By Stanley Felix

On March 13th 2009, ironically a black Friday, a peculiar ceremony took place in Castries Central. It purported to be a ceremony to celebrate Richard Frederick’s third year in Parliament; a celebration of his “achievements” as a district representative, a parliamentarian and a minister of government. Leonard Montoute and PM Stephenson King, none of whom are known to be fans of Frederick, joined the Minister and a coterie of his supporters to lay praise upon the man who, along with the same supporters, hurled insults at King and Montoute at the last convention of the UWP.

Montoute spoke of the Minister’s ‘achievements’ and PM King went one-step further, describing Frederick as, among other things, “an excellent Minister in the Government of Saint Lucia.” While the entire event had the look and feel of a carefully stage-managed event designed more for internal party consumption than for national digestion (the event may have been more concerned with sending signals about ministerial support for PM King than about Frederick’s supposed achievements) it, however, compels consideration of some important questions: Has Richard Frederick performed? Is he really the excellent minister as the PM declared or just another aggressive non-performer?

To answer these questions we need to examine closely the Minister’s record since his appointment as Minister for Physical Planning, Housing, Urban Development and local Government.

HOUSING

Minister Frederick promised the nation an aggressive housing program beginning with the Marigot Housing Scheme, to be followed by similar schemes in Anse-la-Raye and Soufriere. In September 2007, about two weeks prior to a sod-turning ceremony to launch the Marigot Housing Scheme, the Minister told the media that work was progressing smoothly on the project and that the road network was already established. He went on further to say: “I am looking forward within the next year and a half to be in a position to say . . . look . . . I supplied Saint Lucians with a three-bedroom house on five thousand square feet of land for less than two hundred thousand dollars’ . Today, one and a half years later, has Richard Frederick delivered on his brash proclamation?

To date, the sum total of work done on the project is a steep and badly cut portion of road on the southern end of the site at on the proposed site—there are no roads, no drains, no culverts, no power lines, no boundary pegs; just 24.5 acres of land lying in wait for the realization of Frederick’s unfulfilled promise.

But there is worse . . . the Minister promised Saint Lucians that the scheme would be low income housing and that no house would cost above $200,000.00.Today, the reality is different. The cheapest house, originally priced at $100,000.00 and the most expensive at $188,000.00 had by November 2008 escalated. The cheapest house was then $167,715.96 and the costliest, $319,139.49. A purchaser must pay for the land separately at $9 per sq ft leaving an interested purchaser to find, at the minimum, an additional $45,000.00 for the smallest lot (5000 sq ft). Welcome to Richard Frederick’s concept of low cost housing!

We are also left to speculate that four months later it is quite likely that the November 2008 prices may have escalated some more. While this situation will obviously have placed new buyers in a quandary, the real problem lies in respect of persons who have made deposits already, based on the original prices and made banking arrangements to suit. Not surprisingly, talk of housing developments at Anse-la-Raye and Soufriere has evaporated like wisps of smoke, leaving behind nothing but an embarrassing silence and a foul smell of incompetence.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

As head of Physical Development with responsibility for the Development Control Authority (DCA), the Minister has “general direction and control” of the DCA. Further, he is the guardian of the planning law and has ultimate responsibility to make it work well. The manner in which Richard Frederick has exercised this authority will expose whether he is, as he proclaims, a man of the people.

A test case was the illegal construction of a mansion by a wealthy Italian couple at Piton Mitan in Soufriere. The details of that sordid affair need not be repeated here: our interest is in the behaviour of Mr Frederick throughout this episode and the clear message that it sent about his true disposition.

The short facts (as opposed to the myths perpetuated by the Minister and his chorus) are that the Italian couple, the Mignucci’s, were advised by the DCA that their application would be deferred until they had responded to 17 queries raised by the Authority. According to information, this response from the DCA came within the 90-day period provided by law for such a response. Yet, in a show of contempt for the Authority, and in flagrant violation of local law, the couple commenced construction on the property. Not only was this act in violation of the Physical Planning law it was also in breach of the terms of the Aliens’ Landholding licenses granted to the couple. Under the terms of these licenses, the property became liable to be forfeited by Government.

An excellent Minister would have acted promptly to restore the rule of law and ensure that justice is done.  However, Minister Frederick acted in exactly the opposite way: he misled the public and sought to lay blame on the unprotected officials of the DCA in a desperate effort to avoid taking action against the Italian law-breakers. The National Trust whom the Minister had asked to submit a report on the matter has since done so but the Minister has failed to act on any of their recommendations.

Richard Frederick’s refusal to act in this matter is rendered more egregious when one considers the number of small, local persons who are regularly punished by the DCA for breaching the Planning law, in ignorance of the law. By defending the wealthy while leaving the small person at the mercy of the law and the DCA, Mr Frederick sends a clear message to the public that he is no man of the people . . . at least not of or for the small person.

AT TAXPAYERS’ EXPENSE

Not long after assuming office Richard Frederick was arrested in connection with the alleged defrauding of customs duties. If that event was shocking to the Saint Lucian political psyche, accustomed as it is to ministers appearing above the law, what was to follow degenerated into farce, then comedy and, finally, into total dismay.

Attempts to charge the Minister and make him answer to a court of law for the allegations against him turned farcical when it emerged that the Comptroller of Customs was largely unsupported in this matter by the then Commissioner of Police and the DPP. Farce became outright comedy with ‘The Case of the Disappearing File’, a case that would have been a downright challenge even to Angela Lansbury of Murder She Wrote. Somehow, somewhere in our local Bermuda Triangle, (with its points being Customs on Jeremie Street, to the Office of the DPP on Micoud Street to the Commissioner of Police on Bridge Street) the case file mysteriously vanished.

We had not counted on the malevolent character of Mr Frederick for our collective anguish at this punishing state of affairs was further, and painfully, compounded by the announcement that he had commenced legal action to sue the Government. This notorious first in local politics shocked our sensibilities for a number of reasons: firstly, Minister Frederick knew very well that in suing the Comptroller of Customs [the Attorney General] he was in fact suing the Government of Saint Lucia . . . his government. Therefore, he calculatedly chose to take legal action against the very Executive that he is a part of. Secondly, he is also aware that in the event his action was successful, any compensation payable to him would come not from the personal pockets of ministers or the Comptroller but from the collective pocket of taxpayers.

This is particularly shameful as Mr Frederick was elected by these same taxpayers to, among other things, protect the public purse. Therefore, here is PM King’s excellent Minister seeking to further enrich himself by claiming from the same citizens and taxpayers of Castries Central who elected him to office, even as his salary and allowances are being paid out of the very public purse that he so callously seeks to deplete.

KWAZÉ SESION

Sir John Compton’s initial rejection of Mr Frederick as a likely UWP candidate for the by-elections in Castries Central was not bad-mindedness on Sir John’s part. The vehemence of his opposition to Frederick, (he reportedly issued a gag order forbidding any candidate/ caretaker for the UWP from speaking on Mr Frederick’s platform) should have signaled that something smelt fishy.

Surely, a part of Sir John’s fears were realized when his leadership was so coldly rebuffed on the China/Taiwan fiasco by his fledgling ministers, allegedly including Richard Frederick. His role, and that of his supporters at the last UWP Convention was played out on national television for the greater edification of the entire population. It was only then that some within the UWP began appreciating Sir John’s wisdom in his initial opposition to Frederick’s entry into the UWP.

But Sir John was not the only, and may not be the last, leader to suffer from the machinations of this “wanna-be” captain, Stephenson King. Yes indeed, the same one who now sings Frederick’s praises to high heaven suffered even more. Manifesting a calculating capacity to shift alliances as it suits his personal agenda, Frederick quickly found himself at the center of the “King must go gang” and was overheard referring to Montoute as “Mr Prime Minister” after the penultimate crisis meeting at the Auberge Seraphine hotel. Rufus Bousquet’s shocking (to those who don’t know him) about-face left Frederick and the rest of the gang isolated, and it was thus that an uneasy peace settled upon the UWP government.

However, the battle of the Titans is yet to come and even now alliances are being built and consolidated and shady maneuverings are quietly happening as the UWP showdown at high noon looms on the political horizon. At the heart of all this division and destabilization lies Richard Frederick. He spurns the UWP old guard with talk of the “new UWP” obviously having in mind expectations of a new captain as well—himself.
There are also questions and shadows over his anti-crime initiatives, compounded by his own gun wielding actions one of which the court has awarded damages against him.  His repeated attempts to reverse that verdict at the level of the Privy Council, has failed.

THE RECORD IS CLEAR

Much more can be said about the dismal ministerial record of Mr Frederick: the appointment of patently incompetent and unqualified cronies to run local government councils, the NHC and every other body over which he has jurisdiction has meant that these bodies are incapable, from the onset, of delivering quality services to anybody.

At a time when the issue of energy is so critical to the developmental possibilities of all countries, Mr Frederick is yet to make a single statement of relevance on an energy policy for this country. In addition, on the issue of climate change, another life threatening issue, once again there is silence.

In fact, it appeared that the Minister found a regional meeting on this critical issue to be nothing more than an opportunity to fall asleep at the conference table. In the meantime Global warming continues apace and islands like ours remain threatened. By the time Minister Frederick, wakes up we may very well have lost some of our lovely beaches and coastline, not to speak of the marine ecosystems that support our coastal marine life.

So the record is clear: in every sphere of his ministerial responsibility, Richard Frederick has failed to perform. If Minister Montoute and PM King genuinely believe that Richard Frederick has achieved as a minister and can be considered an excellent Minister then this may merely reflect the incredibly low standards this government has set for itself.

Editor’s Note: Mr Stanley Felix is the Chairman of the St Lucia Labour Party Castries Central Constituency Group.