Is the Westminster System Too Refined For Our Political Palate?

Is the Westminster system of governance one of the institutional legacies that have proven inappropriate for our political environment, moreso now that we enjoy self-determination?

When it was handed to us by the British, Saint Lucia was represented by men of substance qualified to lead the nation; men whose intentions were good. They had already proved what they were made of. Belmar, Carasco, Gordon, Lewis, Clarke are some of the names that immediately come to mind. They dominated their era with their flair and their integrity.

The Westminster system now seems inadequate to our needs. In my view, while the system is not flawless, many of our representatives are unable to live in accordance with its ideals. Where else but in Saint Lucia, has a parliament, the most elevated council in the land, been so repeatedly denigrated and demeaned by the rascality of intransigent politicians—and with impunity?

One view being advanced in support of the cited misbehavior is that the rascality equals government’s audacity in taking to the House bills that effectively encourage malpractice while protecting offenders. Few here respect any code of ethics. They conduct themselves in office as they do their personal lives. Most are greedy and ever hungry men who live by their wits. The politics they practice demands neither a sound education nor a social conscience.

Admittedly there appears to have been a recent small improvement. Most Saint Lucians consider our two former prime ministers Allan Louisy and Winston Cenac to be honorable men; men of substance; civilized men. As many would loathe the likes of our former ministers of foreign affairs, trade, industry and tourism, George Odlum and Peter Josie. Such men have conditioned themselves to the rigors and abrasive abuses of power.

While their predecessors have mostly been associated with the provinces of law, business or genuine trade unionism, George Odlum and Peter Josie are full-time politicians. The first suffers from a delusion by now grown into something of a pathological mania that the only position suited to him is that of prime minister. Some months ago, at the highest point of his struggle with then prime minister Allan Louisy, he declared on TV: “In all humility, Saint Lucia needs me more than I need Saint Lucia.” Most who heard him were astonished that an Oxford graduate could reduce himself to such asininity. Peter Josie, on the other hand, an agronomist and product of the University of the West Indies, is notorious in Saint Lucia for talking faster than he thinks. At a public meeting of the St. Lucia Labour Party on the steps of the Castries market, he declared: “Anyone who calls an election at this time does so at the risk of his life!” This surely is the result of a combination of desperation and idiocy.”