His implementation and delivery record card are incomparable alongside that of his predecessor, who seems to revel in related reverse.
The PM’s remarks (on the bill for increasing government pensioners’ earnings) also clearly showed he wastes no time chasing shadows or trying to read flashing mirrors by night.
Indeed, between the MPs for Castries East and Castries Central, long strings of allegations of financial misbehaviour and Sins of Commission and Omission were laid against the former Guardian of the Treasury – from bad decisions leading to worse deals that together cost taxpayers hundreds of millions, badly-spent or borrowed.
The Castries Central MP barred no holes or holds as he bore into his counterpart opposite representing Micoud South, and the PM catalogued enough during his presentations to show the vast difference between a leader and a government who actually puts people first and one that only remembers citizens when General Elections approach.
Halfway through his first term as Prime Minister and Minister for National Security, Finance, Economic Development, and The Youth Economy, the Castries East MP was able to deliver scorecards in each of the three Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure he’s presented, each dwarfing any of his predecessor’s five.
The Micoud South MP had so often absented himself from House meetings during the first half of this term that loud questions were asked publicly about how much representation he was giving those who voted for him as one of their party’s only two MPs, after an election in which -- under his leadership -- they also lost the Micoud North seat they’d held since the island’s first general elections in 1951.
Interestingly, since the Opposition Leader’s unexpected appearance at Tuesday’s sitting, the buzz has been that he was possibly forced or influenced by the popular calypso by veteran Herb Black, about wanting a leader who will walk his talk instead of one only talking, then walking and staying away.
However, be all that as it may -- or may not -- all things supposedly equal, it must take quite some guts for any MP to endure such relentless criticism based on his or her own doings.
The Micoud South MP wore a laughing mask throughout the accusations and allegations of improper or imprudent decisions and actions that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of hard-earned post-COVID dollars that could have been saved with more attention to simple basic money factors like the cost of borrowing and size of interest rates.
The former PM often offered light-hearted responses to inquiries about his trademark heavy expenditure, even revealing a new claim that lands involved in the Desert Star Holdings (DSH) project in Vieux Fort were not ‘leased at $1,000 per acre’, as hitherto widely-felt (and the Castries Central MP claimed), but was instead ‘sold at $65,000 per acre’.
The House patiently awaits the former PM’s provision of the proof his finger-pointing former party parliamentary colleague has promised to request that he table as a ‘Document of the House’ -- which, whether he delivers or not, will lead to more questions, either way.
Tuesday’s House Meeting, followed online by the world and still available to the metaverse, was yet another crystal-clear example of the difference between what Herb Black described as ‘wrong and right’ and ‘black and white’.
Some quipped that the Opposition Leader was ‘whitewashed with bleach’ by the government side, others similarly claiming he was ‘washed with Blue and hung to dry in Blues…’
Taking a page from the PM and how the likes of us grew up, I won’t kick a man when he’s down.
I’d rather just say that if what we witnessed on Tuesday is anything to go by in mid-term, then, it’s ‘bal fini’ if the opposition doesn’t choose to bite the bullet and ignore the advice from the song by ‘Tower of Power’ about not changing horses in midstream.
Let’s see what’ll happen when the bell rings at the next House Sitting on June 26…
Meanwhile, inside or out of the House, the Opposition continues to major in minor matters.
Commentary by Earl Bousquet