CASTRIES, St Lucia (March 27, 2014) – After many months and thousands of dollars spent compiling and reviewing a report on Saint Lucia’s external relations policy, the Lucian People’s Movement (LPM) has called upon the island’s Minister of External Affairs, International Trade and Civil Aviation, Mr. Alva Baptiste, to bring the nation up to speed regarding how many of the recommendations in the report has been implemented by his ministry.
The review, which was commissioned by the Prime Minister in early 2012 and completed by Dr. Vaughn Lewis and his committee in August of that very year, underwent a series of bureaucratic delays until its final release to the public in April of 2013.
However, since its release a year ago, the LPM argues that the nation has yet to see any tangible economic returns that would justify the government’s decision to spend thousands of dollars producing a foreign policy report which, upon further review now appears to have been an academic exercise in futility.
The LPM believes that there can be absolutely no justification for the exorbitant monthly salary which the administration of Dr. Kenny Anthony continues to advance to Dr. Vaughn Lewis in his capacity as the special advisor in the Ministry of External Affairs, International Trade and Civil Aviation, if the recommendations offered by his committee in 2012 are deemed to be of little significance or are left to gather dust on a shelf inside the Prime Minister’s office or the island’s external ministry.
The LPM observes with great interest the incoherent and lackadaisical manner in which the government of Saint Lucia has conducted the island’s foreign policy.
The LPM also points to the recent decision by the external minister to convene a foreign service retreat (almost two years after the report was handed to him) as proof that he may not fully understand the urgency that is required to effectively restructure the foreign missions and consulates abroad, to meet the challenges of an aggressively changing global community.
Finally, given Saint Lucia’s dismal economic outlook, the thrust of any serious foreign policy review should have extended beyond making strategic adjustments to an archaic diplomatic approach to foreign policy. The review should have impressed upon the government the dangers of compromising the nation’s goal of attracting high-paying jobs and other economic opportunities to the shores of Saint Lucia by continually populating these foreign agencies with useless political appointees.
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St. Lucia News