Chairman of the United Workers’ Party (UWP), Therold Prudent, has launched a sharp critique of Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre’s Emancipation Day address, accusing the political leader of hypocrisy and divisiveness in his remarks about Saint Lucia’s colonial legacy and racial unity.
Speaking at a UWP town hall meeting on Sunday night at the Boulevard in Castries, Prudent described the Prime Minister’s comments as “a grotesque act of hypocrisy,” arguing that the Prime Minister failed to acknowledge what he described as inconsistencies within his own administration.
“Within your own government sits a Member of Parliament with direct descendants of slave owners,” Prudent declared. “We know who he is and he’s sitting at the tip of the south of this country.”
While not naming the individual directly, Prudent appeared to reference a southern MP whose family history, he alleged, contradicts the message of the Prime Minister’s speech.
Prudent further accused the government of turning a blind eye to internal contradictions while unfairly targeting members of the white Saint Lucian community.
“Instead, what he did was target an entire community, white Saint Lucians, many of whom have no actual ties to slavery,” he said. “People like Allen Chastanet, many of whom have worked tirelessly and peacefully alongside all of us to build this country.”
He also condemned what he claimed was the behavior of a government parliamentarian who uses a private media platform “to vilify and denigrate ordinary citizens of our country, including Allen Chastanet.”
The UWP Chairman argued that such rhetoric sows unnecessary division among Saint Lucians of different racial backgrounds, stating it was “shameful, dangerous, and unacceptable.”
