In one of his most sobering and reflective presentations on the campaign trail to date, Vice President of the New Democratic Party (NDP) told listeners to the NDP Virtual Public Meeting held recently that, “the most successful experience that the Unity Labour Party has had in the last twenty years, is to divide St. Vincent and the Grenadines”.
He went on to say:
“One of the things that our people have never bargained for, historically or otherwise, you go back to McIntosh, Joshua, Cato, even Mitchell, is for a small island permanently divided and divided in the manner in which it makes the coming together of the people, its greatest resource, virtually an impossibility thereby creating a level of stagnation and underdevelopment”.
“No amount of politicking, virtual meetings, public meetings and presentations in our country must ever ignore the fact that one of the worst atrocities and/or experience of our people over the last 19 years, virtually 20, has been the extent to which singularly, the political leader and a political party has almost permanently divided our people”.
With elections widely expected by December 2020, the incumbent MP for Central Kingstown warned supporters that unity is central to the party’s goals.
“We have to commit to a united St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as Obama would have said, not a blue State, not a red State but a United States of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. I submit to you that if we fail in that very simple task, that exercise, however grandeur our plans are, the likelihood of the more jobs, the better jobs and prosperous future for our children and grandchildren becomes dimmer and dimmer”.
He said what currently exists is the complete opposite detailing how the major parties have failed to come together.
“We are on the verge of an election and before we can get to job creation and all the lofty ideals, we are labour police, labour nurse, labour doctor, labour permanent secretary, NDP funeral, NDP wedding, NDP station, labour station, and the list goes on and on”.
He praised former parliamentarian John Horne as someone who espoused the ideals of togetherness and unity following the NDP’s defeat in 2001.
Elsewhere in the presentation, he said:
“And so while you applaud and support and encourage us on a regular basis, for all of these programmes we are unfolding to you, let us not lose sight of the importance of uniting our people and marching in unison to the promise land of a better St. Vincent and the Grenadines”.