Will the resurrected Ubaldus Raymond Scandal summon up new ghosts?

As I walked to work on a recent Wednesday morning, it seemed everyone I encountered along the way gave me an odd look. I had a pretty good idea why. I had suddenly become something of a curiosity, thanks to a man I met in Barbados while on a media tour. He had sent to a fellow STAR employee a recording of our most recent phone conversation—in the course of which I had supplied him with details of an interview conducted with a high-ranking government official, and which I planned to publish, despite I did not believe a word of what he told me.

I had also supplied my Bajan friend with details of private discussions with my publisher. I had complained about discrimination suffered at work, about my paltry salary compared to what some of my less talented female co-workers were paid. When he showed scant interest, I shifted gears. I suggested that on my next visit to Barbados I’d like to meet him somewhere less public than a coffee bar. That certainly caught his attention. Summoning up the Delilah in my soul, I hinted that when next he visited Saint Lucia he should make sure to give me a call at work. It would be a simple matter to invent an excuse to slip out for a couple hours. His damning record of our phone conversations had also reached my husband.

And now that I’ve aroused your curiosity, dear reader, let me assure you I would not still be employed by the STAR if there were any truth to me story about of a Bajan acquaintance. But something close to my fabricated report did happen to 50ish Senator Ubaldus Raymond, as by now most Saint Lucians know. Especially if you are a supporter of the opposition party, chances are you’ve dismissed Raymond’s persistent denials, in particular his claims that he was set up by would-be blackmailers aided and abetted by a certain honorable member of parliament.

Before introducing his guest on last week’s episode of TALK, host Rick Wayne had his own confession to make. “I’ve never invited anyone to appear on this show just to make them look bad,” he informed his audience.” They can do that all by themselves. If tonight’s special guest, Senator Ubaldus Raymond, chooses to be less than honest with his answers, that, as they, is his bee’s wax.”  

Raymond’s reaction: “Well, first of all, let me thank you, Rick, for inviting me on this evening. I’ve not come here to discuss a crime that Ubaldus has committed. I’m not here to discuss any violation of anybody’s rights, except my own perhaps. I am not here to acknowledge any abuse of the Constitution of Saint Lucia, which I’ve always respected.” He said he had absolutely no problem talking about the day’s hottest topic. He had accepted the host’s invitation without hesitation because he had nothing to hide. “There is no shame, no embarrassment on my part. I have not committed any crime or done anything contrary to my oath of office.” 

Of course, his audience would be the judge of that. Raymond would have to explain to viewers what had transpired while he was on government business in Trinidad that had prompted the attorney general’s office to announce a related investigation. He said he and nine other government employees had gone to Trinidad on a fact-finding mission connected with digitizing several of the government’s services. Four of them were invited to a party during the weekend before Trinidad’s Carnival Monday and Tuesday. As reported by this newspaper two weeks ago, while in Trinidad the senator was introduced to a woman with whom he’d engaged in several phone conversations, recordings of which featured on social media where they were rated by all and sundry as “ salacious and disgusting,” nevertheless worthy of sharing countless times.

Asked by Rick Wayne about his feelings upon realizing that what he’d considered private conversations had become irresistible Internet fodder, Raymond replied: “I was taken aback.” As for the demonstrated wide interest in certain intimate aspects of his life, he said he had not been keeping tabs on that. While on the phone to his seductive Trinidad friend, did he not consider the repercussions from his earlier experience with two 18-year-old female students who had proved less interested in the workings of government than in the field of extortion? He said the young women never crossed his mind, “because I believed what transpired among us was a private conversation and individuals have private conversations all the time.” Which was true. Then again, his lubricious WhatsApp interactions with the students two years earlier were also conceivably never undertaken with the public appetite in mind. 

A personal note: I am always conscious of the power of technology when using the Internet, even with people I know. (By reliable account Raymond had met his Trinidadian multi-tasker in person just once.) In the senator’s pants, I think I would have been, after that 2017 experience with the students, a lot more cautious in my use of cell phones. But then, easy for me to say when I have no idea what rocks Raymond’s clock. Yes, I did say clock! 

Besides, as Raymond put it on TALK: “If we have to go down that road, not one of the parliamentarians can stand. Not one of them. There are those who do stuff and are still doing stuff, and they will never be caught. In fact, some of them have done criminal stuff . . .” The ever-cautious host interrupted him, maybe to avoid possible slander suits. Since his widely discussed TALK appearance, some have been saying Raymond threw his party colleagues under the bus, a line he has brushed off with another similarly suicidal: “Those I referred to know themselves!”

Never mind he believes what happened to him “could happen to anyone else,” on Monday the government announced that Senator Ubaldus Raymond had handed in his resignation. 

Shortly before the hardly surprising public announcement, Senator Fortuna Belrose told curious reporters: “Social media does whatever it wants, how it wants, when it wants. We have no regulations.” In his own turn, Raymond publicly thanked his wife, his church, and in his female friends whom he says continue to stand by him, even as they urge him to remain strong.

As for Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, he said Raymond had demonstrated while in office his commitment to his country, had served it well, and never faltered in his official responsibilities.” All of which sounded as if the prime minister were addressing an award ceremony, if not a graveside eulogy.  

 The preceding first appeared in the STAR under a different title on 4 May, 2019. On the Internet last week, several promos, including video clips from conceivably recent interviews, promised fresh insights into the Ubaldus Raymond saga. The impression conveyed was that come Tuesday evening July 16, the popular Untold Stories program would treat viewers to previously unknown aspects of one of the nation’s more notorious political scandals. Popular reaction to the latest chapter has so far been mixed but swift. For the one-eyed “dat dead arready” brigade, the so-called Ubaldus Affair was resurrected in the service of the opposition United Workers Party. Others discerned an attempt at drawing public attention away from controversies currently plaguing the Philip J. Pierre government. Typically, all sides are gorging on the subcutaneous fat while the meat of the matter—the extortion allegations, the damning voice notes and telling texts, how a police matter involving government personnel was settled via mediation—remains largely ignored. —Rick Wayne