Open Letter to the people of the Caribbean by Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines
Published on September 1, 2010 Email To Friend Print Version
My Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Caribbean
Re: Defamation of St Vincent and the Grenadines and attempts at destabilising its government
The Issue
Over the past eleven months or so, commencing around October 2009 and continuing, foreign elements out of Britain and the United States of America have aligned themselves to the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) of St Vincent and the Grenadines in an insidious campaign of defamation of this blessed country and of attempting to destabilise the Unity Labour Party (ULP) government led by me.
Latest Chapter
The latest chapter of this dishonest and anti-national campaign, in the run-up to our country's eighth general elections since independence, has been led by two Americans in conjunction with the NDP. These Americans are Dave Copps, a dot.com millionaire who is the owner and founder of Pure Discovery Corporation, and Blake Burris of Dynamo Labs. They are the co-founders of CoHabitat, a co-working space for entrepreneurs in Dallas, Texas. Copps owns a house in Bequia, one of the islands in the multi-island nation-state known as St Vincent and the Grenadines. In the past, Copps did work for the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
CoHabitat is master-minding a campaign in relation to St Vincent and the Grenadines under the rubric "Save Democracy for Just $5". Their damning falsehood is that there is no democracy, no freedom, and an absence of a guarantee of civil liberties in St Vincent and' the Grenadines under the ULP government. According to them, I have aligned myself with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and thus should be removed from office. They proclaim that "St Vincent and the Grenadines deserves to be free as the rest of us". They assert that they are doing what they could "to give the people in St Vincent and the Grenadines back the democracy they painfully miss and we fervently cherish". What imperial, what colonial arrogance!
In a Facebook posting on February 14, 2010, Copps critiqued my government's building of the International Airport at Argyle. Among other things he wrote:
"It is important to note that this airport is being built 'at all costs' which includes selling of Crown Lands in Bequia. These lands were meant for the people of Bequia. The irony of selling the country's treasures so people can fly here to experience the country's treasures is a sad one".
Irony indeed! Copps, a Texan, who owns property in Bequia is arguing about lands meant for the people of Bequia. What is this man's business with our international airport and our lands? We are selling state-lands in order to pay for the nearly 400 acres of private lands required for the site of this vital international airport.
Freedom and Democracy in St Vincent and the Grenadines
It is my government which has strengthened democracy and freedom in St Vincent and the Grenadines, curtailed official corruption, and enhanced good governance. All this has been recognised by the governments of Britain and the USA, by the World Bank, and by non-governmental bodies such as the Freedom House Foundation and the Caribbean-Guyana Institute for Democracy (C-GID), both based in the USA.
In the United States of America, the Federal Election Campaign Act makes it illegal for any foreigner to make direct or indirect contributions, donations or funding in connection with any election in the United States. If foreigners cannot fund American campaigns, why do Americans think that they can fund ours? Is our sovereignty not equally important?
Earlier Chapter
This recent defamatory campaign against St Vincent and the Grenadines and the quest to remove my government are but a continuation of the nasty, dishonest campaign of the opposition NDP for the Referendum on a proposed new Constitution for St Vincent and the Grenadines on November 25, 2009. In that venture, the NDP was aided and abetted by Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) of Britain, led by the notorious Nigel Oakes. SCL advertises itself as an organisation which has as its principal business "the art and science of mind-bending". It boasts of having borrowed its techniques, in part, from Adolph Hitler, the founder of racist Nazism. On the Advisory Board of SCL sits the former Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines and founder of the opposition NDP, Sir James Mitchell.
Quest for Foreign Control
This is not merely an exercise by an opposition party hiring foreign consultants to assist them in mounting an electoral campaign. This has gone much further. It involves defaming the good name of St Vincent and the Grenadines, attempting to destabilise a democratically-elected government, and seeking to exercise foreign control of our country, its democratic institutions, and people.
It is known publicly that the opposition NDP has promised its financiers the reintroduction of the sale of passports and Vincentian citizenship to foreigners. My government had repealed the law and abolished the programme upon which this sale of our birthright was based. I have been advised that in another country in the Caribbean, a foreign entity with the exclusive right to sell that country's passports and citizenship, financed SCL to run the recent campaign of a political party in that country. This must be a matter of great concern to the Caribbean people.
I ask: What else of our patrimony are the foreign elements seeking? Lands at preferred prices? Incentives for nefarious schemes? Sale of Ambassadorships?
Control and Heroic Resistance
The history of our region is littered with attempts at foreign control of our patrimony and destiny. It has been awashed, too, with heroic resistance to such attempts at foreign control or undue influence. Oft-times these attempts have been directed by foreign governments or their agencies. These attempts have included conquests, invasions, enslavement, destabilisation, and control of the nation's resources or institutions. Other occasions have thrown up modern-day buccaneers, for example, the Texan Allen Stanford, and others of his ilk. In the case of St Vincent and the Grenadines, the foreign marauders don the ideological garb of the backward "Tea Party" activists in the USA and the right-wing zealots in Britain to mask their controlling designs. So, one of their targets is the nationalist foreign policy of my government which seeks to enlarge my country's independent political and economic space in the interest of our people's humanisation.
Thus, the critique of the principled relationship between St Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela, among others, by them.
The Next Phase
The next phase of the anti-national, anti-people campaign by some others who also have an interest in destabilising my government, not including any of these identified above, would be the strengthening of cozy relationships between some opposition figures and those engaged in drug trafficking and money-laundering. This criss-crossing of interests have played themselves out in Jamaica under opportunistic ideological clothing, particularly in the efforts in the late 1970s to destabilise the Michael Manley government, until the monster of violence and pillage almost consumed a magnificent land and its people. The dangers are even greater in a smaller country like St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Solidarity and Struggle
Accordingly, I bring this matter to the attention of my Caribbean brothers and sisters who share profoundly with us in a common humanity. I ask for your solidarity in this our struggle to build upon the immense gains in democracy, freedom, justice, and the people's upliftment and to resist those from outside of our region who defame us and who seek to control us. Solidarity, struggle, advancement and resistance are our watchwords. St Vincent and the Grenadines is a vital beach-head in this enterprise of Caribbean solidarity. The foreigners who come to control us, divide us, ravage our resources, and dull our consciousness with backward ideas, are antithetical to everything noble in our Caribbean civilisation. We must resist them firmly!
This letter is also being sent to the Heads of Government of CARICOM and several regional organisations. I am attaching herewith certain relevant websites to enable everyone to appreciate the extent of the foreign mischief against my country.
Sincerely yours,
Dr The Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves
Prime Minister
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Comments:
lalapoom:
Ralph get a life. Venezuela is influencing the elections in other Caribbean regions. You never said a heck. Case in point Dominica recent elections where Venezuela money was used to bribe and literally buy votes.
Sorry Mr Gonsalves your days are numbered. The whole bunch of leaders in CARICOM are a bunch of hypocrites you no about the nonsense going in other Caribbean islands and what do you all do keep your mouths shut.
Ralph leave and go man. We are fed up with your handout style of politics
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D. Charles:
I have read some of the information that was referred to by the Hon. Prime Minister. It is a frightening state of affairs as this information is published to the world.
I am afraid that many of our peoples have lost sight of what true patriotism is all about. One must not seek to destroy another at any cost. The nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines belongs to us - the rightful heirs. It cannot be correct to say that democracy is under threat in our nation state. It cannot be correct for the NDP to promote their political ambitions by destroying the good name of our nation state. I urge the new 'faces' of politics and aspiring politicians in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to very mindful of the information that they give to the world. I pray that the Opposition NDP would reconsider the manner in which they have led this campaign thus far. It cannot be to destroy our government under the leadership of Dr. Gonsalves at any cost.
Remember that we ought to have the same goal: A nation state that is free from foreign control;the continuous development of our peoples [educationally and otherwise];and rightly put by our HPM "to build upon the immense gains in democracy, freedom, justice, and the people's upliftment and to resist those from outside of our region who defame us and who seek to control us."
It is time we put country before our own political aspirations!
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Vin JOBE:
What gross ignorance, can you the people of our blessed island believe that prime minister Ralph Gonsalves will go at anything to hold on to POWER!, what the rest of the Caribbean have to do with our politic at home and some one is willing to give the opposition some funding for there campaigning, did the PM tell the people where he is getting his campaigning funds from, The NDP don't have anything to hide, people of the Caribbean our prime minister will mention one thing and do the other, his childish complaining in this paper have to turn to the opposite, you have to read between the lines and you will get the FULL picture, this complaint seems like the PM is losing it, thousands of Vincentians are giving funds to the opposition party (NDP) because we are fed up of the PM disrespecting our citizen and his threat to people who have a different view than him, we will vote you out of POWER!, Our prime minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves needs to let the people of the Caribbean where did the US one million dollars in CASH! come from to go in an account in the state owned National Commercial Bank (NCB), seems like he has some tricks up his sleeve eh, I want the PM to know that the country is not his, it is our country. This letter needs to address in a court of law to expose all the lies the PM Ralph is telling, Enough No More!!!
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Kelson McDowell:
It's too late comrade. CARICOM CANNOT SAVE YOU! It's time to realize that your rule over the destiny of Vincentians is coming to an end. Don't delude yourself. The majority of Vincentians are anxious for Freedom and Democracy to once again reign supreme in their land.
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Sunshine girl:
Ralph, you are going down and you can't come to grips with that fact. If you get back into power the people of St.Vincent and the Grenadines will suffer greatly. You don't care about them as long as you have the power. What is all this about ALBA? This ALBA agreement is evidence enough that you are going down a communist road. Under you, there will be no freedoms and rights.
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Peter:
Ralph E Gonsalves, your days are numbered, comrade. Start getting use to it!
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Allan Palmer:
Dear Ralph,
I read with interest this letter and when I detected your fear I laughed uncontrollably and then I said to myself "lawd listen to ah we Prime Monster. Like the uncertainty of the future tame the arrogant disrespectful monster in him" and then I laugh some more.
Please tell me how it feels to have tight shoes on your foot; the same type of shoes you have given to others to wear...I guess it hurts a lot; does it? You did not complaint when you were receiving monies from your unethical friends; now that your money river was diverted you are crying like a little child. Poor baby Ralph.
However there is so much speculation and anomalies in this letter...... It brought joy to my heart when I detected the fear that emanates from your writing, it makes me feel like a predator, makes me want to attack you now, but I don't hunt dead fish.....you are such a coward. Let us see who is going to reply to this letter of yours and show you up for the deceiver you are. Not this time Ralph you can no longer pull the wool over the people's eyes much less the other heads of Government; I can imagine those guys laughing even louder and longer than I did when they read this letter and planning to send the fool a little further. Ahhh Ha ha ha ha ha
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Kay:
Tell Ralph to let the Caribbean people know where he got one million US dollars from? How did he get it into SVG? Where did ULP get over 2 million US from? Who is in bed with drug lords? How much of their money was spent by ULP last elections?
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Patriot!!:
If Lalapoom and Palmer are Caribbean people they are partisan or blind. The hijacking of an independent sovereign state by ethnocentric economic interests poses as far more serious threat to the country's independence than did the Cold War. a Government controlled by foreign business men and private financial interests is doomed to paralysis and corruption. God help St Vincent if the country falls to the greedy neo-colonials!
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John Frederick:
A Response to Ralph's Letter by Dr J H B Frederick.
Ralph believes in his ability, and I understand that because he would not be where he is today if he did not... that said... his self belief is not grounded in humility, it is all HUBRIS, since taking office, he has surrounded himself with 'yes' men and people he truly does not respect as his intellectual equal, so they never function independently and must "shut up" when their master says so(Except Dr Providence who resign NCB Board when Ralph probably tried to inflict his will on him, Provie too old for that kinda BS)... Ralph suffers from Narcissism and is evident in this letter... he attempts to intellectualize and advocate a position that on the ground is CONTRARY to what he stands for... he defends Iran, Lybia and Venezuela which are all examples of DESPOTISM in action... are these the bedfellows that SVG needs??? Maybe all the Vincentians in the Diaspora should leave the US and migrate to these countries as they hold SVG's best interest at heart after all the US is no longer a friend of the Comrade. The problem with Ralph is that he grew-up in a time when people worshipped anyone with a degree or professional qualification and so it is very ingrained in his DNA, his Brilliance... but with knowledge should also come humility, tolerance and forgiveness... these qualities are central to successful leadership today because the intellectual pool has grown exponentially both formally and experientially... there are many now with a contribution to make... it will be remiss of any leader to systematically destroy anyone whose opinion differs simply because allowing their opinion to prevail touches your intellectual insecurities... that is Ralph... a man vindictive and insecure to the point that HE MUST POINT OUT EVERYONE'S FLAWS and always PROVE HIS SUPERIOR INTELLECT and ABILITY... all at the expense of SVG's development and most important at the expense of our UNITY... so what do we now have... A failed economy in SVG because a Criminal Lawyer decided that his one economics class in University made him qualified as an 'authority' in Economics... you see the problem here.... now multiply that across all disciplines... this is the problem with the ULP under Ralph's leadership... he does not listen, will never listen, and to hell with whoever knows more than him.... Leadership begins with recognizing one's own deficiencies and surrounding yourself with those who KNOW more than you... We ALL have a contribution to make, our table is big enough for every patriot's voice and the old way of doing things MUST STOP... real Unity is being able to agree to disagree yet forging ahead for the common good of ALL Vincentians... Not just your supporters... that is why I will always support people like Ronnie, Jomo, Rene, and anyone in the ULP who has shown through their life/actions they care about SVG... that is where we must go as a people... ULP has not become the people's government, it has becomes the people's dictatorship...
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Itoba :
Don't panic guys, history will prove the Comrade right. He will be villified, but you never know maybe we were destined to phase two of colonial rule (neo-colonialism). As an ardent student of history, I think we had enough of the piracy, privateering and bucaneering. The Kalinago people despised it with a passion. Despite the education boom, we are looking to embrace it. God is on our side
It is early days yet to learn the lessons of a missed opportunity when we voted no to constitutional reform. (Although they are coming to the fore day by day.)
Everything will play out themselves in due course. I know the comrade will be prepared to come back for RESCUE MISSION 2 if by some miracle miracle Oaks and Copps are allowed to prevail. All yo forget eh?
My fervent hope is that it will not be too late.
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Pouie:
I would have much preferred to see an open letter apologizing to the nation, the policewoman and Ms Parson instead of this nonsense.
Where were Heads of Government of CARICOM and the other regional organizations when the policewoman accused you of rape and your DPP nolle prosequi the case and all other such cases?
How about dignifying Mr Eustace's (Opposition Leader's) question about the US$1 million transaction to the National Commercial Bank?
The writing is on the wall, "You gotta, Go! Go! Go...!"
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Genesis:
The NDP is determined to destroy St Vincent and the Grenadines and will engage in any thing sinister to achieve their objective. Their hatred of Dr Gonsalves has erased any sense of logic they may have had. Let me remind them that a good reputation is difficult to redeem once it is destroyed. The NDP must remember that should they get into office, rememption of our blessed land will be elusive. Patriotism is a foreign word to a bunch of desperate, wicked, evil and money loving NDP leaders
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