(The following article appeared in yesterday’s edition of the Barbados Weekend Nation):
“CONTROVERSIES over improper practices in governance continue to be on the rise in two countries within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States—Antigua and Barbuda and St. Lucia. Earlier in the week, Opposition Leader of St Lucia’s United Workers Party (UWP), Kenny Anthony, referenced scathing criticisms by the Court of Appeal of improper practices by two cabinet ministers in a letter urging Prime Minister Stephenson King, to urgently move to dismiss the ministers in the interest of St Lucia’s reputation.
Across in Antigua and Barbuda, chairman of the country’s Electoral Commission, Sir Gerald Watts, went public with complaints about the Commission being starved by the government of Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of operational funds.
He has also shown his anger over the Commission being “completely ignored” on important amendments to the Representation of the People Act, as just approved by parliament, in preparation for anticipated new elections.
In the absence of a political culture of consultation between the government and the opposition, it would be surprising should Dr Anthony’s call for the dismissal of the two named cabinet ministers succeed.
Much earlier, he had failed in his formal request to the government to recall Taiwan’s ambassador to St Lucia, Tom Chou on grounds of repeated examples of crude undiplomatic practices.
Now Anthony has sent a letter to King following a judgement last week by three judges of the Appeal Court that strongly condemned the government for, among other things, “outrageous defiance of logic and accepted moral standards…” in what is known as St Lucia’s “Tuxedo Villas” case.
In his letter this past Monday, the Opposition Leader warned the Prime Minister that failure to dismiss the two cabinet ministers would seriously undermine the country’s integrity in governance; both within the region and internationally.
However, having been severely compromised by Taiwanese influence in the formation of his cabinet in September 2007 –  following the passing of the ailing founder-leader of the UWP, Sir John Compton –Prime Minister King has been reluctant to make changes and seems to have settled for the politics of survival- for as long as practicable.
Yet the arrogance often reflected in policies and postures by the UWP leadership structure sharply contrast with the reality of the respective popular support bases of the ruling and opposition parties. A new general election is still some 18 months away.
In the case of Antigua and Barbuda, the gloves are off between Prime Minister Spencer’s administration and the Electoral Commission. The ruling UPP has been progressively manoeuvring to dislodge the Commission amid growing anxieties in both the ranks of government and opposition over next Tuesday’s hearing by the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal of a ruling last March 31 by  judge Louise Blenman to declare vacant three of the government’s nine seats in the House of Representatives.
Perhaps those representative regional civil society organisations with an interest in integrity in governance, electoral democracy and the rule of law, should demonstrate some active interest in what’s taking place in the politics of governance in both St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda.