Vaughn Lewis is UWP’s New “Stepping Stone…”

by Earl Bousquet

In the past week, the government got support for the environmental levy from the insurance industry and for the new telephone rates from Sam Flood as various sectors continue to respond to the introduction of the levy and the announcements of the new rates, both to come on stream as of June 1. The Prime Minister also led a delegation to Kuwait in search of assistance for road development while Cable & Wireless said it stood to lose, not gain, from the new rates. And the ruling St. Lucia Labour Party observed the 5th anniversary of its landmark 1997 victory over the United Workers Party (UWP), which last weekend held its annual convention and elected a new leadership.

President of the Insurance Council of St. Lucia, Mrs Arletta Jeffrey, said the industry supported the levy because it increased the value of cars on the road. She said it will take some time before the real market value gains as there are several cars in bonds that will have to be sold before the new rates fully take effect.

Other stakeholders to benefit from the levy have not been as forthcoming as the insurance industry. New car dealers, for example, have been more muted than quoted. Quite a few had no problem expressing their support for the government’s policy moves, but few wanted to go on public record.

Most acknowledged they had long been awaiting such a positive move to level the playing field for them, but several shied away from saying so because they did not want to be seen as engaging in battle with another set of business competitors. And still others privately acknowledged they didn’t want to be wrongfully tagged as supporters of the ruling party or government, in a society where people are judged more by their words than their deeds.

Totally oblivious to the fact that there are still hundreds of unsold imported used cars available in bonds across the country that will not be affected by the levy and over ten thousand on the roads that can be bought without having to pay levy prices, the Civil Service Association (CSA) also came out in opposition to the levy, saying it will adversely affect public servants who are traveling officers and may need to purchase cars.

In more fallout from the used car debate, a used car dealer (who’s also in the business of importing new cars) this week announced he was taking court action against the One Caribbean newspaper, published by Denis Dabreo, for publishing statements by former Prime Minister Sir John Compton that suggested the car dealer may have been involved in corruption.

According to lawyers for Mr Goddard Darcheville, their client was libeled and his integrity was attacked and they are seeking apologies or damages.

Response to the new Cable & Wireless telephone rates have also been loud in many instances, with even talk show hosts expressing their own doubts in exchange for informed analysis.

Even after the Prime Minister and the ministers concerned released the figures, skeptics took to the airwaves to claim “a sellout” – even though they were unable to show where the supposed rip-off was.

After many continued to express personal opinion and suspicion in the name of fact, Cable & Wireless issued a statement in which the company said it actually stood to lose while customers stood to gain from the new rates, which would be applied in a competitive environment.

The hoteliers became the latest to add their voices to the debate on the new telephone rates, with SLHTA President Berthia Parle saying they would have preferred to have been consulted on the issue before the government and Cable & Wireless signed the agreement.

The hoteliers are contending that with the amount of phone calls they have to make, particularly in arranging flight and travel arrangements, will add up to a loss for the.

However, Mrs Parle said they were willing to wait until they receive their first bills to make a better assessment of the impact of the new rates on the hospitality sector.

The country was still discussing the used car issue and the rates question when Prime Minister Anthony left the island last Thursday at the head of a delegation to Kuwait.

Accompanied by Communications & Works Minister Felix Finnisterre, the Prime Minister’s trip came against the background of a one-million-dollar grant already awarded by the Kuwaiti Fund for a feasibility study into the proposed four-lane highway.

The delegation is also expected to open talks on possible further assistance for a proposed four-lane highway linking Castries to Gros Islet, which local planners see as a more urgent priority than that proposed for the East Coast, to link Castries with Vieux Fort.

The increased level of foreign assistance being enjoyed by St. Lucia was underlined in the past week with the visit by local, Chinese and Cuban officials to the site for the proposed new national psychiatric facility at La Perle, in Marigot.

Accompanied by the Cuban and Chinese ambassadors to St. Lucia, Health Minister Damian Greaves, who has just returned from a series of meetings at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, said the facility would be financed with assistance from China, while Cuba will provide specialist medical assistance.

The ruling SLP quietly observed the fifth anniversary of its 1997 victory over the UWP, any celebrations probably having been overshadowed by its relatively more recent December 3, 2001 victory in the last general election.

But it would seem that the UWP found more reason to observe the SLP’s anniversary than the ruling party itself. Rather than stick to its April 1st anniversary and hold its convention last month, the wise men in the leadership of the UWP chose instead to hold it instead on the Sunday closest to the anniversary of Labour Party’s May 23, 1997 victory – a date the UWP would do well to forget, when it suffered its most humiliating defeat in its entire history – that is, since its formation on All Fools Day 1964.

Quite apart from returning the same Dr Vaughan Lewis they had earlier elected to the leadership -- and selecting Stephenson King as Chairman -- the UWP convention revealed, once again, the inescapable truth that certain things about the UWP will never change for as long as certain people continue to control its machinery.

The first repeat lesson from last Sunday’s convention results is that the UWP is an anti-woman party. Since Dr Morella Joseph let it be known that she intended to exert her powers if re-elected, the long knives went to work against her. As with Lorraine Williams when she dared to talk about contesting for the leadership of the UWP, the rumour mill went to work. Her own fellow leaders stabbed her in the back as they whispered loudly that she was about to follow Lorraine and join the Labour Party, as she had been offered the job of Minister of Education.

Then, on the appointed day itself, Dr Joseph learned yet another old UWP convention lesson: that when your challenger says sit, you must run like hell. She said she ran because Dr Lewis assured her he was not running, so she was most surprised when he was nominated and he didn’t decline. Nothing suggested to her that she might have been set up. Even after Dr Lewis himself publicly thanked the person he claimed nominated him without his permission.

But perhaps the most important question Dr Lewis and UWP supporters should be asking themselves at this time is: if he was not fit enough to be the leader after the 1997 general elections or at the last convention because he was living and teaching in Trinidad & Tobago, then what has changed to make him the best choice less than a year later?

From what was said on the convention floor last Sunday, it was also clear that deep rifts remain between several sections of the UWP: one section insisted that no woman will ever lead the UWP; one candidate accused the Leader of the Opposition of having his own agenda; another accused those in charge of the party machinery of having arranged the vote; and another group feels strongly that with Dr Lewis still teaching in Trinidad, it will actually be Leonard Montoute running the party.

It is now left to be seen whether Dr Lewis will develop a brand new brand of offshore political management science that will allow him to exercise long distance leadership – perhaps by e-mail or via satellite conference calls, maybe -- from his academic base in Trinidad.

In the meantime, the Labour Party was watching and remembering its own very long days in the political wilderness, when finding a leader who was also a winner proved to be as painstaking and elusive as the UWP is finding out now.

Dr Lewis told delegates he wanted to be their “Stepping Stone” to a UWP victory, but most who followed events at last Sunday’s convention have concluded that with his election, the party has taken another step back in time.

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