Saturday, February 11, 2012

Don’t rush the brush!

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

And this is why we must remain with Taiwan!

Ask the Syrian people, and some African countries, and the answer if simple!

February 11, 2012 at 12:52 PM
Anonymous said...

Good piece Earl. Very objective in light of your known affiliation with the China Friendship Association. I was alarmed by the Micah's narrow analysis." He gave no consideration whatsoever to the growing rapproachment between Taiwan and China which to my mind is more important to the two administrations than which of them can claim diplomatic ties with Saint Lucia.In other words Saint Lucia is less important to them than they are to each other. Neither is under any obligation to give us aid. But Earl, the fact that Saint Lucia has not severed ties with Taiwan will not give Taiwan the comfort it needs to continue its development assistance to us.

February 11, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Anonymous said...

This is a lot of hog wash and misrepresentation of the truth.

St.Lucia is stuck in neutral.

February 11, 2012 at 3:48 PM
Anonymous said...

Earl is a has-been, get out of the way and make room for the new generation.

February 11, 2012 at 11:54 PM
Anonymous said...

The situation is complex going forward because of the uncertainty of the direction and strength of the relationship between Taiwan and Mainland China.

With these unknowns there is no need for a rush to judgement on the part of anyone. Ease-on-down-the-road or "kick the can down the road" policies are understandable options -- or even preferred options with the projects underway being given very special attention.

February 12, 2012 at 6:04 AM
Anonymous said...

In this economic environment where, as the government will evidently play an authoritative role (visible or invisible), it will be the action of the local business community and external entrepreneurs (jobs, jobs, jobs) who will dictate this call, Taiwan or China.

February 12, 2012 at 6:50 AM
Anonymous said...

What looked like a straight forward decision that was formulated and sold as a blueprint for growth, has turned out to be a mind boggling collision.
Is this what the majority of Saint Lucians read and purchased? Maybe not.

February 12, 2012 at 6:50 AM
Anonymous said...

A cleverly written piece by Bousquet. He says the way he sees it is that "the people of Taiwan and Saint Lucia both voted for closer relations with China." But that would not be entirely true in either case. The issue of diplomatic relations between Saint Lucia and Taiwan or China was not a clear issue in the last election campaign, certainly not as clear as a referendum would make it. And while there has defintely been a warming of relations between the Governments of Taiwan and China,President Ma was returned to power in Taiwan with about 52% of the vote suggesting that many Taiwanese are uneasy about the rapid pace of the rapprocehment with the mainland. In fact, Ma's share of the vote fell from 58% four years ago and his Party has a reduced majority in the Legislature. But perhaps it is Ma's growing suport among Chinese that may be the greatest source of concern to Beijing. Nearly 55% of the 26,000 Chinese that responded to a Sina.com poll said they preferred a win by Ma.

It is hoped that one of the many issues that will be considered by the Lewis Task Force is the ease of doing business with Taiwan and China and the conditionalities involved. The clear evidence from nearly 9 years of dealing with the latter is that its development cooperation processess are extremely rigid and require beneficiary governments to use large amounts of Chinese workers on Chinese-financed projects. While Taiwan appears to have a far more flexible and responsive approach with fewer conditionalities, the fact that its money did not flow through the Consolidated Fund raises the concern about how much of that money was diverted into non-development use.

Hopefully the way forward will be made clear well before the Budget is finalized and presented.

February 12, 2012 at 8:05 AM

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