Compton Fingers HTS While Alliance Cries Foul! - April 30, 2001

by Earl Bousquet

St. Lucia’s Prime Minister returned home over the weekend from two important overseas assignments, one resulting in the signing of several bilateral agreements with the Republic of Argentina and the other paving the way for ironing out the financial problems facing the OECS.

But no sooner had he returned from the Grenada OECS summit, he had to get ready for a third summit, this time his Windward Islands counterparts, to discuss bananas.

            In Argentina, the St. Lucia Prime Minister signed several agreements that will result in closer ties and economic cooperation between the two states, including tourism exchanges and investment credit for export-led industries.

            Dr Anthony and his Argentinean counterpart discussed a wide range of issues, including matters of relating to St. Lucia’s Chairmanship of the UN Decolonisation Committee and the Caribbean’s quest for a better banana deal at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

            Immediately after returning home Friday afternoon, the Prime Minister was off the next day to Grenada for the OECS Summit, called by Antigua, to discuss its proposal to relocate the OECS Headquarters from St. Lucia to St. Kitts and Nevis and to cut costs and improve efficiency.

            The Grenada meeting appointed a seven-member committee under East Caribbean Central Bank Governor, Mr Dwight Venner, to look into the matter of restructuring the organisation with a view to reducing costs.

However, the Heads did not agree to remove the Secretariat from St. Lucia. Instead, they acknowledged the seriousness of the financial situation facing the OECS – a situation underlined by the decision of its Director General to resign.

Following the Grenada meeting, it became the task of the St. Lucia Prime Minister to arrange to host his other three Windward Islands counterparts for a summit on bananas with European union and WIBDECO officials. The meeting (carded for today, Wednesday) will address the latest developments in the banana industry and chart a way forward for the coming period.

But much also happened in the days prior to the Prime Minister’s return from his overseas regional and international assignments.

Last week Thursday, Fr Charles Gaillard died of a heart attack in Martinique, becoming the second fatal victim of the Cathedral attack of December 31 last. The priest died just hours after a thanksgiving mass was celebrated in his honour, as the Catholic Church here made preparations for his return after what was described as a miraculous recovery.

Since his death, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has announced the two men accused in the case will now have an additional, second murder charge slapped on them.

The past week also heard more details about the merger between the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and the St. Lucia Development Bank (SLDB) to create the Bank of St. Lucia. NCB Chairman Victor Eudoxie said the merger would create a banking conglomerate that will offer increased opportunities and earnings for shareholders and that government’s share ownership would continue to be no more than 40%.

But the past week was not without its share of local pre-election politricks.

Sir John Compton claimed he’d been “approached” by the dismissed workers from Helen IT and asked to intervene on their behalf. As he has done every time he feels there’s the possibility of earning some political mileage for himself and hi “Alliance”, the former UWP Leader wrote the parent company, HTS, accusing it of shortchanging the terminated workers.

Some media houses were also quick to latch onto this case, as it suit their claims that the economy is doing so bad that businesses are closing down. One media house even sought to liken the Helen IT situation to the sneaky pullout by PLU last year, which left the workers concerned penniless.

HTS, which still has several hundred other workers employed at the same former PLU premises at Union, said it was in touch with its lawyers and the Labour Department on the issue. Management assured, however, that the company was ready to make good if it was found guilty of the claims by the former Prime Minister that it had acted outside of the country’s labour laws.

But even while Sir John was writing letters and articles about himself and disseminating them through his contacts in the pro-Alliance media to unfairly accuse HTS of being cruel the workers concerned, his fellow Alliance co-leaders were themselves crying foul against the local media.

The media houses under control of the main movers and shakers in the unholy Alliance came out with blazing guns last weekend. They accused other media houses of unfairly reporting the obvious discomfort in the UWP’s ranks generated by the selection and identification of a host of closet personalities as potential candidates for the alliance, at the possible expense of potential UWP candidates.

However, more questions were added to the long list of unanswered last weekend, when UWP Leader Dr Morella Joseph, in her effort to assure concerned members that the UWP’s interests will not be sacrificed on an Alliance altar, proceeded to reveal that this just might very well happen.

Dr Joseph confirmed the fears of many in the UWP that the still shaky Alliance intends to use the UWP’s current organisational base and structure to prepare for the upcoming general elections.

She explained that “in the establishment of a national organisational base for the Alliance, the existing structures of the UWP will be used as a foundation, with the appropriate adjustments or modifications where necessary.”

The question still therefore remained last week, as to what would be the fate of the UWP in the period before and after the next general elections.

            Meanwhile, members of George Odlum’s Castries North east Constituency group last week reportedly expressed concern about the leadership structure of the alliance and called on their MP to inform his colleagues in the Alliance of their concern.

            Here too, many continue to detect early signs that (as with everywhere George Odlum goes) a leadership struggle in the Alliance, if not already on the cards and under the covers, is certainly taking shape.

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Search Prime Minister Press Secretary ] [Site Help]

© 2001 Government Information Service. All rights reserved.

Read our privacy guidelines.