A Letter to the Publisher from Peter Josie

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’m forced to break a self-imposed rule set in 2017 to let sleeping dogs lie in their political kennels, however poorly built. This reversal has been brought about by fair Helen’s apparent inability to let go. The man behaves as if Saint Lucia is his personal piece of real estate bequeathed to him by his English father. We once joked that his father, about whom he has said little that anyone would consider flattering, may have been responsible for whatever prevents him from recognizing when to let go. To bow out gracefully takes class, and herein lies the problem. The organized applause and charade at his recent Vieux Fort public meeting further exposed a warped character which you described so skillfully in your book Lapses and Infelicities.

At the Vieux Fort meeting the disrespect (challenge?) to the present leader of the SLP, Philip J. Pierre, was palpable. The meeting was obviously staged-managed to make Pierre look effete and ineffective. Frankly, my greatest difficulty was when he claimed that following the 1997 general elections John Compton requested an audience with him, which was granted. Considering the circumstances, the whole thing sounded to me like pure invention; fantasy. The truth, as I know it, is that the new prime minister went cap in hand to Compton at Mahaut, Micoud to solicit advice on what to do about foreign governments and investors who refused to take his calls. Said the Old Fox to the political lamb, “My advice would be that you give the investors and the officials reason to respect you: call fresh elections!”

The naked emperor left Mahaut crestfallen. Could Compton’s answer have inspired the decision to haul the former prime minister and his replacement Vaughan Lewis before a Commission of Enquiry that declared they were guilty of no wrongdoing? As for Anthony’s description of the DSH developer as “a very clever man”, was that a late discovery, that the gentleman had played him for a sucker, stringing him along until the next general elections? Did he not realize that DSH was merely repeating the same hand Hyatt Hotel had played Vaughan Lewis in 1996, refusing to invest before Lewis called fresh elections? When will our brain-dead university-trained politicians ever learn?

Bearing in mind the Hyatt example, could DSH have been responsible for the surprise election date, almost a full year before constitutionally due? Could his “no talks, no talks, no talks” be a delayed reaction against DSH, not against Allen Chastanet? The former leader seemed to have finally awakened from his immature stupor only to realize way after the fact that he was tricked into calling early elections. Politicians worth their salt know instinctively when to fold ‘em; when to walk away. Successful negotiations turn on an acceptable margin of profit to the investor while creating new jobs and improving the profile of the community and country.