The Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Lenard Montoute accused the government of hypocrisy and claimed that Dr Kenny Anthony has been inconsistent with his promises made during the SLP 2011 election campaign.
Speaking with the STAR, Montoute was quite passionate as he pointed out several instances where he believes that the governing party had bamboozled to the people of St Lucia and gotten away scot free.
“We as an opposition have the responsibility to hold them to the promises that they made. We want to ensure that they live up to what they promised the people and live up to what they had the electorate buy into,” said Montoute.
Montoute expressed: “I remember up until the 27 of November they were promising better days, the electorate went to the poles on the 28th and bought into that promise. Then by the 29th, Dr Anthony was singing a different song saying that we need to prepare ourselves for tougher days.”
With strong hand gestures and a facial expression that revealed much disgust and dissatisfaction, Montoute stated that it was unfair to the populace and that they had been taken for a ride.
“I think it is totally unacceptable and we will not allow that wool to be pulled over the eyes of the population because there is nothing you can tell me that happened between the 27th and the 29th that Dr Anthony and the St Lucia Labour Party was not aware of and that suddenly they realize they couldn’t deliver better days and that it was tougher days.”
The former parliamentarian explained that a good government would not give people false hope just to win the election. He further accused Dr Anthony and the St Lucia Labour Party of making false promises that they knew were impossible to deliver to the people of St Lucia. “They have to be held to the standards that they promised, and they set standards just about on everything during our term and they will have to be held accountable in upholding these standards,” said Montoute.
Mr Montoute took some time to reflect on the tenure of his government and pointed out that the then opposition SLP crucified the UWP administration for not doing enough to boost the economy, adding that they have regurgitated their words and are now admitting that the challenges that the previous administration encountered are realities brought about by a failing world economy. He stated that the SLP administration knew of these problems even while they were in opposition but failed to admit to its existence only to capitalize on an opportunity to play mind games with the population in order to win the general election.
This, Montoute said, is hypocrisy at its highest level.
“We do not accept hypocrisy from the highest level as an opposition, we will expose the hypocrisy,” Montoute said before targeting Dr Anthony who he claimed, “condemned Ausbert d’Auvergne roundly when he was a minister in the United Workers Party government; he accused him of all kind of ills.
“ Dr Anthony went to the extent of saying he would discourage investors to come to St Lucia as long as Ausbert was holding the ministries that he held. Today, the very Ausbert d’Auvergne is being embraced by Dr Kenny Anthony. I assume all the ills have vanished. I assume he has been washed clean by the blood of Labour and so now he is acceptable, he can be presented as a messiah to the people of St Lucia.”
Montoute urged the people of St Lucia to reject such behaviour and hold the government accountable for all of these issues that he believes are being overlooked.
The senator recalled a comment made by Labour Party members soon after the UWP had won the 2006 general election: “We are going to make it impossible for the United Workers Party to govern, they said. And ‘we are going to take back our country’—meaning they had no respect for the wishes of the electorate.”
Montoute explained that his party, the main opposition, will not make such statements and are looking after the best interest of the country.
“If the government is working in the right way and moving in the right direction, we will work with them,” he said.
“However, it is our responsibility, it is our job, to highlight the short falls, the wrongs, the bluffs, the hypocrisy and we are going to do that and nobody will prevent me from speaking out on what I see is going wrong in this government.”
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