Empty rhetoric and dangerous words
If we ever needed proof that PM Gonsalves’ words are nothing more than rhetorical flourish with often dangerous implications and likely serious consequences, look no further than his views on Balliceaux and the state’s complicity in the illegal removal of Chester King, the St. Lucian national allegedly brutally beaten by local police.
In 2015, then opposition leader Arnhim Eustace announced that his party, once elected to office, would offer honorary citizenship to our Vincentian forebears against whom the British colonialists committed genocide and then exiled after the assassination of national hero Joseph Chatoyer in 1795.
It’s a horrific yet heroic story every Vincentian citizen should learn. Between 1763 and 1795, our people waged an epic battle against land-grabbing and slave-loving white colonists to protect our nation’s sovereignty. After the British subdued the resistance and conquered our homeland, they swiftly moved to expel over 5,000 Garifuna and Kalinago patriots.
Firstly, they were taken to Balliceaux, where, in less than a year, over 2,500 of them perished from starvation and brutality. Those who lived through the brutality, torture and humiliation were shipped off to Roatan, an island just off Honduras. Today, in a redemptive story of survival and resilience, over 600,000 of our Garifuna brothers and sisters live in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the United States.
When Eustace, in an honourable bow to history and principle, made the announcement about citizenship, PM Gonsalves was beside himself with rage. In an unforgettable and unforgivable outburst, Gonsalves, pandering to the ignorance of our people, declared:
“I do not support that (citizenship). When you give them honorary citizenship, are they coming out from Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras from Guatemala, they are coming out of those countries for jobs in St. Vincent? …. Are they coming for your houses? … But what are they going to have? Just a piece of paper saying, ‘I declare you to be an honorary citizen?’ You giving them a passport? Because for sure, you have more Garifunas who are not Vincentians outside than the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines as a whole…. Do they want to give honorary citizens the right to vote now? You going give Garifuna the right to vote, but Vincentians who overseas don’t have the right to vote? You going put Garifunas above them who ain’t born in St. Vincent and who are not descended directly?”
In attempting to lampoon Eustace’s idea, Gonsalves conveniently forgot that he, too, was smeared for planning a communist grab of people’s houses and land. He also disregarded that the St. Vincent Reparations Committee, which he established in August 2013, had as one of its guiding principles the right of return of our exiled Garifuna brothers and sisters.
How does he square his ethnic fearmongering with his latest declaration that “our persistent calls for reparatory justice for the genocide committed against our Indigenous people are anchored in the colonial killing of almost 2,500 Garifuna people on Balliceaux”? Gonsalves’ declarations are not grounded in principle. They represent a sham intended to exploit rather than edify?
While the acquisition of Balliceaux is to be applauded, we disagree with the ULP’s conclusion that “the ULP has continually viewed our history and culture as ennobling tools to uplift the Vincentian people and further develop our sense of self”. You cannot speak out of both sides of your mouth and expect respect from serious people.
Chester King and the rule of law
“Never before had there been so much talk about ‘law and justice being close to the people;’ Never before had law and justice been so remote, so deeply estranged from the moral instincts of the people, never before so exclusively subservient to the interest of the ruling clique.” — Ella Lingens-Reiner, Prisoners of Fear.
The official explanation about the illegal removal of the St. Lucian man allegedly beaten by local police continues to unravel. Both PM Gonsalves and the police high command have been caught in lies that are unfitting of senior officials in the state administration. PM Gonsalves, who has an archipelago of ministerial responsibilities, including legal affairs and national security, owes the nation an explanation for the lying tale regarding Chester King.
Both he and Commissioner Enville Williams must confess to their lies or be marked as unfit to lead our security apparatus. Both men have assaulted our Constitution and the cherished legal principles of due process and the rule of law. Their actions are akin to misbehaviour in public office. They must be brought to heel.
In offering a rationale for defying a court order by illegally removing Mr. King from the prison and spiriting him out of St. Vincent, Gonsalves claimed that the act “is not a capital offence nor a ‘main’ event”. If we are to remain a country of laws, nothing is trifling about a constitutional violation. Defying a magistrate’s order to detain Mr. King and have him return to court is not to be slighted.
Gonsalves is a serial violator of our laws. In 2003, his government blatantly violated a restraining order issued by our Court. PR Campbell secured an order restraining the state from removing American Mark Vaughn from St. Vincent. PR got word that the state was about to ship Vaughn out of the state at the request of US authorities. Campbell, in a valiant effort to protect the constitution and his client’s rights, lay down in front of the police vehicle. Gonsalves mocked him for his duty to the law.
It is a major event to have a retired police official improperly sign a production order, which is only signed by magistrates or judges. To claim that St. Lucian authorities asked and came for Mr. King when the local Coast Guard and police officers escorted King to St. Lucia is troubling, to say the least.
To justify this wrongdoing, by claiming that Mr. King was wanted in St. Lucia for two or three murders and had been charged for at least one is to reinvent the factual record. Even if King was wanted for 100 murders, Gonsalves’ illegal deportation of Mr. King remains unconstitutional.
Further to claim as Gonsalves and the police press advisory did that, swift action by the security forces protected Vincentians from a dangerously criminal is contradicted by the facts.
Chester King is not wanted by St. Lucian authorities for multiple murders. King is on bail pending trial for an attempted murder charge. The offensive weapon allegedly used by Mr. King to commit the offence was a knife and not an illegal or prohibited firearm.
Our country is being ruled over by the whim and fancy of an ageing leader who has long displayed a reckless and wanton disregard for the rule of law, due process and the Constitution.
