CAN A GOVERNMENT WALK ON SEA WATER?
As the Unity Labour Party government continues on its committed and focused people-centre quest to lift SVG higher, the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) has been spouting bile, anger, divisiveness, and anti-developmental follies in total disregard of the people’s welfare and the circumstances of life, living, and production in a small island developing state like SVG.
In the process, it is crystal clear to all persons of reasonable temper that the ULP has a plan, based on solid principles and policies, to take SVG to higher heights now and in the future, while the opposition NDP is backward; it is locked in the past knowing that its future is behind it. Thus, the NDP is bound to end in grief.
Moreover, the NDP’s criticisms of the ULP are so unfounded, silly, even infantile. Indeed, oft-times reasonable persons think that the NDP believes that the ULP government possesses divine qualities veritably to walk on water. In a peculiar way, the NDP compliments the ULP government by expecting it to be possessed of magical qualities. Only Jesus walks on the seas:
“But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves; for the wind was contrary.
“And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them [the disciples] walking on the sea.” [Matthew, Chapter 14, verses 24-25.]
EXCELLENT WORK FROM ULP, NONSENSE FROM NDP
The ULP government is responding extremely well to the disaster occasioned by Hurricane Beryl on July 1, 2024, just over 90 days ago. Objective observers regionally and internationally have commended the government on its response thus far; the vast majority of Vincentians are satisfied that the government has responded well in its relief, recovery, and reconstruction efforts and its plans going forward. In every material immense progress has been made. But there is much more work to be done.
At the same time, the ULP government is proceeding apace very well with its capital projects and its sustainable development programmes.
Yet, the opposition NDP and their fellow-travellers, including an array of opportunists, are nitpicking here and there seeking to sow confusion and division, all in their partisan political interest.
More and more the people of SVG are getting fed up with the grumpy old men of the NDP led by Lorraine Friday, Daniel Cummings, and St. Clair Leacock. The NDP and their fellow-travellers, in their political conduct, remind people of the dog in one of Aesop’s Fables, “The Dog and the Reeds”:
“It so happened that a dog wanted to bend and excrete waste where some rough bushes were growing, and one of the reeds gave the dog a good poke in its bottom. The dog retreated a few feet away and barked at the bushes, but the one that had poked the dog said, ‘I’d rather you bark at me from a distance than mess me up and foul me from nearby.” [Fable Number 566.]
The people of SVG have no problem with the NDP barking from a distance, but not messing up on them from near! In 2001, the NDP left a lot of mess for the ULP to cleanup! The people do not want that mess again, now that the ULP is lifting them higher!
NDP OF 2024 IS WORSE THAN NDP OF 1984 – 2001
What makes the prospect of a NDP government more dreadful today than before is that the NDP of 2024 is much worse than the NDP of 1984 to 2001, in terms of both policies and personnel.
Let’s deal with the personnel first: Their current leader Lorraine Friday is no match for James Mitchell or Arnhim Eustace. Parnel Campbell was way superior to St. Clair Leacock; John Horne was a cut above Daniel Cummings, by far; Fitz Bramble is no match in any way to Carlyle Dougan; Jerry Scott was hugely superior to ‘Nature’ Stephenson; Allan Cruickshank was better in every material particular to Israel Bruce; Herbie Young was miles ahead of the novice Conroy Huggins; Johnathan Peters was chalk to Neptune’s chalk; Yvonne Francis-Gibson was a beacon of light compared to Kay Bacchus; Burton Williams was towering in every way compared to the puny Andrew John; Monty Roberts was the genuine article from the bowels of the people which Shevern John is not; Terrance Ollivierre is a complete waste of time compared to Mary Hutchinson or Stephanie Browne; Alpian Allem was patriotic, committed to the people, and wise while the hurry-come-up Kishore Shallow is a flim-flam opportunist, a drift wood of no consequence.
Some good work, here and there, was done by the NDP of 1984 to 2001, but their policies on the economy, education, health, airports, seaports, electricity, social protection, housing, poverty reduction, tackling corruption, disaster preparedness, and offshore finance, sports, governance, culture, and foreign policy were cock-eyed and messy. Today’s NDP with Friday, Cummings and Leacock as captain and chief mates, in tandem with Luzette King, Keith Joseph, Dougie De Freitas, Zita and Jomo and such-like as engine-room drivers, have wrong and self-serving policies which would wreck SVG and turn our country back 30 years. But we are not going back. Moreover, the extreme bile, anger, and intolerance of the current NDP crop are a combustible mix in joinder with their wrong-headed policies and unworthiness; thus, disaster looms for our blessed country if the NDP is ever given a chance again to govern especially with this current lot.
NDP’S WRONG-HEADED POLICIES
At the top of the list of the NDP’s wrong-headed policies are the following:
- Depending mainly for revenue from the increasingly discredited selling of our citizenship and passports to shady foreigners; their policy here is wrong in principle and practice.
- Breaking relations with Taiwan which has done so much good for SVG and replacing it with mainland China which would not bring comparable benefits and would compromise our country in more ways than one; this policy is plain dotish, and the people of SVG do not support it.
- Reintroducing austerity which is a wrong and dangerous idea for SVG; we continue to need the balance of prudence and enterprise in fiscal management as advocated by the ULP.
- Stalling or rolling back the Education, Health and Housing Revolutions, and Physical Infrastructure, and the battle against climate change.
- Cutting VAT by one-fifth which would lose over $50 milling in revenue and notreduce price-rises; all that would result is handing over $50 million to supermarket owners and merchants of all kinds, and then taxing people alternatively to make up for the self-created fiscal hole of $50 million.
- Holding back the advances made under the ULP in sports, culture, and the further ennoblement of our Caribbean civilisation. NDP “barbarians” will run those facets of public policy. You know the names of “the internet crazies” and the likes of Keith Joseph; no sane person wants all that.
- Abandoning the progressive, non-aligned, and beneficial foreign policies of the ULP, and restoring and extending servility to the North Atlantic powers with absolutely no benefit to SVG.
LIES GALORE BY NDP
The NDP, and its fellow-travellers, tell humongous lies daily about the ULP government, the condition of SVG, and the continued prospects of a ULP government. These lies and distortions cover central areas such as fiscal matters, the economy, governance, capital projects, the operations of statutory corporations and state-owned companies, foreign policy and regional integration, disaster management, and the leadership of Comrade Ralph.
Amidst the lies on policies are the calumnies and abuse heaped upon Comrade Ralph, the leaders of the ULP, and their families daily by the NDP, their associated opportunists, and supportive “internet crazies”; they are outrageous, beyond the pale. But God is not sleeping. “Vengeance is mine” says the Lord. It is interesting to note the number of these purveyors of calumnies and lies about our comrades, especially about Comrade Ralph, who have been struck down in one way or another by the hand of God. They should be introspective and reform their ways but they would not; they are running towards damnation, but they will not be allowed to take our country with them.
NOT TURNING BACK
As Shanelle Nanton sung years ago in a classic ULP song: “We nah turn back”. Forward with the Comrade and the ULP. A sixth term for the only General inna d yard!
