The United Workers Party (UWP) says for next year’s Carnival, it will support placing Dennery Segment artistes on stage similar to the staging of John Legend during Saint Lucia Jazz. The UWP is also proposing that Carnival festivities run for the entire month of July.
These proposals were put forward on November 2 at “Clock It”, a youth engagement at Utopia Gardens in Ti Rocher, Micoud. “Clock It”, an urban slang term which means to notice, call out, or highlight, was used to unveil the opposition UWP’s plans for youth empowerment, if elected to office.
The event featured performances by several Dennery Segment and Soca artistes as well as short presentations by some of the UWP’s candidates.
“The young people of Saint Lucia, you have spoken tonight, your voice is being heard. In speaking to some of you tonight, my heart was full with pride, because you know the difference between a handout and a hand up. You know the difference between a political party that wants to get you by today and to give you something to buy some drinks and some food and you know the difference with a party that wants to invest in your future,” said Opposition Leader and head of the UWP Allen Chastanet.
He went on: “I know many of you get it and many of you have the same energy, and that’s why you are here in numbers because people say young people don’t vote. Well, the most important people to vote in this country are the young people of this country because the future is yours.”
Chastanet then stated that what he was about to reveal was a pledge to restore the future of young people and their faith in government.
“The first thing that we’re going to do is that you have a National Youth Council and that council has been tokenised, that council has been taken for granted. If the youth are going to have a voice, then you must have an organisation that can represent your ideas and so, what we’re going to do is, we’re going to empower the National Youth Council, not only with money, but with a staff and an office,” Chastanet explained.
The UWP is also proposing an increase to the NYC’s annual subvention and to appoint youth ambassadors in various sectors. They have also pledged that young people would have representation on all councils, boards, and committees.
Chastanet also promised a digital economy saying: “You have spoken about the digital economy and what we want to do is we want to create an academy, to be able to provide training for young people who want to get into the digital economy who want to get into robotics and to put themselves forward to compete in the global world.”
In the area of housing, the UWP on November 2 proposed a mortgage guarantee programme for first time young home buyers to access affordable housing.
The Party also criticised the establishment of a separate agency for the youth economy under the current administration. “The UWP had started a program to help young people and we put money into the Saint Lucia Development Bank to facilitate young people getting into business, both with grants and also with soft loans. It is the Labour Party who came and mamaguy you and mamaguy all of you by saying to you, they were going to create the youth economy. But what you did not realise is they created a new agency called the youth economy and put all their friends in there and have the money that was supposed to go to the young people, going to the people who they employ,” Chastanet said.
“As such we will lift the limitation, which is now $5 000 in grants and we will give you up to $25 000 in grants and make sure that you will have soft loans.”
The former prime minister then went on to justify his decision when in government to downsize the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival to make room for more local festivals and called for carnival celebrations to be extended into the entire month of July and to include a Dennery segment event produced to international standards.
“We want to make sure now that everybody in the world knows what Dennery Segment is and we will make that happen,” he said.
Before announcing the final pledge Allen Chastanet revealed that it was one that drew lengthy discussions.
“There are many, in fact, too many young people in this country who decided for whatever reason, dropped out of school and didn’t finish their school. Too many young people who have felt abandoned by Saint Lucia who have not been able to find their place in this country. And many of them have gone to join gangs, we must understand why they did what they did and we must agree that we are both wrong that the country failed those young people,” Chastanet said.
The opposition leader went on to propose the creation of a program called Second Chance.
“We must work with the gang leaders and we must work with the gangs and we must work with the young people who decided because they had no other choice to go in that direction. We must re-embrace them because we cannot succeed as a country if we are not united.”
He went on: “we will work tirelessly to make sure that young men don’t have to sit on the block and do nothing. That young men don’t have to find guns to protect their territory, but instead, young men now have an opportunity to find skills and jobs that they can take care of their families and be part of our society and the killing that is taking place in this country.”
“So the young people of this country let me say to you tonight, I believe and I hope and I pray that the Labour Party has the courage to ring the bell and to give Saint Lucians an opportunity to vote and decide whether they’re happy with the direction this country is going in.”
