A previous three-part series, Saint Lucia Needs a Renaissance (August 2017), underscored securing Saint Lucia’s vulnerable and porous borders with the combined powers, policy, and persuasion to sway advocates to act on public safety issues and crime management, a National Security Council was recommended.
St Lucia’s safety record belies the prediction of record travelers – March 27, 2019, reads in part:
“…a security forum under the guidance of a national security council is paramount to facilitate viable options and serve as a central construct to resource systems, develop policy and advance strategies to reform law and order.
“Besides unmasking falsehood and bringing truth to light, a full-fledged intelligence agency would presage a well-trained and well-coordinated national security apparatus, capable of protecting the socio-economic interest.”
The article also explained that the government of Saint Lucia must employ a smart and deep-seated perspective to unclog its thinking along the lines of an Economic Development Council (EDC) to help restore faith where strange math and the abandonment of data and facts are deemed extraneous.”
On reflection of the situation in Saint Lucia – weird – but not unpredicted (back then), lacking the principles and pillars for social and economic rejuvenation; the relevance of the present situation of national security, the reliance on tourism, Saint Lucia’s 2023/24 estimate of revenue and expenditures and the 2023 budget address (policy statement) relates antedated contentions at play.
“Securing the Pillars for Sustainability,” Tuesday, April 25, 2023, Throne Speech narrated:
“In support of a multi-disciplinary approach to crime fighting, a National Security Council will be re-established to coordinate crime reduction efforts undertaken by government agencies, the private sector, and the police force.”
“In this fiscal year 2023/2024 will start, the now overdue, construction of the Halls of Justice in the latter part of 2023, which is expected to take 30 months to complete.
“This new facility will consolidate the magistrate’s court, the family court, the commercial court, the High Courts, and other administrative support services, including the civil and criminal registries. Several other initiatives aimed at reducing the backlog of cases and reduction of the remand population at Bordelais will be continued this year.”
Monday, April 24, 2023, Saint Lucia recorded another targeted triple homicide, (inclusive of collateral damage) without due bearing from the authorities in or out of parliament.
Nothing new here!
On Tuesday, April 25, 2023, minister for the public service, home affairs, labour and gender affairs, Virginia Albert-Poyotte, said: “The government has to put measures in place to encourage Saint Lucians to participate fully in crime-fighting,” adding. “The citizens have a lot of information which they can share with the agencies that are combatting crime.”
This is a telling admission that the RSLPF is useless and the security apparatus of Saint Lucia is despondent.
CARICOM crime symposium in Trinidad and Tobago is done and over. “The vexing problem is guns and ammunition,” minister for finance, economic development and the youth economy and minister for justice and national security, Philip Pierre, explained: “It has been almost proven that these guns originate from North America. So this is a major problem and we’re trying to ask the US to work with us.”
Continuing with “Securing the Pillars for Sustainability,” the government policy reiterated the “Suppression of Escalated Crime (Police Powers) Act, No. 6 of 2023 to enable the police to suppress the escalation of crime. In addition, it has secured the services of the Regional Security Service (RSS) to assist the local police (RSLPF) in this fight and will continue to engage their services for as long as it is necessary to do so.”
The Throne Speech, on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, consider: “Our politics should be seen within the context of different routes but to the same destination: a peaceful and happy place to work and relax. So, let not party politics divide us, because its divisiveness will weaken all of us.”
The conclusions arrived at in 2019, about St Lucia’s quadratic equation, choking up the thinking, National Security Council and Economic Development Council (EDC), and now, an uninspiring Throne Speech, and the early reactions to the 2023 budget address (policy statement) simulate “a reflection on the government” and the “same ole rhetoric on both sides,” observed an economist.
As in 2019 and 2023: The observations are “true” and “material” to only a “different day and date.”
