Put interest of country above party
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – YOUNG Jamaican politician Dr. Dayton Campbell believes it is time that people practice “politics of change” within St. Kitts and Nevis and the wider Caribbean.
As the featured speaker at the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party’s 85thAnnual National Conference held yesterday (May 21) at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort, Dr. Campbell wowed the hundreds of delegates, members of the Diplomatic Corps and business representatives with his address that called for change.
Shortly after completion of the Public Session, Dr. Campbell told reporters that he did not make a detailed study of the Federation’s political landscape before delivering his speech.
The People’s National Party’s Member of Parliament explained that his underlying theme was change and empowering the people.
Dr. Campbell asked: “How do we get more persons involved in the democratic process and understanding that it is not just about voting at the time of elections?” And in answering, he said it is how politicians “participate daily in national and community activities to build stronger communities and, by extension, a stronger nation”.
He opined that there are issues extending beyond political parties that are confronting the people, and the attention needs not to be focused on personalities and the will of a political party to win an election, but there are certain things that underpin it and a critical focus must be placed on the interest of the country above the interest of the party.
Questioned on how constituents can hold elected leaders accountable, Dr. Campbell intimated that there is a silent majority of people who do not participating in the democratic process, and that they are the ones who need to understand that they, along with others, must rise up and demand better from elected officials.
“The true thing is that the people need to realize that they are the ones that are the bosses and we [politicians] really are the servants of the people. We are working for them and they are to hold us accountable for the job they have elected us to do and to ensure that everything that is done, is done to their best interest.”
He opined that political parties across the region and the world over “extirpate corruption, and we need to ensure that the policies that are crafted and the programmes that they redound are to the benefit of the people”.
Against that backdrop, he pointed out that “politics has taken a bad name because you have had corrupt elements within it”, adding that politics by itself is supposed to be a noble profession.
