PM Cautions Press, PS Warns of “Boot Camp” - February 12, 2002

by Earl Bousquet

Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony kicked up an unexpected storm over the weekend after the press reported he’d accused the media of “siding with criminals.” Of course, Dr Anthony never said so. Using popular vernacular, he warned of the possible dangers of the press “bigging-up criminals” by giving more publicity to their criminal activities and actions than to the consequences for or feelings of the victims.

Be that as it may, some media houses insisted the Prime Minister had “attacked the press.”

In response to the Prime Minister, Interim President of the St. Lucia Media Workers Association Jerry George -- who admitted he hadn’t heard what the Prime Minister said -- accused the Prime Minister of attacking the media “on purpose” simply to test their response.

Mr George went on to claim that the Prime Minister had become notable for his “usually off the cuff remarks” and accused him of “using a broad brush to paint all media workers alike.”

The media workers’ spokesman also called on the Prime Minister “to name the offending party so that the particular media house can defend itself.”

For his part, sources close to the Prime Minister said he yesterday laughed off Mr George’s claims, insisting that he was being “misquoted and misinterpreted by an overly sensitive media spokesman.”

The Prime Minister’s Press Secretary also said the complaining media houses “have once again selected and extracted one sentence from an entire hour-long interview and are making hay about something that isn’t what they would like to make it out to be.”

He said in interviews with HTS and RCI: “The Prime Minister isn’t saying anything new. He is saying that making heroes or role models out of criminals by the way we highlight their activity -- at the expense of similar concern for their victims -- could be terrible for the society.”

The Press Secretary said: “Robin Hood, Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde and Al Capone were all criminals made into folk heroes by the media of their time and place. The fact that they were popular and movies were made about them does not make their activity any less criminal. They were thieves, murderers and gangsters.

“The PM was simply saying that if we are not careful, we can be so attracted by the spectacular nature of the crime as to give the criminals too much undeserving publicity in pursuit of being the first to report. He did not name any media house because he did not mean to identify any particular media house. He was making a general point.”

But the single sentence that so attracted the press was not all the Prime Minister talked about during his interview with the local media houses.

Asked why he wouldn’t send a strong signal to the judiciary about what the questioning reporter saw as “apparent leniency” on the part of the judges and magistrates towards criminals, Dr Anthony said he had absolutely “no intention of interfering or encouraging political interference in the work of the judiciary.”

The Prime Minister also spoke to the press about the recent move by Barbados to enter into a bilateral agreement with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in that country’s quest to be declared a cooperative jurisdiction in the fight against money laundering.

He said Barbados played “an important and active role” in working with its other Caricom partners to resist what they saw as efforts by the OECD to single out individual states for special treatment in its “name and shame” approach to listing uncooperative jurisdictions that provided “unfair tax competition” for the powerful OECD member-states.

Dr Anthony said it would have been good if Barbados had carried the rest of Caricom along in its approach and negotiations with the OECD. He said St. Lucia was the “second closest” among Caribbean states to qualify for certification as a clean jurisdiction, but it has been working with Caricom on a joint approach to the OECD.

The Prime Minister said it was not too late for ensuring a joint approach by Caricom and looked forward to its early implementation.

In the interview last Friday requested by DBS, HTS, RSL and GIS following his return from the Caricom and OECS Summits in Belize and Anguilla, respectively, the Prime Minister also acknowledged that although gaming legislation was in place, a casino does not yet exist “because the right investor hasn’t been found.”

He said there had been expectations that several applications would have been made by now, but the events of September 11 cast a damper on and reduced immediate interest in such overseas investments in the tourism sector.

However, he still expected there would be applications in the near future, especially now that the Gaming Authority was adequately staffed.

In other news from the past week, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Dr Didacus Jules was reported as saying the Ministry was considering taking a “Boot Camp” approach to the handling students at certain schools where suspension and other such measures haven’t worked to redress their behaviour.

The PS said he also envisaged some sort of community service to be implemented by students found guilty of infractions of the law in the expression of their levels of indiscipline.

He was speaking just days after there were reports of separate incidents at Castries schools involving possession of a firearm by students and a stabbing also involving students.

The National Crime Commission (NCC) indicated this past week that it too was preparing for new approaches to the old problem of tackling crime.

The Commission’s Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Linwall James, said the NCC was getting ready to enter into social contracts with communities to enlist their support in the crime fight. He said the commission was also preparing for carrying out a national audit on Fear of crime” – all as part of the effort to take new a holistic approach to fighting crime.

Speaking on Constitution Park, Mr James said community policing would be a vital plank in the new efforts to tackle crime, as recommended by the NCC, whose chief colsultant is well-known Trinidadian criminologist Dr Ramesh Deosasan.

He said the NCC would coordinate the efforts of several agencies and will be an advisory body that will seek to marry the strengths of the various entities involved in crime fighting.

Minister of Social Transformation, Ms Menissa Rambally, this past week paid her first official visit to the Castries Market and the Vendors Arcade to acquaint herself with their operations.

The minister said she heard from the market and arcade vendors and she was now “in a better position to understand their plight.”

She said she would now consult with the relevant officials involved at the ministerial levels, with a view to addressing their problems and improving their conditions.

President of the Arcade Vendors Association, Ras Peter “Ipa” Isaac, said he was pleased with the minister’s visit. He also said he looked forward to a similar visit by the Tourism Minister to address the problems vendors face with the opening of the gates to tourists and taxi drivers in the same vicinity.

LUCELEC announced last week that consumers could expect to see a downward change in their fuel surcharge bills this month, as a result of the implementation of new methods of calculation of bills agreed to with the Commission of Inquiry.

According to the company, the new method of calculation will result in fluctuation of the charge whenever there’s a fluctuation in the price of fuel for the company.

However, the interim President of the Consumer Association had launched a vigorous public campaign aimed at encouraging the government to undertake various amendments to the Public Utilities Commission Act and the laws governing LUCELEC and electricity, with a view to curbing on the company’s outright monopoly on the electricity sector.

The St. Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority (SLASPA) last week cleared the air on the controversy served up by some media houses regarding necessary adjustments to the Pointe Seraphine berth.

SLASPA’s General Manager Vincent Hippolyte said the temporary works were necessary to accommodate larger ships carrying more passengers, especially one due in April that will carry 40,500 passengers to St. Lucia between April and October.

Mr Hippolyte clarified that contrary to the view that ships would not be allowed to berth at Pointe Seraphine during the six weeks the works will last, only three ships out of 50 will have to be berthed at the Queen Elizabeth docks on the other side of the harbour.

Finally, in other news from the past week, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a project for construction of a modern fishing complex in Choiseul and the Tapion Hospital announced telemedicine was now available as part of its services.

February 12, 2002

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