St Lucia’s UWP chairman wallowing in his darkest hour

By Caribbean News Global contributor

CASTRIES, St Lucia – As the headline says the incumbent chairman of the United Workers Party (UWP) Oswald Augustin, is at his darkest hour and has overstepped the mark of decency and humility. He is displaying an abundance of arrogance, personified and misplaced rhetoric, that has no place in the Caribbean and the new world order.

The article “Go to Guyana” says incumbent UWP chairman to National Trust director has implications,” accurately expressed the lack of sensitivity and to-date, seemingly supported by the UWP. The article also “correctly articulated” a thorough analysis of situation awareness and the darkness that is attributed to Saint Lucia’s social and economic viability.

‘Go to Guyana’ says incumbent UWP chairman to national trust director has implications

This situation further exposed Augustin’s existence in a low-level “bubble” stuck in his little world, lacking the ability to understand that Saint Lucia is not isolated from a world. And that, Saint Lucia, is part of CARICOM-OECS. And further, Guyana and Saint Lucia has had an interchange of history, culture and economic practicality dating back to the 1940s.

Saint Lucia’s in the 50s went to Guyana to work in Demerara in the goldfields, mines, and agricultural outpost. In Saint Lucia and Guyana, there are many active relationships, born and bred Saint Lucian-Guyanese. Tulsie came to Saint Lucia in 1980. He has worked with distinction as a teacher at the Castries Comprehensive Secondary School. He has worked in the public service. And his engagement as the executive director of the National Trust. He is astute and very knowledgeable, the type who has made a definite contribution to the development of Saint Lucia.

The “vile” statement by Augustin has infuriated many persons and heads of intuitions, near and far. And when juxtaposed with “colonialism has a conscience”, by the prime minister of Saint Lucia, it streamlines the mental capacity of singular thinking. This extends the arrogant mindset that disrespects humility and the composition of a current UWP/ government of Saint Lucia that misrepresents the architect of the 1964 UWP, Sir John Compton, who was not born in Saint Lucia.

John Peters wrote on social media: “Under Section 16(1) of the Saint Lucia National Trust Act, the Trust is empowered to regulate the use of any immovable property so vested, and Section 16 (1) (j) empowers the Trust to regulate recreation, entry and conduct of persons resorting and using such property. So, the State has given such powers to the Trust to charge a fee or a ‘rent’ as part of the regulating of the use of Pigeon Point, which is a parcel of land that will always belong to the people of Saint Lucia.

“Bishnu Tulsie should not be told after all his contribution to the development of Saint Lucia, that it is time to get out and go back to your land of birth. It is unimaginable that the founders of the United Workers Party would have countenanced such statements. This is a dangerous low to which we have descended as a nation.”

A lesson in history reveals former Senator Dunstan Duboulay attending CARICOM council of ministers at the 44 meetings in Guyana 30-31 January 1997.

“And indeed, significant progress has been achieved through perhaps not enough to satisfy those who are understandably impatient to see this process accelerated. But the progress made towards the Single Market and Economy – the centrepiece of the integration progress have been considerable and with an extra effort on our part. I feel confident that we can look forward to celebrating its nascence together with that of the not too far distant millennium,” said Duboulay. He went on to explain that this task is encapsulated within the agenda for the meeting, which can be looked upon as covering five central issues:

• The establishment of a CARICOM Single Market;
• The operation of the Common Market;
• The Common External Tariff as a key instrument of the single market;
• Standards; and
• External Trade and Economic Relations.

The Caribbean has been pushing for a long time to embrace cohesion, one people, many islands, comparable with the European Union – free movement, mobility of commerce, trade and diversity, influence, and economic power.

The attributes of the government of Saint Lucia, the UWP political arm and associated petite bourgeoisie’s is destructive to the country and the region.

– With contribution from Denys Springer