The present serious crisis of the two charges filed against Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves of (a) alleged indecent assault and (b) alleged unlawful sexual intercourse has created a dark cloud over our country with substantial damage. This matter can only be resolved when it is decided upon by a full hearing in our courts. To bury it by legal technical arguments without a trial would leave doubts about the legal process in the minds of the layperson in our society. To that end, SVG Green Party is calling for these matters to be heard in a court of law.

After seven years in office, Gonsalves and the ULP regime’s management of the SVG economy is a big disappointment. The ULP regime appears to be trapped in an unsustainable triangle situation of begging, borrowing and heavy taxation. The economy is so badly managed that Gonsalves has admitted publicly that he finds it difficult to live without grants.

They appeared to come into office without a plan to build a strong economy and have relied on ad-hoc management. The 2006 Budget overshot by 64 million dollars, the 2007 budget contained lies, and more importantly, the ULP regime has not been able to pull the country together. We remain a deeply divided country, not by choice but by policies. The implication of this is that under Gonsalves SVG is going nowhere, which is very sad as we deserve better.

The so called education revolution is a windbag. Statistics show that many young males are dropping out of school at form 3. Only last week a 16 year old boy who was a form 3 drop out pleaded guilty to a firearm offence. Serious crime under the ULP regime is a big worry to the nation. The ULP regime has no answers to the serious crime rate in our country.

SVG Green party cannot see any plus from Gonsalves. Agriculture is at its worst state of output since independence. Our people are suffering under severe pressure from VAT. Some are having great financial difficulty sending their children to school. To introduce mass tourism as the engine for SVG’s economy shows that the ULP regime lacks innovation and initiative and are using economic ideas of the 1930s. Mass tourism is a 1930s phenomenon and highly overrated, as there is an inherent high leakage in the economy that is associated with mass tourism. Mass tourism reduces our nation’s workforce to a low paid, low skilled type of employment. We need high paid jobs to keep pace with the high cost of living.

Under the ULP regime, the office of prime minister has become a millionaire lifestyle while the masses struggle to makes ends meet. The ULP regime’s seven years of office has been a waste of time. They build a prison before they build factories and build resource centres rather than focusing on 21st century education delivery.

The expected departure of Ralph Gonsalves and the ULP regime will be a blessing to our country in more ways than one.