Voice of Change #6
PAM WEEKLY POLITICAL BROADCAST
Fellow Kittitians and Nevisians, Residents, Friends:
Many of you would have been impressed by the speed with which the Governor of New York handed in his resignation last week.
What does the governor of New York’s resignation have to with St. Kitts and Nevis?
It teaches all of us a much needed lesson in morality in public affairs.
In purchasing sexual gratification from a professional provider of such services, Governor Spitzer was doing what untold numbers of men, and, from all reports, women - married and unmarried - are routinely practising.
Yet he was compelled to resign.
We don’t know that the New York governor resigned because he felt he had sinned, cheated on his wife or betrayed the public trust.
It was simply that Eliot Spitzer knew that his conduct was not acceptable; and that the public, the media and his congressional colleagues would not allow him to get away with what he had been caught doing.
The governor of New York could not have had the audacity to claim that what he did was a private matter.
Contrast all of this with the position taken by the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis regarding the lease of his property at Adams Hill to the Taiwanese government for use as its ambassador’s residence.
As far as he is concerned, it is a private matter.
The Taiwanese Ambassador came to Dr. Douglas’ defence telling us that the Prime Minister was not directly involved in the negotiations for the lease of his property.
What exactly does that mean?
Is the ambassador attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of the Kittitian and Nevisian people?
Or is he simply guilty of grossly underestimating our intelligence?
In defending the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Taiwanese ambassador took the opportunity to remind us Kittitians and Nevisians of all Taiwan has done for us.
According to the ambassador, Taiwan has been labouring for decades to improve the well-being of the people of our twin-island federation.
So extensive was the ambassador’s list of Taiwanese goodies, you had to wonder whether any other friendly country had contributed anything to St. Kitts and Nevis; and indeed whether our government has been capable of doing anything on its own.
Minister of National Security, Dwyer Astaphan, also jumped to the defence of his buddy, claiming that there was nothing wrong with the Taiwanese government renting the Prime Minister’s new real estate project.
The contrast in morality between influencers in New York and St. Kitts will be lost on no one.
Governor Spitzer promptly resigned when his escapade was uncovered.
Here in St. Kitts, the Prime Minister sends emissaries to spin things for him.
They are not convincing anybody.
We have to take the statements of the people championing the Prime Minister to mean that where they are concerned, and where the Douglas administration is concerned, there is simply no moral minimum.
This would explain Prime Minister Douglas’ flagrant violation of the Constitution in arrogating to himself oversight, involvement in and direction of the reconstruction of the voters list.
The involvement of the Prime Minister or any member of his Cabinet is specifically prohibited by the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and the National Assembly Elections Act.
The framers of our Constitution were quite explicit in their intentions that the Supervisor of Elections should not report to or be controlled by any Minister of this or any other government.
This transgression is part of a blatant attempt to rig the next election by rigging the reconfirmation in the fraudulent exercise the Prime Minister has organised and is directing.
The country also sees the absence of a moral minimum in the government’s giveaway of vast acreages of state land in deals completely shrouded in secrecy; and with no examination by Parliament.
When word came out about the Kittitian Heights land deal between Prime Minister and a foreign entity called Belmont Resorts Limited, he denied that the land had been sold and claimed that the 178.5 acres of land had been leased to Belmont.
The Prime Minister was misleading the country.
That hefty chunk of Kittitian real estate was sold to Belmont, and that company was duly issued the relevant Aliens Land Holding Licence on October 9th last year.
The same lack of morality in public affairs defines the Douglas regime’s routine transfer of gigantic amounts of public funds to private pockets on massive projects awarded to favoured individuals and organisations without any tendering, without any bid process.
The ruling regime sees no need for the public to be informed on any such matters.
That is why Prime Minister Douglas can have the gall to say that the unsavoury issue of his property deal with the Taiwanese government is not open to question.
Denzil Douglas is no doubt also of the view that his ever expanding property holdings are nobody’s business but his own.
Let us look at how the Prime Minister’s real estate assets have grown since he has been in office.
Here is a collection of the properties we know about:
?His dwelling house in St. Paul’s; substantially renovated and rebuilt while he has been Prime Minister.
?His commercial building on Lozack road; rebuilt since Dr. Douglas has been in Government.
?His brand new apartment building at Wigley Avenue; built last year.
?There is the Prime Minister’s house in Florida.
?Then, his condominium at Leeward Cove.
?And his condominium at St. Christopher Club.
?Followed by his condominium at Golf View.
?Douggie has two lots of land at Southeast Peninsula.
?Plus has a parcel of prime land Turtle Beach.
?Dr. Douglas owns two lots of land at high-end Frigate Bay.
?He owns time shares in a Marriott Resort in Florida.
?And, of course, the Honourable Prime Minister has his building at Adams Hill.
As is well known, immediately upon its completion, the Adams Hill property began paying handsome returns Dr. Douglas through its lease to the Taiwanese government.
The Prime Minister evidently has unique connections and rare opportunities for profitable real estate deals.
This is obviously one of the perks attached to the Office of the Prime Minister.
All of this is, of course private and none of the business of the people whose interests the Prime Minister is sworn to serve.
It brings to mind the very pertinent reality which I highlighted in last Sunday’s Voice of Change broadcast, when I drew on the wisdom of another Douglass, to highlight.
‘The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose’.
It is generally felt that the Denzil Douglas regime has used its parliamentary majority to set up a dictatorship in this country.
The time has come for the people of St. Kitts and Nevis to rescue our country from galloping tyranny, corruption, lies and lawlessness in our government.
The people have had enough of a greedy, grasping Prime Minister who thinks he is ruling a nation of foolish people who deserve no better, and a people who can do no better, than what he dishes out to us.
Denzil Douglas’s time is up.
He knows that.
The people are ready to vote him out ready to vote him and his regime out.
It won’t be long now before the nation will be able to exhale.
Thank you for tuning in.
May God bless you and your loved ones.
May God bless St. Kitts and Nevis.
