An HDC sideshow

IT’S BEEN an annus horribilis for Caricom. In July, the Prime Minister skipped the 49th Heads of Government summit. That seemed a one-off. But her subsequent full-throated endorsement, first, of Donald Trump’s US military build-up in the region and then of his administration’s summary executions at sea confirmed a decisive break from the bloc and its institutional position that the Caribbean should be a zone of peace.

Ms Persad-Bissessar insists her relationship with her regional colleagues is “cordial,” but in the same breath deems them all “unreliable.” Viewed in this context, the HDC housing fiasco involving St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves is a sideshow. The real fight is over power and influence in the region.

Minister in the Ministry of Housing Anil Roberts questions how Dr Gonsalves’ Trinidadian family members got approvals for Victoria Keyes apartments during the dying days of the PNM.

Dr Gonsalves denies seeking preferential treatment and is instructing his lawyers. Ms Persad-Bissessar, SC, could not be bothered by the prospect of litigation lodged by a regional head of state against one of her ministers.

“His opinions have never had any effect on my decision-making,” the PM tellingly claimed this week. “I also have no interest in the current elections.”

Dr Gonsalves, who is seeking a sixth term, has been forced to state that he meant no disrespect in his recent criticism of Persad-Bissessar’s zone of peace stance. Cordial relations? Sure.

Both the UNC and PNM have allowed the HDC to pursue open-market, high-income projects. Yet the government seeks to stand on the moral high ground. It suggests well-connected people got through with price-slashed units. In May, the PM announced the termination of state-funded housing for ministers already on housing allowances. Did the Cabinet at that stage have wind of the Victoria Keyes transactions, which date to April?

Or did Mr Roberts happen upon them coincidentally on the eve of the islands’ November 27 poll?

The timing of the government’s revelations means that the issue of whether the private HDC housing stock is reaching the widest possible ownership cannot now be divorced from the issue of election interference, whatever the PM says.

Meanwhile, PNM leader Pennelope Beckles’ invocation of section 28 of the Integrity in Public Life Act is strange. Assuming this confidentiality provision, which applies at large to part four of the act, supersedes Mr Robert’s constitutional duties, what about all the other provisions of this same act which have been flouted by both UNC and PNM officials over the years, such as the mass failure to file income, assets and liabilities? Many apartments belonging to local politicians have thus been kept away from the eyes of the public.

Sideshow? More like pappyshow.