CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (JUNE 08, 2009) -- The importance of good governance will be one of many positive elements that would come from the Commission of Inquiry (COI), a view shared by Premier of Nevis Hon. Joseph Parry when he addressed the Nevisian Public on Nevis Television on Friday.
“[In] the matter of governance, we need to demonstrate to our people that the people who we have put in office are competent, that they are serving the country and they are giving their best to their country. We need to signal to the politicians who are now in government, including myself and politicians for the future, that politics is not a place to make money. It is not a place to get rich it is a place to serve people and to serve their country.
“If people want to get rich they must go in the private sector or go somewhere else where they can make quick money. In the government is to give good service and so, I want that message to be sent to every member of the public on the island of Nevis,” he said.
The Commission of Inquiry which was commissioned by the Nevis Reformation Party led Nevis Island Administration was launched in May to look into the activities of the former Nevis Island Administration whose term in office ended in July 2006.
When the sitting NIA took over the government of Nevis over two years ago, part of its mandate was to enquire into the activities of the former Administration.
From his personal standpoint, Mr. Parry noted that the first positive thing the conclusion of the 10 month long COI would signal to the people of Nevis would be the need to not to have a culture of wrong doing and the need to feel that all politicians were corrupt.
“We need to have respect for our politicians and we need to signal to young people that politics is a noble profession and serving your country is a noble profession. We have to break that servile culture that seems to say that politicians must be corrupt,” he said.
Mr. Parry said it was important for persons in public office to give account. Whether there was wrong doing or not, the public had to be made aware and be able to move forward in the knowledge that all was well.
He reiterated his earlier position that persons needed not be afraid of the Commission if they had done the right things.
The Premier said too that the public needed not worry about how much money the COI would cost “ because we are not a government known to waste, the Commissioner said it was a fraction of the total that has been bandied about Nevis, we are not wasting money,” he said.
