Glenroy Blanchette also campaigned at the Tuesday night meeting. He reiterated his call made at a meeting in Trafalgar Village for Kittitians not to march on Labour Day. “You cannot march on Labour Day when Government Ministers getting filthy rich and you are suffering because of the high rise in the cost of living.”
He also addressed the current crime situation in the Federation, noting that there are record-breaking murders in the country with 17 in 2006, 16 in 2007 and eight in the first four months of this year.
“St. Kitts and Nevis is rated as the number one of murders in the world. There have been 188 murders under the Labour Party,” he added.
Blanchette said that 15 years under the PAM-government, “the Federation became the number one country in the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean in economic growth, but this has changed under the Labour government”.
He further noted that the Labour Party had made many allegations against Sir Kennedy Simmonds and had wasted EC$$31m of tax payers’ money by conducting a Commission of Inquiry, which resulted in Simmonds’ favour.
Blanchette also pointed fingers at the Labour Party’s Representative for Constituency Seven, stating that Dr. Timothy Harris does not care about the people’s struggle in Molyneaux…“all he cares about is pulling down Reggie’s wood”.
Taking to the podium, Grant said he understood that the Labour Party was going around the island asking the voting population for another term in office and he believes it should not be so, because they already had three terms and did nothing for the people.
“I want to tell the people of Molyneaux and St. Kitts that is no on they go. You cannot put the government back in the hands of Labour, because if you put the hands of government back in the hands of the Labour Party you are going to be affecting not only your lives but the lives of your children and your grandchildren and your great grandchildren.
“I want you to understand the serious nature of your votes come the next election. We ain’t come to Molyneaux with no comic show, we have come to Molyneaux to tell you what the burning issues of the day are. We come to Molyneaux to tell you how we believe we are going to affect your lives for the future…You have to consider whether your life is better now or it is worse off than it was five years ago, and if you examine the horn you will realise that your life is worse than it was.”
~~Adz:Left~~He also spoke on the closure of the sugar industry and noted he told the nation that he had a plan but remembered what Prime Minister Douglas said on a platform in Old Road in 20004: “On the platform in Old Road he said a manner of things about me. Grant is a crazy man, Grant is a wicked man, Grant doesn’t like poor people because he is going to close the sugar industry. But is who close the sugar industry? He must be a wicked man!”
Grant said many people in Molyneaux were also recipients of EC$1 500 when Dr. Douglas closed the sugar industry and pointed out that one Mr. Hodge, a supporter of the Labour Party, was among the group. He then asked his supporters if the Labour Government should be given another term in office to which they unanimously and boisterously said, “No! It is a time for change.”
He said that the PAM had planned to give the sugar workers EC$40 000-100 000 as severance pay but “Labour does not like people to raise their standard of living, Labour does not like people to raise up in life, Labour does like people to be independent in life because you can think for yourself”.
“When they went down to Old Road in 2004 after we said we are going to close the sugar industry, they mocked the people: ‘You don’t want peas, you don’t want no house, you don’t want no land…what you want? All eight!’ Can you imagine they told the people that nonsense? But you have an opportunity to see how the Labour government is operating over the last 13 years, and I know that when they come to ask you for another chance you are ready for change,” he said.
Grant said the PAM would have made many sugar workers millionaires but the Labour government did not want that to happen. He told the crowd that with his party’s plan the sugar workers would have had EC$100 000 cash in hand and together with the value of the land they would have gotten, they would have been millionaires.
Grant swore to the people that when his party gets in office Dr. Douglas would have to account for the EC$$16m he placed in a bank, and the sugar workers would get the money that rightfully belong to them with the interest it would have accumulated over the years.
He said Dr. Douglas would lie to secure the people’s vote: “In Challengers, during the last election, 13 people got the same letter for the same piece of land. In Sandy Point, 13 people, same letter, same land. Thirteen people put down their money at NHC and after the election they told them ‘we make a mistake’.”
Grant said the Labour Party is currently under pressure and “they will come with many more lies this time around. So if you think 2004 was bad when it comes to lies of the Labour Party, check them out this time. I don’t want you to be fooled…tek dem bribe I am telling you, because things are hard. So when they come at you, tek it but you know what you have to do on election day. On election day you have to vote them out because the country needs a change.”
The party’s leader said that when people visited the government for house lots in the recent past they were told “you are on file”. He also said that in 2004 when people asked for house lots the government said no land was there.
Grant outlined a plan from a mathematical perspective, noting that on one acre of land there could be nine house lots and thousands of families could have been housed in St. Kitts.
He claimed that the 427 acres at La Valle and the many other acres of sugar land sold could have provided house lots for over 20 000 families in St. Kitts.
Grant, as well as Hamilton, spoke on the issue of the Scenic Railway and posited that the displaced sugar workers could have been shareholders in that venture. The two party executives also noted that the National Housing Corporation has caused many individuals be unemployed because of an implemented system designed for benefits only to the government.
They claimed that NHC has one plan for all of the government’s housing projects and this is a denial to local draftsmen earning a living as well as depriving skilled construction workers, plumbers, fitters and electricians from making an extra dollar.
Both Grant and Hamilton stated that under a PAM-government many changes would occur and the standard of living of all nationals of and residents in the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis would raise significantly.
