ALL JANGLE AND RIOT

Any who is a casual observer of the political landscape of St. Christopher and Nevis would have had quite a month of September. The St. Kitts Nevis Labour Party Government lead by the Honourable Dr. Denzil Douglas proved once again that more than competent to runs affairs of State.

The Concerned Citizens Movement won the Federal by election for Electoral District Nevis 9 and has again retained the right to select the Leader of the Opposition. The Peoples Action Movement have shown that they are more than willing to say and do anything to regain power and persons who previously presented themselves to the public as neutral and objective couldn’t resist in letting the party affiliations and colours come forward.

Only in St. Christopher can the leader of a so called political party declare that his deputy would resign and then in the most embarrassing of situation the deputy declares that he has no intention of resigning at all. Once again PAM seems to be embroiled in a battle for leadership much like existed in the 80’s between Simmonds and Powell. Only difference being that Lindsay never run and wins any political post since he entered this politics thing. All positions have been handed to him on silver platters much like his entire childhood existence.

Only in St. Christopher can the opposition be heard saying that democracy is non existent and hold a protest march to demonstrate this fact. One would think that the mere fact that a protest march could be held in the first place and anti government rhetoric can be heard daily on the public airwaves that democracy would be alive and well. Such robust opposition would constitute a vibrant democracy in any other country except one where Lindsay Grant is the leader of an opposition party.

Only in St. Christopher can the opposition pay out over $75,000.00 to drum up support for a march and only manage to have less than 400 people truly march and not go and enjoy the jamming or stand on the side out of curiosity.

Only in St. Christopher does a radio station profess its impartiality and unbiased affiliations and then has the chairman if its largest shareholder marches in the streets of Basseterre to show his opposition to the government. This would be the same chairman of a large public company that pretended to attack the Prime Minister under the cloak of the impartiality of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce but coincidentally repeated the same uttering that can be heard coming from the political platform of PAM.

Only in St. Christopher would anyone still believe that it is a coincidence for the Chairman’s’ Company to field two candidates to compete in the 2004 general elections. Obviously the fact that many of the company’s employees would have had to leave work to participate in the “March for Democracy” didn’t bother the chairman. In fact he seemed rather pleased to allow the company to close down for the afternoon. “Who fooling who”?

Only in St. Christopher can PAM and the Democrat complain on the one hand that the Labour Day march is a shadow of its former self because all it is now is bands and revellers and then turn around and have a calypso band provide entertainment before during and after a supposed march to protest against serious issues. The beers that were sold for a dollar should have facilitated the discussion of what the called serious issues. Martin Luther King may have employed the same band and beer technique when he marched for civil rights but it may have defined the message of his march.

All in all the month of September continued to highlight an important fact that should not be lost on citizens of the Federation. The fact is that in this St. Kitts there is one party that is dedicated to genuinely uplifting the lot of the most vulnerable members of society and there is a political party that is committed to fooling the people to gain power so that they and their close associates can loot and pillage the assets of the country that they see ordinary people having access to.

This is the difference that exists in this country between PAM and LABOUR. It is essentially a struggle between the descendants of former slaves and the descendants of the former slave owners. Time and circumstances may change the players and the issues but the underlying philosophy of a party that seeks to empower the ordinary people continues to be the cause of the Labour Party and the Labour movement. Enjoy the fruits of Labour.