Open Letter: Business as usual, PM Friday?

How the NDP administration looks like, sounds like and acts like the ULP

Dear Prime Minister Friday,

I wish you and your cabinet of ministers the very best as you navigate the difficult ship of public governance and nation building.  I could only imagine how complex and difficult this task is, given the high levels of visible neglect and disengagement across our communities, the near-bankrupt state of the economy and the gross non-performance of important productive sectors, reinforced by an unpredictable and volatile backdrop of global insecurity.

But, nonetheless, work as you must so that the quality of life of our citizens can be improved and our nation can return to acceptable levels of law and order, increase productivity and respect for human life and dignity.

I take liberty in sharing some candid thoughts with you, hoping that they will cause you and your cabinet to pause, breathe, and hopefully change political course early enough. I have admired and respected, in opposition and now in government, the calm and warmth you bring to public leadership — a necessary bundle of skills, which every leader should possess.

They are most useful in times of significant challenge and certainly in moments of crisis. I believe our country is somewhere between these two political poles.  But I have no doubt, however, that you will use them and the collective talents of your team and our citizens to advance the development agenda of our beloved nation.

It is one of the many reasons why hundreds of Vincentians supported your party in the last general election. To be precise and personal, I decided to vote in the last general elections because of your party’s expressed public commitment to transparency and accountability in government and the promise of ethical leadership — in essence, a vow to put the country before your party and people before politics.

Yet, less than a year in government, your party looks like, sounds like and acts like the ULP. The signs and signals are blatantly before our eyes.  What I am getting at is this, Dr. Friday. If your party is honest about good governance, how come government ministers’ private businesses have contracts with or are working with the state? Are public trust and private privilege cousins?

And how come, without widespread public conversations, attempts have been made or are still being made to amend the Representation of the People Act and the Constitution on the matter of dual citizenship for Members of Parliament?  

If your party is committed to ethical decision-making, how come a chairman of a statutory body moves from chair to CEO without standard recruitment processes to give other qualified and competent Vincentians an opportunity to apply? If, as you and your party campaigned and promised in the last general election, to be transparent about matters of the state, how come the Chatham Bay sale took place in an almost secretive manner?

These are some of the questions that emanate from the actions of your administration as you near the one-year mark in government, that I would like answers to, and I am very sure others would, too. Of course, my questions have absolutely nothing to do with the competence or the quality of the people involved. Invariably, they are decent and hard-working Vincentians who are deserving. But you are the one who promised good governance and so, the people have a legitimate expectation of seeing that it is pursued by you.  

One might argue that nothing wrong was done and the actions are legally permissible. Those arguments may also be true. But legality without propriety in government undermines public trust in our institutions and leaders and sends the wrong signal to the political inner circle and the rest of us on the periphery.

When the principles of fairness, honesty and accountability are compromised, the fog of corruption begins. I hope that your administration will act sooner rather than later by introducing a suite of ethical standards for public officers, including those who serve us in that near hallowed space of Parliament.  In so doing, I hope you can start with rescuing, reviewing and eventually passing the Integrity in Public Life and the Prevention of Corruption Bills 2004.

After all, in your most explicit commitment to good governance, it is you who said, you will “bring to Parliament and pass Integrity legislation” (NDP Manifesto 2015, p. 7) as part of your vision for St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  

Fix the thing Mr. Prime Minister.

Ronnie Daniel

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