When a government has ruled a country for 25 years, excuses run dry. After a quarter of a century in office, every senior civil servant, every top official, every statutory board member has been appointed or approved by the governing party. After a quarter of a century, the systems, culture, and outcomes belong entirely to them.
So when Storm Gonsalves, son of Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, took to social media to blame civil servants for the failures of the Unity Labour Party, the reaction across St. Vincent and the Grenadines was swift and clear. His words were not only arrogant. They were dangerous.
In a tirade more suited to a plantation master than a democratic citizen, Gonsalves accused hardworking public servants of sabotage and branded them “agents of chaos.” He even threatened them, saying they should “count their days.”
The Public Service Union rightly responded. In a firm statement, the Union called his accusations baseless, misleading, and harmful. They reminded the nation that civil servants are bound by law, policy, and professional ethics — not by party loyalty. They pointed out the obvious: delays in projects and payments often stem not from outdated systems, understaffing, and policy inconsistencies — and from the very political interference that politicians like Gonsalves routinely impose.
The Union is correct. Public servants are not political pawns. They are the men and women who keep the country functioning — processing salaries, running schools, keeping hospitals open, securing borders, maintaining infrastructure. To accuse them of sabotage after 25 years of one-party rule is to scapegoat the very people who hold the nation together.
But beyond scapegoating, Gonsalves’ words revealed something darker: entitlement. The plantation tone was unmistakable. Here is a young man who has never toiled in the civil service, never endured the grind of bureaucracy, never struggled like ordinary Vincentians do every day, yet he presumes to lecture, threaten, and intimidate those who serve. He speaks not as a public citizen but as though St. Vincent and the Grenadines were family property, and its workers tenants on his father’s estate.
This is the arrogance bred by unchecked power. For 25 years, the Gonsalves family and their party have lived well while Vincentians have suffered poor wages, bad roads, collapsing infrastructure, and inadequate healthcare. And now, faced with an electorate that is tired and fed up, the son seeks to shift blame onto the very workers appointed by his father’s hand. The irony is grotesque.
If civil servants were truly saboteurs, then who appointed them? Who promoted them? Who signed their letters of appointment and placed them in positions of authority? The answer is obvious: the same government that now cries “sabotage.” To blame them now is to confess that the ULP has spent 25 years elevating traitors. Which is it?
The tragedy is compounded by the handful of public servants and teachers who nodded along with Gonsalves’ remarks, intoxicated by political tribalism and the illusion of importance. They fail to see that they are applauding their own degradation. They are cheering for the whip that cracks over their own backs.
Storm Gonsalves’ outburst deserves nothing less than rebuke. The Public Service Union has set the record straight, but the people must remember this moment. It is a window into the mindset of a political dynasty that has mistaken governance for ownership.
And so, to borrow the young man’s own words: it is not the days of the civil servants that should be counted. It is the days of the Gonsalves dynasty in office.
Michael Roberts
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE NOT THOSE OF ASBERTH NEWS NETWORK BUT OF THE WRITER