THE Parliamentary opposition, St Lucia Labour Party (SLP), has called on the government of Prime Minister Stephenson King to make clear to Taiwan’s resident ambassador, Tom Chou, to “get out of our domestic politics”.

In a statement yesterday, the SLP claimed that by the persistent abuse of his position in openly attacking the People’s Republic of China, and also misrepresenting projects of the previous Labour Party administration, the Taiwanese envoy had clearly overstayed his time in St. Lucia.

Having previously called for Chou’s recall by the Taiwanese government, the SLP said that the envoy’s latest act of interference in St. Lucia’s domestic politics was his sneering of the Chinese design Psychiatric Hospital as being “out of date” and “below international technical standards”.

The Psychiatric Hospital was one of the development projects undertaken by the People’s Republic of China during the two-term SLP administrations.

But the hospital project came to a halt following severance of diplomatic relations with Beijing by the United Workers Party (UWP) in preference for Taipei shortly after its defeat of the incumbent SLP at the December 2006 general election.

The SLP noted in it statement what it described as “similarities” in positions frequently adopted by the UWP government and ambassador Chou not only against China but the previous Labour Party administration.

In its statement, the SLP said it was not opposed to “legitimate contributions from foreign governments and institutions to St. Lucia’s development…”.

However, said the statement, “the SLP insists that this must never be done through interference in our government system; and through intimidation, bribery and discrimination of our citizens…” (R. Singh)