The fallacy of the NDP

EDITOR: Within recent times candidates and members of the NDP have been publicly supporting the capital projects of the ULP. In particular, the Kingstown Port Modernization facility and the Acute Care Hospital at Arnos Vale. To conclude that those are very good projects then turn around to say that they will finish them if they win the general elections does not make much sense. Praising these projects is essentially acknowledging that the ULP government is doing a very good job. Why should the electorates vote the NDP to finish those projects that the NDP is arguing will be to the benefit of Vincentians?

It is obvious that the NDP is saying that the ULP is doing a good job, but they should be removed because they are in office for too long. Is the NDP asking Vincentians to gamble with their prosperity? Shouldn’t the NDP try to convince

Vincentians that their policies and programmes are better than those of the ULP?

Publicly supporting the projects and agreeing to finish them is an acknowledgment that the NDP has no projects of its own that are equally beneficial to the economy and the lives of Vincentians.

What is the NDP’ current view on the airport? Should the ULP have incurred the cost of $750 million dollars to have it constructed? Can the NDP say whether the Sandals Resort has benefitted from the existence of an international airport at Argyle? I can recall when the airport was being built and the former long standing opposition leader of the NDP, Arnhim Eustance, was asked whether he would continue to finance the airport project if the NDP won the general elections, he wasn’t interested in finishing the airport because he said that he did not know where to find the money to finish the project. His famous words were “find it where.” That was a most unfortunate statement to make. Hence, the reason why the NDP is promising to finish the projects started by the ULP.

However, when it comes to financing, the question for the NDP is always going to be “find it where.” Therefore, the NDP is making it clear to Vincentians that they should ignore the fact that the ULP has initiated those projects and vote for the NDP to finish them. The question that will always plague the NDP is, why didn’t it finance at least one of those projects when it was in office for seventeen (17) years.

The NDP has also viciously criticized the ULP’ education revolution programme. Is the NDP going to praise the vast number of Vincentians that the ULP administration has financed and assisted to obtain a university education? Is the NDP going to praise the increase in the number of scholarships awarded by the ULP administration to

Vincentians when only about four island scholarships were granted each year to Vincentians under the NDP administration? Surely, the NDP will not be so silly to criticize the thirty (30) scholarships offered to Vincentians this year by the Taiwanese government. But then again, silence in that regard is also damaging, having regard to the fact that the NDP will no longer maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan if they were to win the next general elections. It raises the questions, what will happen to all those students who are studying in Taiwan should the NDP win the next general elections?

We await the NDP’ position on the Taiwanese scholarships. I suppose that to speak out for or against those scholarships is to shoot themselves in the foot. NDP’ main problem is that Vincentians are listening and watching and are a lot more aware about the issues than they have ever been.

Incidentally, is it fair and proper for the NDP, through the President of its Woman’s Arm, Ronnia Durham, to say that every female who received a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree had to go to the financial complex to engage in improper activities before the scholarship can be given? Did the NDP realise that the statement appears to be accusing every female in St. Vincent and the Grenadines with a master’s degree of this ridiculous conduct? Such an unjustified and vicious attack against what appears to be the chastity of female graduates who have pursued and those who are pursuing masters degrees will not go unnoticed by the parents, relatives, friends, graduates and the students themselves.

Cyril Peters