David and Goliath!!
“Lindsay Grant will be contesting the next election”…says PAM’s Leader
By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief - SKNVibes.com
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Leader of the People's Action Movement, Lindsay Grant
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BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS – NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON of the People’s Action Movement [PAM] Chesley Hamilton implied that it would not be the giant versus the dwarf, but the result of the biblical story “David and Goliath” in the battle for Constituency Four between Lindsay Grant and Glen ‘Ghost’ Phillip.
Hamilton was at the time chairing his party’s political meeting held last night [Sunday, April 27] in Trafalgar Village, Basseterre.
PAM’s Chairman was responding to some of the suggestions made by Prime Minister Douglas and members of his Cabinet during the Labour Party’s political meeting in Old Road last week Thursday night, where it was indicated that Marketing and Customer Services Manager of The Cable, Glen Phillip would be contesting against Lindsay Grant at the upcoming general elections.
A number of the party’s executive body, including Constituency One Representative Glenroy Blanchette, addressed the small gathering, who said that the government does not address crime in the Federation but self-aggrandisement.
Blanchette, like all who took to the podium, claimed that the “Winds of change are blowing across the region” and the Labour Party-government would vacate office following the general elections.
He also urged listeners not to march on Labour Day, noting if they were to do so it would indicate they are “sucking Labour’s breast” and only “Ministers of government, their families and friends must march on Labour Day”. ~~Adz:Right~~
Blanchette also spoke on the issue of crime and posited that poverty is one of the contributing factors, and that the PAM could not stop it but “we can provide leadership to reduce it”.
The PAM’s Candidate claimed that the “national debt is choking us…and corruption and thieving caused the national debt to be what it is”. Further, Blanchette launched an attack on Prime Minister Douglas stating that he has built 14 properties in 13 years, “while Simmonds almost lost his house”.
He vowed that if his party wins the next election they would take those persons responsible for the “millions missing from the Electricity Department” to court.
Guest speaker Bernard Welsh, who is touted to be PAM’s Candidate for Constituency Three, claimed that there was reliable, dependable and affordable electricity supply under the previous administration.
He noted that there are regular power outages under the Labour Party-government even after EC$30m was spent by Minister Cedric Liburd in the purchase of generators, “one of which is still down since 1996”.
The guest speaker, a certified mechanical engineer, said he was transferred from the Electricity Department to Water Authority and asked, “What do I know about water?” He also urged the gathering to protest with placards on Labour Day, and he is of the view that PM Douglas would “ring the bell in July and the sugar workers will get their remaining money before election”.
Lindsay Grant, leader of the PAM, started his address with a message to PM Douglas: “I want to begin by sending the message out to Denzil Douglas that Lindsay Grant will be contesting the next election and be the prime minister of this country.”
Speaking briefly on dual citizenship, Grant said, “I hear he is up and down talking about US citizenship and renouncing US citizenship and all kinds of things. But I want to tell you here tonight that I have already said the US could take back their passport, me nah want it, is right here me from. And what I am telling you is the people of St. Kitts and Nevis I am committed to, nobody else!”
Grant said he wanted Dr. Douglas to understand that many people of the Federation are residing in the USA, St. Thomas and St. Croix, “so when he digging a hole, he must dig more than one”.
“While he’s talking about me, he has his daughter and sons living the good life in America, but he wants to fool the people in this country. But I am telling you plain and straight tonight, I ain’t going nowhere. I have been here all of my life…I ain’t going nowhere!
“And whatever he wants to do with the laws let him do, because he can’t change them unless he comes to the people in a referendum. That is why the Constitution is made like that…not one man playing a dictator and go in Parliament with the majority in Parliament and change nothing. The people have to decide what they want,” Grant said.
Grant stressed that he needed not to dwell on dual citizenship when there were more serious issues affecting the people in the country. He spoke of the rising cost of living and gave an example of a single-parent mother who works for no more than $1 262, pays a mortgage of some $500 and only has $56 to spend on herself and three children when the month ends.
~~Adz:Left~~“I am saying to you that she is not alone because a lot of us here suffering the same kind of pain. A lot of us in this country Labour have we living what we call hand-to-mouth…” he said.
Grant said the people of St. Kitts and Nevis have to live up to the reality that the Labour government has mismanaged the country and “we are calling for change”.
PAM’s leader revisited his 2004 election campaign promise to close the sugar industry, the plans he had for the sugar workers and noted the Labour Party-government told the people that “Grant is a wicked man, Grant is a worthless man, Grant is a heartless to close the sugar industry”.
“But who close the sugar industry?” he asked, to which his supporters shouted “Labour!” Continuing on the same issue, Grant said, “But all of a sudden they weren’t heartless, they weren’t wicked but they close the sugar industry. They close the sugar industry and they ripped off the sugar workers.”
In order to reinforce his point, Grant referred to one Hercules from Mansion who had worked in the sugar industry for over 50 years was only paid $1 500 at the closure of the industry.
Grant claimed that after the closure of the sugar industry Dr. Douglas went on the airwaves and told the people that he had borrowed $44m to pay the sugar workers, but only gave them $28m and lodged the remainder in a bank.
“But why on earth Dr. Douglas has $16m of the sugar workers’ money in a bank? The sugar workers do not want their money in a bank…the sugar workers want their money in their hands! And I am saying to the sugar workers of this country, we get into office tomorrow we are going to see what the bank did with that $16m because you deserve each and every cent of the $44m that was assigned to you. And you can count on a PAM government to deliver your $16m back into your hands where it supposed to be,” Grant said.
Grant pleaded with his supporters to live amicably with those of the Labour Party and to embrace them because the PAM could not win the election without converting the Labour Party’s supporters.
He also urged his supporters to confirm their registration and not to march on Labour Day, but to protest.
