Prime Minister King vows to hold strong to the ideals of his office
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Wednesday, 21 May 2008 – Prime Minister Honourable Stephenson King made a much anticipated address to the nation Tuesday evening, where he made pronouncements on a stand-off with members of the ruling United Workers Party, who have in recent times, withdrawn their support for him as prime minister, moving his eleven/six majority in parliament to nine/eight.
In his address, Prime Minister King called on parliamentarians to put the interest of the country before self in the current impasse.
The Prime Minister lamented not being able to implement development programmes of his recently presented 2008/2009 budget, having been embroiled in other activities, which he said, have sought to undermine not just the prerogative of his government but the well thought-out development goals of his administration.
According to the Prime Minister, he took the oath of leadership seriously, and pledged to place the interest of the country ahead of self, of party, or of any other group of individuals.
“This is not the time for our efforts to be undermined by misguided rhetoric and self-fulfilling ambitions, that aims only to attempt to weaken and destabilize the very core of our democracy. Rather, at this moment, as your Prime Minister, I am calling for every citizen, public servant and trusted member to lay aside the temporal, self-serving mindset that seeks to threaten the very ideals that make this nation great,” the Prime Minister said.
The St. Lucian leader said the roots of the current situation lie in the period leading up to and following the death of Sir John Compton. He also commented on suggestions regarding the integrity of the reallocation process of cabinet portfolios last year.
“I wish to state categorically that the late prime minister initiated and authorized by his own signature, affixed in the presence of witnesses, the correspondence sent to Her Excellency, the Governor General to give effect to the re-shuffle of the Cabinet,” Mr. King said in his late address to the nation. “The nation will recall that after the Cabinet re-shuffle, Sir John, in a television interview made it clear that he was the one who had made the decision to re-shuffle the Cabinet and to relieve then Minister of External Affairs of his position. Since that time, Mr. Rufus Bousquet has repeatedly claimed that he does not know why he was fired and he has used this manipulated claim of unfair removal from the Cabinet, to justify his current demands for re-instatement to ministerial rank.”
In the matter involving Honourable Richard Frederick, who was arrested in relation to an investigation by the Customs and Excise Department, the prime minister said any direct intervention in this legal process could be construed to be an obstruction of justice.
The prime minister said sometimes politicians forget that they are elected not to serve their own interest, or to pursue their personal ambitions for power, but to serve the people and to bring improvements to the lives of every citizen. He said that he expects every member of Cabinet to place the interest of the people first.
A meeting of parliamentarians have been scheduled for today and the Prime Minister hopes an amicable solution could be reached from today’s meeting. |
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