NDP protest was a dismal failure – PM Gonsalves

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has called the protest action of the New Democratic Party (NDP) a dismal failure, saying it did not achieve its objectives.{{more}}

Dr. Gonsalves, speaking at a press conference at Cabinet room on Wednesday morning, said that the party’s decision to picket in front of the Administrative complex on Bay Street after marching up Back Street and through South River Road (Heritage Square) was an embarrassment to the NDP.

The Prime Minister said that the Arnhim Eustace led NDP had three main objectives which they did not accomplish: the closing down of Kingstown, causing schools to be closed, and ‘flooding the city with yellow shirts.’

“They called on the businesses to close; they wrote to them. The business stayed open…. The children didn’t stay away from school; in fact children of leading NDP members within their leadership sent their children to school. I happen to know that….”

“I had been advised by the police that at the peak they had 350 persons… and when Mr. Eustace reportedly told the BBC that it’s 2000, there is a problem with either his observation or with his arithmetic or both.”

Let us even assume that you had 2000, that is even less than ten per cent of the vote they got a month ago… so clearly the people of this country see that the NDP don’t have a cause.”

Prime Minister Gonsalves said that there should be no mistake between the actions of the NDP this week with the actions taken in 2000.

He said that eleven years ago, the protest action was led by the public servants and parents and that the Unity Labour Party joined the action and added its support base and organizational skill to the momentum of the people

“By the time we got in, the NDP government had already lost the heart and souls and minds of the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and they lost it over a matter of which they were greedy in the form of enhanced gratuity and pension benefits.”

Gonsalves said that the action taken this week showed that the leadership of the New Democratic Party had no sense of reality, with their decision to hold a protest when, among other things, a cruise ship carrying over 4000 persons was docked in Kingstown.

According to Dr. Gonsalves, opposition leader Arnhim Eustace is holding the party hostage to his political ambition, which the Prime Minister described as unfulfilled.

He said that the NDP would use any means, including falsehoods and propaganda, to take the mantle of power in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and that is why they are destined to fail.

“They are speaking about Ralph is a dictator, but I won an election fair and square. They want to undo the results of a democratic elections by undemocratic means. I am not saying they want to do it by methods which are not grounded in the rights of people to assemble. I am not talking about the freedom issue I am talking about the democratic issue here.”

“…. The greatest attempt at what they consider decisive action is an attempted overthrow of a truck… they want to over throw the government. They tried instead to over throw a fire truck, which they failed to do. You can’t overthrow a fire truck, is a government you want to overthrow?”(JJ)