By *Jomo Sanga Thomas
On Monday, the legislative rule of the governing New Democratic Party begins with Governor General Stanley Stalky John, KC, laying out the government’s policy and legislative agenda in his maiden throne speech. The speech will be followed by the much-anticipated budget address by the Finance Minister, PM Dr. Godwin Friday.
Beyond the raw numbers in the budget, keen observers may look for subtle differences in tone and emphasis. Would ideas long championed by the governing party while in opposition gain urgency? Will the uptick in crime and violence in 2026 be confronted by the NDP fleshing out its Spiritual and Social Redemption Charter? The Constituency Development Fund, long championed by Deputy Prime Minister St. Clair Leacock, a new development bank intended to aid budding entrepreneurs, the citizen by investment programme (CBI), pooh-poohed by opposition leader Ralph Gonsalves and the bandied-about Integrity in public life legislation that the ULP flattered to deceive during its quarter-century in government?
PM Friday has already promised continuity in governance. Will his government revive and adequately fund a reparations commission that raises consciousness and join regional governments in the effort to demand recompense from the former enslavers?
Now that Parliament truly gets on its way, one waits to see the government’s posture as it relates to the package of Statutory Rules and Orders (SR&O) issued by the Gonsalves regime that ushered in the dreaded vaccine mandate that harmed so many people when they were either hoodwinked or commanded to take the wickedly dangerous and deadly COVID-19 vaccine.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID plandemic over as a public health emergency on May 5, 2023. Yet the dreaded SR&O remain law in SVG. The ULP paid with its political life for its pig-headed COVID policy last November. It is only just and fair for the new government to repeal the amendments to the Public Health and Police Acts, which provided the government with a gateway to the COVID madness from which too many Vincentians continue to suffer.
Vincentians must never forget that this package of legislative changes, some passed in the wee hours of the morning, redefined the long-established legal meaning and understanding of abandonment of jobs by an employee, denied them access to their workplaces under pain of arrest and prosecution by state authorities and led to severe stress and probably the biggest mental health crisis since slavery.
No issue in our recent political history was talked about more than Integrity legislation. While in opposition, the Vincent Beache/Ralph Gonsalves-led Unity Labour Party made integrity in public life its mantra for change. Vincent Beache, sensing victory as the 2001 election approached, promised to enact integrity legislation within the first 100 days of the ULP government.
The party ruled over Vincentians for 9,011 days without ever bringing the legislation to parliament. Gonsalves told citizens that the current laws were sufficient to address corruption. The result: by an objective matrix, the Ralph Gonsalves-led government is easily the most corrupt post-independence. Would the NDP government instil renewed confidence in the various arms of government? We wait to see if local politics is reduced to a one-trick pony.
On July 17, 2023, St. Lucia officially joined the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Appellate jurisdiction. The decision by the St. Lucian government followed that of Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and Guyana to end their colonial relationship with the British Privy Council, which dates back to 1823.
St. Lucia’s path to the CCJ came through a legal reference to the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, which asked the court to interpret the constitution to determine if the country can break links with the Privy Council without having to engage the heavy lifting of constitutional reform that brings in its wake a referendum demanding 67%of the public to vote in favour. St. Lucia’s constitution is similar to ours, and the Court of Appeal offered approval, which the St. Lucians followed.
When in opposition, the NDP was reluctant to endorse constitutional changes. In 2009, it led the opposition to the ULP’s effort to revamp the Constitution. The main reason offered at the time was fear of Gonsalves’ autocratic and undemocratic tendencies. The tide is now changed. The party that claims to offer a fairer, gentler society controls the reins of power. The electorate lent it a commanding mandate in the last elections. We await the party’s decision on whether to use its overwhelming parliamentary authority to bring the legal instruments to the legislature that will finally allow our nation to complete its political independence by severing ties with the Privy Council.
The hard truth is that there is no strong case for retaining the colonial court. Vincentians cannot afford the court. James Mitchell’s successful 2011 appeal was the last matter from St. Vincent before the Privy Council. The Vaccine mandate appeal is currently enroute. In contrast, Caribbean nations borrowed US$100 million to establish the CCJ. It is a regional court of distinction. Our own Adrian Saunders served as president of the court and led the way in making good law before retiring. Significantly, there is no hue and cry from the citizens of the countries that subscribe to the court’s jurisdiction. Barbados, dubbed “Little England”, was one of the first to join the court.
In 2009, Lord Phillips, a former President of the British Supreme Court, called on Caribbean nations to establish their own final court of appeal, suggesting that the Privy Council’s role in hearing legal appeals from independent Commonwealth countries, including those in the Caribbean, is “disproportionate”.
Lord Phillips’ views bring into sharp focus the strong nationalist expressions of former Barbadian PM Errol Barrow, who cautioned against loitering on colonial premises, emphasising the importance of fully leaving the colonial past behind. Will our new government continue the dullard practice of thinking that white men are brighter and better than us?
It’s early days yet. We shall see.
*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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Jomo you have been singing this song for years without showing how, what, when and why he Caribbean people should accept this legal system.
I have asked you several times before to let us know who and how these people would be selected to be on the CCJ court. The selection should not be done by any of the government because we are seeing the US Supreme court is on its way out because of Trump. Trump has been ignoring the judges and is not being put in jail. He has a Gestapo gang that is in total control and the judges, congress and the house cannot stop Trumps’ actions.
There has to be a plan to remove any person sitting on the CCJ court if and when he/she operates outside boundaries and rules set out for the court.
Today the people in the US are keeping Trump, ICE, the senate and the house under control. I can will only support the CCJ when I see all these answers to my questions.
I was once in favor of the CCJ. and for us as a people to handle our own business, That was so before the overturned of the case won by the public servants during the Covid 19 vaccine Mandate.
Then you have the general election and the NDP with all its promises, then only to have them giving deadlines and conditions for public servants to receive gratuity and other benefits that they have worked so hard for. In essence the NDP is doing the exact same thing that the ULP has done, just in a different form; threatening and causing persons to relive that moment when they were first force out of their jobs. Same script. different cast.
This will surely be a one-term government as crime, unemployment, poverty, debt, and inflation strangle us as never before, exacerbated by a huge decline in migration opportunities, the safety valve that has eased our pain in the past.
The worst is yet to come, with no relief in site.
If it’s not westernised, it’s illegitimate—that has been drilled into us ever since Europe decided to dominate the world. That their systems are legitimate and the rest are flawed. Most people don’t know why the world is the way it is; they simply accept it. Mr Ben David is the nearest, most ignorant jackass I’ve ever seen; there is no wisdom there.
SVG’ers are just as brilliant and talented as any of our colonial masters, in my humble opinion. (As they say, we small but we tallawah!)
We are legally required to be judged by our peers. If the CCJ is not good enough to settle legal issues, and if only the Privy Council is capable, then why are not still being governed by colonial Administrators and Governors-General ?
Apparently, one of the members of the Privy Council, was just fired as a UK Ambassador , for his lies and his association with the notorious Jeffery Epstein, and allegedly providing state secrets to him?
Can we not do better than that?
C.Ben-David David your prediction in the last election was well off, so is your prediction of a one term government. I realized that you are still yet to come to grips with your party defeat on November 27, 2025.
As a resident of Central Leeward, for which there is a vacancy for a much needed replacement for Minister Brewster. Why not throw your hat in the ring? The Citizenship of Layou will give you the proverbial slap in your face for disturbing the peace and caused mayhem.
Was crime a not in existence during the rein of the past regime Mr Converted Jew of Layou?Is it a new phenomenon? It is time to take that veil off your face, not even your wife an ex banker will agree with you. You forgot that you tried journalism but failed miserably.