By Peter Binose

Ralph Gonsalves had the perfect alibi when they tried to decide who killed Glen Jackson his press secretary in Kingstown. Not that anyone at the time suspected him of doing it.

Gonsalves was in Kuala Lumpa Malaysia, he phoned in from there and declared the killing to be a political assassination. No one could understand at the time how he would know such a thing, how he could immediately apportion blame before the police had even investigated the crime. But I suppose over the years if we follow some of the claims that Gonsalves has made he may be a clairvoyant, we know he is an Obeah man because he once told us so, just as he told us he is a liar and all sorts of other stupid statements.

Read this also
http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/assassination-in-saint-vincent-and-the-grenadines/

WIKILEAKS
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06BRIDGETOWN609_a.html
SUBJECT: ST. VINCENT PRIME MINISTER’S ASIAN MYSTERY TOUR
REF: A. BRIDGETOWN 429 ¶B. BRIDGETOWN 239

Classified By: DCM Mary Ellen T. Gilroy for reasons 1.4 (b)
and (d).

¶1. (C) Summary: St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves traveled to Southeast Asia in February and March for what was billed as an official mission to attract investment to his small Caribbean island-state.
The Government of St. Vincent (GOSV) hyped the success of the PM’s visits to Malaysia and Singapore, where businesses reportedly want to invest in St. Vincent and governments have offered the country various forms of assistance. While in Malaysia, the PM also named a prominent businessman St. Vincent’s Honorary Consul. When asked recently about the specifics of the PM’s trip, however, high-level GOSV officials were unable to offer any information and appeared to be completely unaware of the supposed success of an investment mission that included only Gonsalves and his family. The dissonance between the claims made for the PM’s trip and his own Government’s lack of knowledge raises questions about who paid for this junket and what it was intended to accomplish. End summary.

—————————-
PM Travels to Southeast Asia
—————————-
¶2. (U) St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves went on a twelve-day trip to Malaysia and Singapore in February and March for what was billed by the Government of St. Vincent as a mission to attract investment to this small Caribbean island-state. According to a GOSV press release, PM Gonsalves met with the Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers of Malaysia and Singapore, as well as potential investors and financiers representing various business interests. Gonsalves also spoke before an audience at the Malaysian Institute of Management, where, according to the publicly released text of the PM’s speech, he gave a general overview of St. Vincent and possible investment opportunities. Only Gonsalves’s wife and 10-year-old daughter accompanied him to Southeast Asia.

——————–
A “Successful” Visit
——————–
¶3. (U) PM Gonsalves’s investment mission met with great success in Southeast Asia, according to releases from the GOSV and the PM’s governing party. Both the Prime Ministers of Malaysia and Singapore agreed to visit St. Vincent and
have their governments facilitate investment in the small Caribbean country that will serve as an Asian “beach-head” in the region. The CEOs of Malaysia’s airport authority and Air Asia of Malaysia agreed to assist St. Vincent with the management of its airports and to advise the financially
troubled Caribbean regional air carrier LIAT. Finally, the Malaysia-based Petra Group will market St. Vincent’s international financial services in Asia, invest in tourism development in St. Vincent, and assist the Caribbean with the development of a biodiesel fuel project.

—————-
The Mystery Tour
—————-
¶4. (C) Despite the apparent success of PM Gonsalves’s mission to Southeast Asia, high-level members of his Government were unable to offer any information when asked about the trip recently by Poloff. Furthermore, the GOSV officials appeared to be caught totally unaware of any of the details provided in the press releases that touted the many accomplishments of their PM. A search of the websites of the Governments of Malaysia and Singapore offered a similar dearth of information, with only the Singapore MFA’s website posting four lines explaining how Foreign Minister George Yeo
“exchanged views” with PM Gonsalves. For any details on the trip, one had to turn to the website of the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM), which provided the text of Gonsalves’s brief March 1 speech to the organization. The website also explained that the event had been organized by Datuk Vinod Sekhar, a MIM board member and Chairman of the Petra Trust and Foundation, the charitable arm of the Petra Group. Sekhar is also the Founder, President and Chief Executive of the Petra Group, a Malaysia-based technology company.

———————————————
Malaysian Named St. Vincent’s Honorary Consul
———————————————
¶5. (C) While in Southeast Asia, PM Gonsalves named Datuk Vinod Sekhar as St. Vincent’s Honorary Consul for both Malaysia and Singapore, according to the GOSV press release. The GOSV failed, however, to explain whether Sekhar would
find time from his busy corporate and philanthropic schedule to provide consular services to Vincentians traveling in Southeast Asia. If PM Gonsalves follows tradition, Sekhar’s Honorary Consul status came with the issuance of an actual St. Vincent diplomatic passport. The provision of diplomatic passports to non-citizens is a common practice of Caribbean leaders who, critics complain, grant both honorary and even formal diplomatic status to individuals as a means to repay wealthy benefactors (refs A and B).

—————————–
Investment Mission or Junket?
—————————–
¶6. (C) Comment: PM Gonsalves’s conferring Honorary Consul status on Sekhar suggests that either this prominent Malaysian businessman, his company, or its foundation paid for the PM and his family to take their Southeast Asian junket. This is not the first, nor will it be the last, such trip for Gonsalves, who has an extraordinary travel schedule for the leader of a small, cash-strapped Caribbean country. The GOSV certainly cannot afford to foot the PM’s bills, which are probably being paid by Sekhar and others like him. The question is what do they get for this? Major foreign investment in St. Vincent is limited mainly to the tourism sector, which is the nation’s only growth industry. It remains to be seen how the Petra Group or the Governments of Malaysia and Singapore could become involved in tiny St. Vincent. Post will report further on any emerging Vincentian-Southeast Asian nexus. End comment.

KRAMER
_____________

WIKILEAKS
http://www.malaysia-today.net/wikileaks-malaysia-prime-minister-visits-st-vincent/
SUBJECT: MALAYSIA PRIME MINISTER VISITS ST. VINCENT
REF: BRIDGETOWN 609

1. (SBU) Summary: Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi visited St. Vincent and the Grenadines over the course of four days in April and May for what was touted by St. Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves as a follow-up to his successful March visit to Malaysia and Singapore. While in St. Vincent, the Malaysian leader addressed a session of Parliament, but spent most of his time vacationing in the Grenadine islands where St. Vincent’s high-end resorts are located. The lack of a concrete agenda or results from PM Abdullah’s trip to St. Vincent does little to clear up the circumstances surrounding Gonsalves’s earlier trip to Southeast Asia (reftel), the purpose and financing of which remain unclear. End summary.

Malaysia PM Unwinds in St. Vincent
2. (U) Malaysia PM Abdullah visited St. Vincent and the Grenadines for four days, April 29 to May 2, for what was called a “working visit” in a press release provided by the Malaysia MFA. From St. Vincent, the Malaysia PM went on to Jamaica for a two-day “official visit.” A reporter traveling with the PM wrote in the Malaysia Star that the Jamaica portion of the trip dealt with possible Malaysian investment in energy exploration and construction projects, while the PM was stopping in St. Vincent “mostly for a vacation and to unwind from the pressures of work.”

St. Vincent Rolls Out the Red Carpet
3. (U) The Government of St. Vincent literally rolled out the red carpet for the Malaysia PM, who was greeted by the entire Cabinet and other dignitaries at St. Vincent’s small airport when he arrived on April 29. After meeting with St. Vincent PM Gonsalves, the Malaysian vacationed for a few days on the Grenadine islands Mustique and Canuoan. He spent one of these days on a fishing trip accompanied by Gonsalves. PM Abdullah returned to St. Vincent proper on May 2 and addressed Parliament before departing for Jamaica.

4. (U) Note: Mustique is a private island containing over 75 private villas, many of which are owned by international celebrities. Canuoan is the location of the high-end Raffles Resort and an opulent villa complex and golf course developed by Donald Trump. The stylish environment of the Grenadines contrasts markedly with the somewhat squalid conditions encountered on the main island of St. Vincent. End note.

Gonsalves to Visit Malaysia, Again
5. (U) Following the Malaysian PM’s departure, the Governments of St. Vincent and Malaysia released a joint statement with standard diplomatic language expressing further interest in “enhancing cooperation” in a number of areas. PM Gonsalves announced that he had accepted an invitation to make an official visit to Malaysia in June and would also see the Malaysian PM in September during the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting in Cuba. St. Vincent formally joined the NAM at the organization’s 2004 summit in Malaysia.

Comment
6. (SBU) When first announced, the Malaysian leader’s St. Vincent trip appeared to suggest that PM Gonsalves had indeed accomplished something for his country by traveling to Southeast Asia earlier this year. Considering, however, that the “working visit” was really a vacation, it does not appear that St. Vincent will necessarily benefit from its PM’s previous globetrotting. As stated in reftel, the Government of St. Vincent cannot afford such trips by its PM, which must be paid by third parties. The question remains, what do these third parties stand to gain from financing the travels of the leader of a small Caribbean island-state?

GILROY

Now I leave the readers with this. There appears to be two places where PM Gonsalves no longer wants to visit, one is Canada and the other is Malaysia. I will later bring to you why he suddenly dropped Malaysia or why Malaysia suddenly dropped him. There is some matching and comparing to be made. My story on this comes from two Malaysian diplomats who I met at breakfast in Harrods, London. It’s coming please be patient.

Peter Binose

END

DISCLAIMER: The opinion, belief and viewpoint expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinion, belief and viewpoint of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com or official policies of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com.

IMAGE: news784.com Glen Jackson