HAS THE GOVERNMENT BURST OPPOSITION’S PRETTY BALLOON?

The cold conditioned air of the conference room at the Office of the Prime Minister on Monday did little to dampen my curiosity that had been building up from the moment Nicole McDonald, the prime minister’s senior communications officer, called to tease a big story stemming from news at the weekend. As my media colleagues and I sat in the chilly conference room, a beaming McDonald made nice with one and all, before dropping her political bombshell. I had suspected, as had my colleagues, that what earlier she had hinted at was related to DSH and the arrival of the ostensibly apocalyptic thoroughbreds—that for two years at least had generated much controversy. Somehow the opposition had managed to link the DSH project with the disastrous state of healthcare in Saint Lucia, not without some success. “Finish St Jude Hospital!” was the opposition’s latest mantra, as if they had played no part whatsoever in the fiasco. They said only a “vindictive and callous” government would place “horses before people”.

“The Saint Lucia Labour Party reminds the prime minister that this healthcare crisis in Saint Lucia is more important than the horses that will be given brand new, air-conditioned facilities which will be paid for by money belonging to all Saint Lucians,” said a hyperbolic Moses Jn Baptiste, standing next to his party’s recently elected first deputy leader at a press conference a few weeks ago. “When you compare what is happening with DSH to the crisis in healthcare, you can see how disrespectful, how arrogant this government behaves. For a prime minister to go and smile at the starting gates for horse racing, and less than 100 metres away you have patients crying out for bedsheets and for medication, it says clearly that the priority of the government is really off and not with the people of Saint Lucia; it is with horses.” 

Additionally: “We have heard that the PM and the government—we’ve heard rumours, rumours that there may be purchases of horses and other implements for the horse race and we are hoping, still hoping, that this is not true.” 

Rumours, rumours indeed. Rumours that Jn Baptiste and his party had for months been selling, via a co-operative media, as validated fact!

Back in the chilly conference room McDonald was about to deliver the official word: “Despite the progress that has been made on this development in the south of the island, and as we near the successful hosting of Saint Lucia’s first race, there continues to be a concerted effort by some to tarnish this achievement by spreading outright lies. Permit me to state some facts which should clear up any misconceptions about the government’s part in this project. The Government of Saint Lucia has not purchased, or facilitated the purchase, of any horses for the race, meaning that no millions of dollars have been spent by the Government of Saint Lucia to purchase horses for this project. The construction of the racetrack has been fully funded by the investor. The Government of Saint Lucia has not funded the construction of the racetrack or any other aspect of this project. Let me repeat, no government funds have gone into the racetrack.”

The statement was not without its ambiguities. But it certainly put a dampener on the bonfire of the opposition, if only temporarily. The first media question: “So has the government injected no money at all into this entire project?”

As for the official opposition, the day after McDonald addressed the press the opposition sought to rip the heart out of her statement: “Ms. McDonald claims that the Government of Saint Lucia did not purchase or facilitate the purchase of the horses. However, she failed to inform Saint Lucians who purchased the horses and under what terms and conditions such a purchase took place. The Saint Lucia Labour Party is calling on the Allen Chastanet administration for full disclosure on the recent purchase of horses for the proposed DSH Pitons Cup races.”

On Wednesday Eden Harrington, Director of the Royal Saint Lucia Turf Club, did just that at a special gathering in Vieux Fort. He said the horses that landed here at the weekend had been sourced exclusively out of the United States; that they were purchased by the Royal Saint Lucia Turf Club. 

Russell Lake, fresh off hosting Wednesday’s DSH launch, summed it all up on a local talk show: “When people, ourselves included, don’t know much about something, and we are not being given enough information to come up with our own conclusions, there’ll be speculation. This DSH/racetrack/horses thingy is not going to go away. I will tell this government and the next government to use the airwaves and social media to disseminate information.” 

Lake assured his comrade at arms Andre Paul that from what he had gathered talking with people he’d met the day before, he had formed the impression “they are very disenchanted by what has been coming out on some of the talk shows and from certain regulars who call these shows. I deduced from what they were saying that some of these things are so defamatory . . .”  

The government did not forget Winston Trim. A legendary horse-racing enthusiast, it was he who first brought Teo Ah Khing to Saint Lucia and introduced him to then prime minister Kenny Anthony. Khing was then interested only in establishing a race track here, Trim told the STAR in an exclusive interview weeks before he died in a road accident. Said Trim: “It was Ernest Hilaire and the prime minister who suggested he should expand his horizons to include a hotel and other projects.” Trim also suggested that not long after he introduced Teo Ah Khing to Kenny Anthony, “I was squeezed out. Nobody told me anything.”  

McDonald on Monday said: “The investor has also trained several young Saint Lucians to work on the track, under the Winston Trim training programme, named in honour of the late Winston Trim who sadly passed away in 2017. He had an unwavering passion for this project.”