Ask not who said it first. I cannot be certain, even though I strongly suspect it might be me. If indeed it is, then all the more proof that I am the genius I’ve always known myself to be. (Permit me a minute or two yet again to pat my humble self on the back!) Who said what? Oh, yes, I almost forgot (blame my soothing touch). Here, then, is the line to which humbly I refer: Regardless of what some notorious starry-eyed tartuffes might say to the contrary, still there are times when the best remedy for stress and frustration is to give in to temptation.
What a relief it was, for me, when on Thursday morning the rarely heard Director of Public Prosecutions came out publicly to validate at a press conference all I’ve been saying from 2012 about the locally built bridge to nowhere, commonly referred to as IMPACS. Alas, I cannot legitimately hog the credit for the DPP’s wholly unexpected public showing. Not to be discounted is the vicious contribution of super suave housing minister Senator Stanley Felix, who landed the straw that finally may have broken the back of Mrs. Charles’ camel.
With doubtless meticulously chosen musical accompaniment, Felix demanded from the steps of the Castries market that the DPP do what the Labour government had a decade or so ago appointed her to do—or ship out “in the public interest.”
Referencing the infamous Town & Country Report initiated by the current administration and involving Stephenson King’s UWP government, the senator cited “all of the funds that were misappropriated” during their term in office.
Additionally: “I will say it again tonight. I will issue a cry on behalf of the people of Saint Lucia. I, Stanley Felix, minister in the SLP government, resident of Castries Central, citizen of this country, ask you Madam DPP, to issue a statement on the report that is before you. We want it, the people want it, it is only fair that you do what is just and right in the interest of this country. If you can’t do that, I suggest you resign, retire or just quit.”
Talk about loose lips sinking ships! Senator Felix, like the DPP and his own party leader, is also a lawyer.
Felix had to have known his scathing declaration would effectively open a Pandora’s box; that he would be handing the much maligned DPP the perfect opportunity to tackle once and for all the repeated suggestions that she, more than anyone else, was responsible for the regrettable state of Saint Lucia’s justice system. (See DPP’s statement elsewhere in this issue.)
That I was especially interested in what she had to say about the so-called IMPACS report will come as no big surprise to regular readers and viewers of this newspaper and TALK.
On countless occasions I had often dismissed as the closest thing to an egregiously miscalculated ruse with self-serving motives—all of them reeking of desperate politics. And now the price will be paid, alas by all of us, the whitened sepulchers included.
For the benefit of the conveniently incurable amnesiacs, I proffer a reprint of my prophetic article published on October 17. (See IMPACS: The Deadly Fallout, in this issue)
