At this time in our challenging global climate our country’s Prime Minister is still pursuing a conventional political approach to solving social and economic problems on the island.
While I am not surprised with the outcome of his speech, Stephenson King continues to share lengthy speeches that lack fundamental essence and innovation necessary to spur realistic and positive changes in our country’s agenda.
The Lucian Peoples Movement (LPM) after analyzing Sunday night’s address to the nation concludes that our Prime Minister is still living in a dreamworld. How can our government hint upon the prospects for positive growth in 2011 when it has not shown how it is going to achieve macro- economic stability and sustainable debt servicing during the Post-Hurricane Tomas period?
It is fair to say that our creditor’s main interest is in knowing how we are going to repay our mounting national debt on time. However, the St Lucian people have a different concern, and that concern lies in knowing how is the Prime Minister going to repay the national debt without reducing needed social services or cutting back on allocations for education, health care, housing and infrastructural development.
Our Prime Minister said that, “Revenue collection in the fiscal year 2010/11 has strengthened relative to the previous year, mainly as a result of initial economic recovery.” However, revenue increase, in and of itself, does not define sustainable growth if other important economic and financial indicators are not leveraged to meet our capacity to grow. To achieve that end, integral structural adjustments, socially and economically responsible practices coupled with following government protocol are steps in the right direction.
The EC$50,000 that the Prime Minister claims he gave to each Parliamentarian through the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is a “slap in our peoples’ face, and an insult to their intelligence.” When the UWP won the elections 3 years ago, party members received US$1 million dollars from the Taiwanese government. The questions the nation wants answered, are: “How was that money used? Is it all used up? And, who is accounting for its use?
Only one constituency leader has displayed true social and economic responsibility by accounting for how her funds were used and allocated. If each UWP parliamentarian who received funds from the Taiwan government gave at least half of that money to constituency development, as a show of gratitude to the people who put them in that position of trust, our people would be more responsive to assisting the government with its rehabilitation efforts.
Such a commitment would exemplify for the world—a government for the people and by the people and would go a long way in making St Lucia a more attractive recipient of international aid.
Many St Lucians have bread and butter issues that need addressing and they need representative that they can trust to handle the affairs of constituency and country.
Our Prime Minister should refrain from engaging in “scapegoat” type speeches that do not add value to our peoples’ expectations of what will or can the government do to get them out of their socio-economic and financial struggles.
The Lucian Peoples Movement is a political party that has studied the challenges associated with rapid global transformations in the context of international competitiveness. It has tailored its findings to address the needs of small island economies like St Lucia and the rest of CARICOM. Needless to say, the LPM policies and plans speak of the need to strike a balance between the social, economic and financial interest of its people and the need for national development.
St Lucia—fundamental change is on its way!
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