are they behind in their rental payments, and by how much? Were they given concessionary rates? Were these spaces put up for competitive bidding?

These people made a lot of money during the ULP tenure in government. As early as 2018, Storm Gonsalves, at the tender age of 25 and just out of university, had sufficient disposable income to purchase an EC$1 million luxury apartment in Trinidad, while his mother was making a similar purchase. It would be interesting to see how much money they paid in taxes, especially since former PM Gonsalves took delight in telegraphing who were allegedly major tax evaders.

A new beginning is necessary, but only possible if we know the true reality confronting our country. May the government of PM Friday seek the information needed to tell citizens the deep hole into which Gonsalves ULP dug for us.

*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

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