SVG is not Minister John’s Plantation
I must commend Invest SVG for their trip around the region and internationally to offer opportunities to invest in SVG. It is not a new initiative by Invest SVG but one I think the NDP is wise to adopt.
Then I turn the newspaper and see from the eyes of the Diaspora Minister Andrew John wanting to hold up the process from poor people getting lands they have been offered. These are levels that should be behind us. As a teacher and former public servant with a few months of entering politics, it appears that politics has entered you!
How is the diaspora supposed to take Invest SVG seriously when they say to come home and invest and government lands may be available in cases to support the investment? It is scary to consider that policy makers can make a clear attempt to overreach by putting on hold the execution of offer letters for land made to struggling people.
Mr. John, instead of hearing the cry of the people, has instead decided to go on a high horse. One that many are crying after being trampled upon. I was shocked when a family member who I support monthly from here in New York said lands that she obtained since 2018 and has been paying for was told that all payments are on hold. I could not believe. Isn’t there a Cabinet that can speak to this Minister?
So I ask the question, when an offer letter is made to Tom and a Minister says that the process is being reviewed. Tom knows where the land is, went and took sand to the land to build and has shown his three children and wife where their new house will be going when they move out of the rented downstairs only to be told next month either Dick or Harry has been chosen for the same piece of land, isn’t this going to cause chaos, Mr. Minister? Isn’t this going to fuel tension in our small communities? Don’t we have sociologists and historians who can advise Mr. John? You are wrong and you need to apologise.
I believe that someone is setting up Mr. John. He has become quickly the most unpopular Minister of Government in SVG. Mr. John please remember we are the children of Joseph Chatoyer. We are the offspring of Sonny Sarge. Dual citizenship blood is in our veins. We don’t tolerate people who want to behave as if we are squatting on their plantation.
My cousin has already paid $6,000 on her parcel of land with money I sent and what she borrowed from a credit union. She is paying back the credit union every month, but is living in uncertainty about the land she already cleared up. Any government whether ULP or NDP who while in office attempt to do such an injustice to people must never be allowed to get away with such a thing.
Mr. John, as my grandmother used to say, “Tek yuh name outta neggar mouth.” Do what is right and free up the lands for the people.