Watergate versus Banannegate Déjà vu

By James Stanislaus

We should recall that it took almost eighteen months before Richard Nixon finally confessed his wrongdoings and was finally kicked out of office similarly to what is transpiring at home. There was no necessity for the housing minister to follow the path he embarked upon, but similar to the watergate pattern, politicians enjoying a role of power become intoxicated by their position and consider themselves above the law. The Banannessituation will not go away as predicted by those involved, consequently it will follow the watergate route based on deceit, lies, false statements and TV propaganda to no avail as saying one lie needs twenty to counteract it and eventually the victim gets caught. That was the fate of Richard Nixon.

We have already seen documents which were never disclosed one year ago, but suddenly emerging and this is where the can of worms starts appearing. The continuance of sweeping such bold cases under the carpet is a recipe for condoning irregularities. We simply have to revisit other parts of the world and determine for ourselves the economic fallout.

Since the PM was originally concerned about wrong doings, he promised to bring on board a private prosecutor therefore in the interim he needs to play his part in order that the public can restore some faith in his promises. It is absolutely very clear that the speaker remains biased and if the PM doesn’t show the part of unbiasedness, the credibility of his administration will be compromised. The certainty of the speaker being further humiliated by the upcoming legal steps being taken against him for the latest faux pax is serious. It is absolutely clear that that the housing minister is calling the shots by his behaviour at the last parliament sitting when he shouted quote “Mr Speaker the Micoud South MP will be marched to the privileges committee if he does not withdraw his comments” unquote. It is rather unfortunate that an individual who openly advised the nation that his bank accounts were closed by Bank of St Lucia and further one whose personal and diplomatic visas were withdrawn by the US government can now be allowed in the nation’s parliament to exercise that level of control over both the PM and the speaker.

It is most interesting that the housing minister for the last seven years has consistently abused the member for Micoud South both on his weekly show and in Parliament with no recourse from anyone despite the fact that there are four cases in the high courts lodged against him by the member of Micoud South for defamation at the highest level. What a sad situation.