Learner Driver

Allen Castanet [Image:Web]

Trinidad Calypsonian Chalkdust’s “The new driver cannot drive”, has become the permanent anthem that mocks prime ministerial amateurs learning on the job. After reading the responses by the Barbadian Press to St. Lucia’s green Prime Minister Allen Chastanet’s rejection of commitment to LIAT, and following his tail-between-legs apology to the US embassy in Barbados for his false claims about the number of criminal deportees from the US, Chalkdust’s ditty came immediately to mind.

There is a powerful dialectic of truth which activates itself once a private individual embraces assumes public office. What was hidden from public view become exposed, literally for the world to see. Long before his ascension to office, there were clear signs for those able to see, that Chastanet was unprepared for national leadership. Just as Americans today are realising that there is a vast difference between Donald Trump’s ability to achieve “success” in his private life and his capacity to genuinely LEAD the USA and indeed the wider world, there were Caribbeanists who were paying close attention to Chastanet’s pre-election performances and were seeing his campaign claims as warning signs of future difficulties.

His promises were spectacular bordering on reckless: he would abolish VAT; he would remove Visa requirements for travel to the USA; he would reduce the price of imported petrol. In addition, he showed clear intellectual limitations. His speeches were incoherent and lacked substance. A slogan of “five to stay alive”, was adopted, which meant nothing, explained nothing, said nothing. Pure image over substance.

He justified his replacement of Stephenson King as Leader of the opposition with Gale Rigobert on the grounds that Rigobert was more “subservient”. Surely he meant co-operative or collegial. But alas, people who can only see the surface could not understand how these weaknesses portended bad news for political leadership. At least the Americans are asking piercing questions about Trump.

And now Chastanet is Prime Minister of St. Lucia and from his first public functions outside of St. Lucia the region has been exposed to his limitations. Many wondered why he was struggling to read at the CARICOM meeting in Guyana. Unaware of his limitations, he later issued a “grand charge” against LIAT, which has led to a string of rebuttals from CARICOM colleagues with whom he is now expected to work. One regional tourism minister has viewed his anti-LIAT tirade as “simplistic”, and a former director has mooted the idea of LIAT scaling back its services to countries not footing the bill.

As should have been done by an informed and objective media in St. Lucia, the American Embassy in Barbados has refuted Chastanet’s falsehoods, quietly and soberly with facts and figures, which led to him quickly swallowing his vomit.

It has hardly been one month, and already, the new driver is bumping into sidewalls. Put on your seatbelts!

CNIDOH/AO