Hardly had the last word of Prime Minister Allen Chastanet’s New Year’s speech been spoken, than a typically unimaginative video appeared on social media, suggesting the prime minister had put the brakes on further work on the uncompleted St Jude, in the best interests of his father Sir Michael. Asked to comment this week, Sir Michael’s reaction was more of sadness than anything else. “I’ve always campaigned for a big medical university in Saint Lucia,” he said. “When I was chairman of Invest Saint Lucia and when I held that position at the NEC, during the period 2002 and 2006. Dr. Kenny Anthony was then the country’s prime minister. “With Dr. Anthony’s enthusiastic encouragement, I consulted with the architect Neville Skeete about a medical university on the land between St Jude Hospital and the brewery. We also held negotiations with Ross University, then based in Dominica, and with St. Georges University in connection with a start-up operation. In all fairness to Kenny Anthony he was all for it and gave us full authority to go ahead.” Chastanet revealed that a significant portion of Grenada’s GDP is associated with its medical school, “which I wanted to see happen here in Saint Lucia, regardless of which party is in office”.
He recalled that although he had worked long and hard with Sir John, it was Dr. Anthony who had rewarded him with the OBE, not Compton. As for the propaganda video, Sir Michael said, “All this nonsense including threats to my family proves yet again that the Labour Party is concerned more with power than with Saint Lucia’s development. They help create the worst images of Saint Lucia and Saint Lucians generally. How can a prime minister say publicly that an election is between his party and a family? This sort of thing disgusts most Saint Lucians. After all, who knows which family will next be targeted for destruction?”
