By Caribbean News Global contributor
CASTRIES, St Lucia – Using the protection and privileges of the House of Assembly, Tuesday, September 29, the member for Anse La Raye/Canaries and tourism minister, Dominic Fedee, accused the leader of the opposition, Philip J Pierre of having bribed the Saint Lucia Hospitality and Tourism Association (SLHTA) into releasing a statement condemnatory of the government’s lack of public consultation prior to taking to parliament the COVID-19 (Prevention and Control) Bill.
The SLHTA pointed out that considering the far-reaching effects of the Bill on the Tourism sector, it was astounded that the sector was not consulted on the Bill.
In fashionable attributes of a self-important little man, the minister for tourism extended his usual arrogant diatribe but unfortunately Fedee’s comments serve not as an attack on the leader of the opposition but instead seemingly implicate his former colleagues within the tourism industry.
According to a press release from the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP): “Minister Fedee’s statement implies that SLHTA president Karolin Troubetzkoy and chief executive officer, Noorani Azeez, are so unprincipled and corrupt and have so little integrity that they would stoop so low as to accept bribes,” the SLP statement continued. “It is even more preposterous and shocking for the minister of tourism to make such an inappropriate declaration about the leaders of an industry for which he has oversight and with whom he is supposed to work in the interests of the country.”
In addition: “Fedee’s statement says so much more about him than it does those he sought to damage. He should be well aware how much he owes his entry into elective politics to the unparalleled generosity of some members of the same SLHTA he has now denigrated. He cannot have already forgotten that less than five years ago, he was a senior employee of one of the SLHTA’s more prominent members.”
Tourism minister Fedee reprehensible behaviour would be inconceivable, inclusive of his language and faulty accusation, was afforded a challenge that “if he is so positive about the truthfulness of his statement, to repeat the statement outside of the House Chamber,” and that failure to do so confirms his coward self-importance that only extends under the protection of the privileges of the House of Assembly.
Opposition leader Pierre, has called on prime minister Allen Chastanet “to terminate tourism minister Fedee, from parliament and the Cabinet of Saint Lucia” added, “failure to do so will mean that the prime minister and his Cabinet endorse his offensive and unacceptable statement,” Pierre said on Thursday. “Fedee’s comments is an insult to Saint Lucia’s tourism sector and officials of the SLHTA.”
