Where will Mr Eustace get the money from?

Tue, Sept 4, 2012

Editor: Grenada’s last general elections were held on July 8, 2008. The results were given as follows: the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won 11 seats, while the incumbent won four seats, thus bringing the NCD to power. The NDC leader Tillman Thomas succeeded the NNP’s Keith Mitchell as Prime Minister of Grenada on July 9, 2008.{{more}}

On that occasion, Thomas promised “openness and transparency” and that he would practise the politics of inclusion.

Not too long ago, I was speaking to a friend who lives in Grenada. She was telling me that the prime minister of Grenada is trying his best, but the global situation has impacted heavily on the Grenadian people; therefore, what they had promised to the people cannot be realized.

Now just suppose that the NDP by some stroke of the pen had got into power in December 2010. Do you think they would be able to deliver all that they had promised to the people in St Vincent and the Grenadines? Listen, I’m not someone who was born yesterday. I know the ropes of politics in St Vincent and the Grenadines. I know the candidates from the ULP and NDP who are working and trying their

best. On the ULP’s side, even some of those candidates who did not win seats, you can still see them working assiduously to win their seats in 2015. There are still some candidates who did not win, but are still lying on their beds sleeping. Whenever they get up, they do little; I say they need to do more.

Now, let me just reverse a bit to 1967 and the 1984 general elections. In those elections, there were party first-timers: in 1967 Mr Cato won Joshua for the first-time, then in 1984 Mr Mitchell’s NDP won for the first time. In weeks leading up to the general elections, Mr Cato, who was in opposition at the time, said Labour is the only party that has the answer to unemployment and poverty. The result in the election was St Vincent and the Grenadines Labour party won six (6) seats and the remaining three (3) seats went to Joshua’s P.P.P. Not too long afterwards, following the Labour Party victory, Mr Cato was now the Chief Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines. In a meeting he said words to the effect: “We met an empty Treasury, no money at all in the Treasury”. The point is an opposition party will say anything to get in power.

Again, in 1984, during the election campaign, members of the NDP said in the Kingstown area next to the Bonadie’s Supermarket No.1: “Listen my friends and supporters, you see those water metres that are placing a burden on Vincentians, I will throw all of them in the sea.” The people, on hearing this kind of blessing about to come their way, shouted with joy. Lo and behold, as soon as Mitchell took the prime ministership, instead of dismantling all water metres from homes, he ensured that all houses got water metres.

The point I want to establish here is that the NDP is opposing every single project the ULP implemented, for example the VAT. Do you think they will dismantle it if they get into power? I believe they will increase the VAT, as they increased the water metres. Now, basic common sense tells me that St Vincent and the Grenadines has no petroleum oil, bauxite or gold mines; so where is the government going to get the money from to fulfill all their election promises? The only source is to increase taxes.

My question is where will Mr Eustace get the money from? He boasts about having the ambition when it comes to fiscal management, but can someone manage a business without money? Vincentians, wake up, you know who you have, but don’t know who you will get. Listen, I always get my pay when I go to the bank every end of month. Think about that.

Political Observer