There are few things the two main political parties agree on. By now it’s common knowledge they do not see eye to eye on the immediate future of St. Jude reconstruction. The UWP views the situation as a dumpster fire fanned by the ineptitude and inaction of the previous administration. The SLP insists on turning out the light on the fact that it did not deliver on its repeated promise of “a state of the art hospital before the end of 2015”— while admonishing the current administration for not completing what was left undone in 2016. Both sides accuse the other of gross incompetence and self-interest bordering on corruption.
The two parties seem never on the same page when it comes to the performance of the tourism industry. The incumbents—irrespective of political party—invariably tout the tourism figures of the day as the best ever. The same individuals, when in opposition, dismiss similar claims by the government as misleading.
Earlier this year the opposition’s spokesman for Commerce, Investment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, not to mention recently minted deputy leader of the SLP, not so subtly implied the tourism minister Dominic Fedee had denied Saint Lucians “a truthful appraisal of the tourism industry”. He averred that the arrivals data presented was “very revealing and exposes the incompetence of the minister in ways he is not aware of”. In March of 2015, then opposition senator Fedee dismissed claims by the day’s SLP administration of “substantial gains within virtually all the categories within the sector.”
Perhaps their only area of agreement is the island’s current crime situation. In an address to the nation on May 30, 2010 then Prime Minister Stephenson King said: “Too many of us appear to have lost all respect for human life, including our own and the lives of our families. We turn on each other like rabid wolves at the slightest disagreement . . . such senseless violence, such anger and manifested self-hate.”
In his New Year’s address in January 2015, a hapless Kenny Anthony typically passed the buck to a higher power. “As a nation,” said the prime minister, “we must pray for a more harmonious, tranquil and peaceful 2015.” In an earlier time he had pleaded directly to the criminals in his constituency to “please let the people have some peace for Christmas!”
During a March 26, 2019 House sitting Prime Minister Allen Chastanet appealed for bipartisan support and participation in the government’s efforts at ameliorating violent crime in the country. He referenced a Cedars mini-mart owner who was shot dead at his place of business only one week earlier. Compounding the problem are the potential effects of local crime on the mainstay of our economy: tourism.
In a 2007 Joint Report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Latin America and the Caribbean Region of the World Bank, it was stated: “Through multiple channels, crime and violence threaten the welfare of Caribbean citizens. Beyond the direct effect on victims, crime and violence inflict widespread costs, generating a climate of fear for all citizens and diminishing economic growth. Crime and violence present one of the paramount challenges to development in the Caribbean.”
The report cited in part the 2006 New Year’s address by Jamaican prime minister P.J. Patterson: “Without a doubt, the high level of violent crime remains our most troubling and pressing problem.” Also referenced was a statement by the president of the Trinidad and Tobago parliament, George Maxwell Richards, in which he bemoaned the fact that the country was in crisis due to the escalating crime rate.
Then there was the 2018 report by the Intelligence Unit of The Economist that noted: “Violent crime remains an urgent public and political concern throughout the
English-speaking Caribbean.” The report went on to cite the 2016 murder rates of some Caribbean territories: Antigua, 20 murders, a rate of 25 per 100,000 (an increase of 150% from the previous year); Barbados, 31 murders, a rate of 11 per 100,000 (an increase of 48% from the previous year); and Saint Lucia which recorded 60 murders, a rate of 34 per 100,000 (a 100% increase from the previous year).
Politicians on both sides of the political divide agree on the main causes of crime: poverty, poor education, parental neglect, the drug trade, unemployment among them. But one significant cause remains unmentioned—the politicians themselves! There are the perennial administrative shortcomings of a lack of sustainable job creation; the persistent neglect of the police force, human services and other public institutions; an apparent inability to tailor our education system to fit our specific societal and economic needs.
Beyond these obvious failings there are more subtle influences of the political class which have gone largely ignored, primarily because we have been conditioned to view them as inconsequential . . . normal. In more evolved societies politicians are received as what they are: policy makers and wannabe policy makers. It is understood they are not above bending the truth to promote favourable narratives for the purposes of elections. When their machinations go beyond the mere politicking of dissembling and half-truths, they are judged at the ballot box. If they run afoul of the law they are forced to resign or face prosecution. These societies have movie and TV stars, star athletes, singers and highly respected war heroes. These role models are particularly influential among the young. They have the ability to shape their views, ideals and actions.
In our own one-horse town, however, our options are limited to calypsonians and politicians. The first mentioned grab our attention for a period of about six weeks every year and our interaction with them is limited to that of spectators at shows and singing along when their music comes over the radio. On the other hand, politicians are daily in our faces. They are written about in the newspapers; their actions and inactions are the subjects of televised news items; they hold press conferences and deliver addresses to the nation. At election time they preach to us from their decorated platforms, visit our neighbourhoods and even our living rooms personally and via TV.
Perhaps inadvertently, they are our children’s role models, even when they make headlines for reasons that would embarrass drunken sailors. Their public behaviour, for example, flagrantly flouting basic principles of decorum and ethics, a long time ago became the norm. In short, ours has become, under the influence of unconscionable politicians and those who support them, tacitly and otherwise—including fear of victimization—a society that has gradually morphed from an almost childlike innocence
to a community of connivers and parasites. And the price will be paid. Indeed, we’ve been paying a long time, whether or not we know it!
In 1979, five months after gaining nationhood, a William Peter Boulevard UWP rally was unforgettably pelted with rocks and human excrement by over-excited supporters of the newly elected-to-office SLP. Are you still surprised that we are not a united people? Were you surprised when an employee of a pizza parlour was shot and left to die in a Vieux Fort street while ghoulish bystanders took photos and recorded videos? Were you surprised when a Laborie mother of three was brutally murdered and buried in a shallow grave a stone’s throw from her home? Are you surprised when arguments between friends are settled by gun or cutlass?
If we continue to delude ourselves; if the fault is always someone else’s—the other political party’s, the other man or woman’s, never ourselves—then count on, the consequences will be dire. For whatever is left of our nation!
