The destructive hands of the People’s Action Movement (PAM), strikes again
By: Earle Clarke
In the latter part of 2007, the electoral Office which was located on East Independence Square Street was moved to Central Street, next to China Town Store, or East of the Development Bank on Central Street. The Electoral Reform Machinery went into high gear as a means of allowing those overseas Kittitians to register before returning to their country of abode.
This movement was aired over the airwaves, so that people could become aware and register their names. There was no hide and seek business about this. There was total transparency about the whole affair. The mirror of transparency was cleaned with window-lene, so that everybody could see through it.
But, there will always be people who will see the darkness of the mirror, even while others proclaim that it is ultra bright clean. The first few days when the Electoral Office was opened, a PAM agent went inside the office, demanding to see all who re-registered. She refused to move when asked to do so and eventually end up being escorted by the Police to the Basseterre Police Station, where she was eventually released without being charged.
A few days later, two officers from the Peoples Action Movement visited the Electoral Office, demanding copies of names of those persons who had registered. The attitude of PAM is being confrontational. They, who refused to participate in the process, are now using every effort to create instability in the country. All of the other Political Parties have participated in the exercise with the exception of PAM. Now, they are hell-bent on creating confusion.
The problem with PAM is their leader. He is small in stature, inherited no charisma, devoid of leadership qualities and is totally invisible in a crowd. He walks down the street and is invisible. Nobody sees him, nobody feels his presence. Nobody knows that he is around. So, what does Mr. Grant do? He goes into the Electoral Office in a confrontational manner when the office is filled with people to create confusion in order for people to see him. Like a spoilt brat, he demands things to which he is not entitled; Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled. In behaving this way, he would draw attention to his almost invisible self.
If Mr. Grant possesses leadership qualities; if Mr. Grant saw himself as the next leader of this country; if Mr. Grant possessed the ability to unite the many political sectors of the country; if Mr. Grant was thinking about country above self; if Mr. Grant gave thought to the stability of the country, Mr. Grant would have sat down and written Dr. Douglas a letter stating his objections to the re-registration process and requesting an audience with him to discuss his objections.
He could then publish his letter in his Party’s Mouthpiece and splash it around on his radio station. Something would have been on record for Dr. Douglas would have had to reply to his letter or even acknowledge receipt of it. Dr. Douglas would have been foolish politically, not to do so. Mr. Grant would then have had a springboard from which to launch his criticisms. Why doesn’t some one in the party speak to this man? He wants to be seen, when he could be more effective by being felt. Use diplomacy man, use it.
Mr. Grant organized a march in protest of the Electoral Reform. A march, which should have been a solemn occasion since Democracy was under attack according to him, ended up being one big shameful jump up by an Antiguan Band. Not even a local St. Kitts Band. This is the contempt in which Mr. Grant holds us ordinary working class folks. He has no links with us. He cannot pitch marbles, he cannot play top over, he does not know about dolly pots, he does not know anything about Round and round chin-chin barn, he knows nothing about the sufferings the black people endured while working on the sugar cane fields. Did his father who worked on the Sugar Estates or Sugar Plantations ever align himself with the workers on the estates or did he align himself with the masses of the day, choking off any improvements in the condition of the workers?
Mr. Grant lacks the skills of leading the Party. He can neither be seen nor heard, so he becomes confrontational. Not that this is something strange about the Party which is renowned for its violent conduct. The Party does not believe in negotiations. It believes in violent confrontation.
In the 1980’s Fitzroy Bryant’s garage was set on fire and his vehicle burnt to the ground, during this time, his legal office was being ransacked in a hunt for a cheque. After the cheque was recovered, legal proceedings were taken against him.
In 1984, when PAM won the elections, the first since they were in office, Masses Houses had a black board bracketed to its railing. The board was smashed to pieces. A vehicle which belonged to the Union was jumped up upon, its windscreen and its windows totally smashed; Violence man, violence. The hand of violence has descended again and this was not Mr. Bryant this time, it was the garage of Mr. Oliver Knight of Bird Rock who is the Manager of the Electoral Office. His vehicle was burnt to the ground.
My grandmother, God bless her departed soul, always admonished me to do good, for my sins would fall on my children. The things that our parents did to the working-class people have been recorded by the Master.
The founder of PAM always sided with those who oppressed our black brothers and sisters who worked in the Sugar Industry. He was always there with the oppressors, speaking against increases in wages for the workers and against better working conditions for them. His son, wanted to become Premier of this country. He migrated from Basseterre to live in Old Road. He feted the young people of that area almost on a daily basis. He, who did not stomach the ordinary folks in his young days, suddenly wanted to befriend the young people of the area.
The age old belief which is degrading to us black folks that we could easily be bought with a full belly was practised by this gentleman. While the young folks regarded him as a good person, the older folks kept fortifying those young folks about the treachery of the father upon the black working class of the country. Two failed election attempts brought home to this gentleman, the Biblical message that, the sins of the father followeth the children, right down to the third and fourth generation. Is history repeating itself? Will history repeat itself?
The trend can be reversed if a sufficient amount of the old folks could say “yes!” his father was a good man. He treated us with the dignity we deserved when he was our boss. If these words could be echoed in your ears, you stand a very good chance of success. In your interest Sir, carry out a survey from Palmetto Point to Half Way Tree. See the results and report your findings to the country.
After the son of the founder of PAM realized that the sins of the father had indeed caught up with him, he abandoned running in the constituency. Agonizingly, the reins of the party were turned over to Dr. Kennedy Alphonse Simmonds, who was a Medical Doctor by profession, but who was not born with the same social trimmings as his predecessor.
Dr. Simmonds played top over, pitched marbles, played football with a tennis ball, played licks and spawn, played bat and ball and went to the Methodist Church, which, although it practised its share of racism in those days, never practised it on such a rampant scale as the Roman Catholic Church, to which the founder of PAM had switched, because the oppressors of the black people worshipped there.
Everybody knew Dr. Simmonds, because his groundings were the same as ours. We were not privileged to have running water and electricity in our homes. Our families were not high falluted people. He could identify with the ordinary people.
Or so we thought. You see dear readers, PAM has a negative influence on all those who join its ranks and want to remain after discovering that they are in the wrong church, in the wrong pew and listening to the wrong preacher.
Dr. Simmonds’ father was not connected to being employed on any sugar estate. His father did not play any part in the exploitation and oppression of the working class people. The sins of his father did not have to visit him like his predecessor and, most certainly, his successor. He could have made a difference, but, you see, when you want to lose sight of whence you came, when you are not focussed, you begin to backslide. You begin to adopt attitudes which are alien to you and, in doing so, you sell your soul. You become like those with whom you associate.
You lose our groundings and begin floating in the middle of nowhere, until, one day. You fall back to the ground, only to be told by he people you despised, “Depart from us, we know you not.”
When Dr. Simmonds practised his medical skills, all of his patients hailed from PAM and Labour. Ordinary folks; No big shots, because he did not come from a big named family; Won a government scholarship; won the Leeward Island Scholarship; studied medicine returned as a Medical Doctor. Ordinary boy returning home everybody was proud of him.
Instead of grounding with his brothers and sisters, he abandoned them to fight against those same brothers and sisters. He became lost. He became hated. The people lost respect for him. History will not judge him compassionately at all. Even when Dr. Simmonds backslid and joined the ranks of PAM permanently, his biggest patients was Anne Liburd and her children. He was a Doctor; one of us ordinary folks and it did not matter.
Anne Liburd, in order to save her life, amputated a certain part of her anatomy. The Democrat newspaper, the mouthpiece of Dr. Simmonds’ party, drew a cow, depicting that part of Ann Liburd’s anatomy which was amputated. Do you think that Dr. Simmonds stood up and demonstrated the strength of his iron dukes by condemning it? He said not a word. None of the women from the PAM Women Group uttered a word of protest.
The reason why the country and the Federation as a whole are prospering under Dr. Douglas is because; Dr. Douglas was in the same boat as Dr. Simmonds. He attended PAM and Labour patients. He has not forgotten that. He makes sure that both Labour and PAM supporters enjoy the fruits of the land. He walks down the road and even though he is short I stature, you feel his presence. Love, dedication, commitment, joy, emanates from the man.
God is blessing him because he is not full of hate and spiteful. He is bubbling over with confidence. He knows that he has the country at heart. The Lord knows that he means well and so He continues to bless him and in extension, St. Kitts and the Federation as a whole. This is true LEADERSHIP.
The above article does not necessarily represent the views or the opinion of the Communications Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister (CUOPM). It is however circulated in an effort to contribute the the ongoing social, political and economic debate on issues important to the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
