'Final Thrushy flies out!’ Premier Smith says goodbye
It is also fitting that the Virgin Islands (VI) biggest medical facially, the Peebles Hospital on Tortola will soon carry his name.
However, as a Politician and Premier of the British Overseas Territory for 8 years, he has been regarded as a failure with many saying he set the Islands backwards some 10 plus years.
In his farewell speech aired yesterday, Monday, February 18, 2019, the outgoing Premier noted, “I put my trust in the fair judgement of history and of my fellow citizens.”
His legacy
While many of his fellow residents remain homeless, jobless and some in his own National Democratic Party (NDP) told the VI House of Assembly (HoA) that there are children going to bed hungry, Dr. Smith still claimed, “I take satisfaction in knowing that the BVI’s economy is resilient and continues to grow.”
His political successor Hon Myron V. Walwyn (AL) has been labelled as the most “divisive political figure in the Territory,” pitting locals against Caribbean brothers and sisters and playing the race card according to social commentator, Claude O. Skelton-Cline. Further, Mr Smith even stated, “I wish that our community was more unified.”
Over the last year, Premier Smith presided over the breakup of the NDP as many have claimed he along with Mr Walwyn had a part to play in the party splitting into two, however, Dr Smith said despite it all “I have no regrets.”
Historians will also remember his political legacy as one mired by corruption allegations, raping of the public treasury with millions and millions unaccounted for and further, Dr Smith is leaving office with one of his Ministers under police investigation over a small wall constructed at the Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) with a price tag is $1.6M.
The Auditor General Ms Sonia M. Webster stated in her report on the wall that there was no value for money, it was overpriced and broke financial laws with contractors paid for work not done.
Good Doctor, Bad Politician
Dr Smith legacy will also be remembered for victimization of those who did not support his party, particularly civil servants and the free press, interference in every project, direct rule being imposed for the first time on our finances, mistrust by the United Kingdom Government and mistrust by international donors following Hurricanes Irma and Maria of 2017.
These actions have left the country broke according to answers given by Dr Smith himself in the HoA and many residents, especially the elderly have been sinking into poverty.
His embattled Education and Culture Minister, Hon Walwyn stated that he could no longer do anything to protect locals, a statement many residents saw as blatant discrimination.
However, there is some hope with the exit of Dr. Smith from politics, he has been one of the region’s best and most experienced medical Doctors and has literally saved many lives even after a disastrous run in office for 20 years (1999-2019).
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22 Responses to “'Final Thrushy flies out!’ Premier Smith says goodbye”
Do you all forgot that people around the world read these things.
One of the best Premier ever in the VI.
Moreover, the headline says ‘I have no regrets.’ However, in the body of the article, the Premier expressed regrets about extension of TBLIA, economy……..etc. Further, there should have been regrets about the $7.2M to BVI Airways, the repurposing of $8M from EE/LL sewage project, the ~$40M cost overrun at TPP, the ESHS Wall debacle, the slow response after hurricanes Irmaria……..etc. But if he did the best he could, it is what it is. His legacy will be spotty but may be in time history will be revised. It was a tough job. Best wishes on a well-deserved retirement!
So what happens when all the thrushies fly out? May be now I can get a sugar apple, sour sop......etc.
Very Rude
I am an expat and just cannot understand how you treat your own like that after years of taking care of all of you and as a politian you are calling him ****he is one of you and you treat him like that what will you do to me
Ungrateful people always remember the bad not the good. If you think irma kill a lot of people, a lot of them will die when Myron Walwyn become premier. The man born here and they still think he's an outsider, SICK PEOPLE.
Happy raydence
Thank you Doctor Smith for all your contributions to the BVI, be they in the medical or political arena.
We, the people of the BVI, have very short memories. We forget how we welcomed you and your team to take us 'off the reef' in 2003. We forget how we commended you as part of a two man opposition and overwhelmingly voted you in office again in 2011. We forget that the VIP, in the past, had such a bad wrap that we HAD to get rid of them and to do so we put our confidence in you.
To be fair, I will say that you made mistakes, costly ones. Mistakes that I, myself criticized and probably if you were not retiring, would punish you at the polls for by not voting for you again this election cycle. But what I will not do is be so ungrateful as to label you a thrushy or as lame duck. I think the disrespect is unnecessary. If we think about it, if we collectively label you as such, then we would have to label ourselves as idiots as well as WE were the ones who, by process of an election, voted you to be Premier in the first place.
While I might not agree with how you handled some matters of government business, and while I might think that we need to try another government at this time, I think that we should learn to respect people while they are alive and not wait until persons have died to write blogs, conveniently forgetting missteps, which put persons on a pedestal after we have disrespected, abused and called them out of their names.
Give jack his jacket. He wasn't the best, but he does not deserve all this disrespect either. Doc, again, thank you for your contributions, and I wish you a blessed and restful retirement.