In true Chastanet fashion, he spoke from one side of his mouth stating that crime was not just a national issue but a regional and international one. If one were to listen to this same Chastanet and his political hacks in Saint Lucia, one would believe that Prime Minister Pierre himself was going, guns blazing, murdering people in the recent gang-related homicides. Reading the UWP blogs of Chastanet’s party, one would believe that the rest of the world has not been grappling with increased gun-related violence and that the trafficking of firearms was an SLP-manufactured problem. However, the right side of Allen’s mouth always betrays the left with their conflicting stories; inevitably, démanti-ing him.
An airport tax to help fight crime was a suggestion by Chastanet in Trinidad & Tobago, yet in Saint Lucia, the left side of his mouth demanded that the Health and Security Levy implemented to deal with this same crime be repealed. If nothing else, perhaps this is him paying homage to Prime Minister Pierre by transplanting his idea of a tax to fund security for his audience in T&T.
During his diatribe at the gathering, Chastanet would further state that opposition parties should form an entity to “have a voice to be heard by CARICOM”. Saint Lucians, is this the same Allen Chastanet who told the then Opposition, led by now Prime Minister Pierre, that they had lost their right to speak when the SLP lost the general elections in 2016? Could this be the same Allen Chastanet who showed the utmost disdain for regional institutions provoking the likes of Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent & the Grenadines who said “Chastanet talks a lot of rubbish when it comes to regional air transport…a species of brown people in the Caribbean with money” who are “not loyal to anybody” Gonsalves continued by noting that such people whom he described a “Castries mulattos” believe they are “oracles” and represent a “break in the social advancement in the Eastern Caribbean.”
Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda would add his voice to Chastanet’s position on the regional institution by referring to him as the “not-so-bright Prime Minister” [of Saint Lucia]. Yes, this is the same Allen Chastanet who failed to pay Saint Lucia’s contribution to UWI, leaving a debt of over $27 million in unpaid contributions, and refused to support LIAT despite dishing out millions to international airlines to fly to Saint Lucia.
The irony of Allen’s contributions at the UNC function was his recommendations, none of which he employed during his nearly 6-year tenure as the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia who, at the time, presided over a record-breaking year for homicides.
But alas, we have come to learn that Chastanet’s positions have always been expedient, never grounded in principle, far less facts. He makes up statistics as he goes and his privilege allows him to go “unchallenged” in most circles.
Chastanet’s most recent deluge in Trinidad & Tobago, reminiscent of the platform rhetoric of President 45 of the US has been perfectly rejected by Prime Minister Keith Rowley of Trinidad & Tobago who stated, “ No Thanks Tropical Trump”.
- The Patriot