19th August 2019

Opposition Leader wants to know who is paying for PM social media presence

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By St Lucia Times

The leader of the opposition in Saint Lucia wants to know who is paying for Prime Minister Allen Chastanet’s social media presence.

“The Prime Minister needs to tell us who is paying for all these social media things he is doing – all these people who are following him with cameras,” Philip J. Pierre told a Town Hall meeting of the opposition Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) last week.

“Is it the taxpayers money? Is it his private money? Is there any difference between the party and the government?” The SLP leader asked.

“When we were in government we were not able to use the SLG vehicles for private purposes,” Pierre recalled.

He asserted that currently, there is no difference between the ruling party and the government.

“The government seems to be the same as the party,” Pierre declared.

He told the audience that some people become excited because Chastanet is on Instagram and other social media.

“I saw the Prime Minister trying to play a goalkeeper,” Pierre said to laughter from the audience.

“When he fell he rolled over and he came back and he looked clownish,” he stated.

“If you want that from me – I ain’t doing that,” the SLP leader declared.

“That is tokenism and bluff and I am not getting involved in tokenism,” he told his audience.

According to Pierre, the PM believes that the way to get to the youth is through that ‘tokenism’; taking photos with them;  and going to an ‘all white’ party and dressing in black.

Pierre explained that Chastanet believes he can influence young people in that way.

He told young people that the PM taking photos with them does not deal with their education or the fact that when they leave university they will be unable to get a piece of land to build a house.

Pierre asserted that all the land is going to foreigners.

“Our party has an entire programme on a youth economy,” he said.

Explaining what the youth economy is about, Pierre said an entire section of the economy will be given to the youth to be responsible for it.

“We’re  going to talk to them; we’re going to look at the businesses that they want to go into; we’re going to finance them.”

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