BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - WHILE he admittedly does not expect the Motion of No Confidence to be tabled and debated in the Federal Parliament, a former Parliamentarian is advising that those calling for the speedy tabling should not relent in their agitation efforts.
Since its filing on December 11, 2012, Members of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition and others have made repeated calls for the Motion’s tabling through court action, protest action and seeking help or intervention from the regional community.
Former Parliamentarian G. A. Dwyer Astaphan - during a recent interview with this publication - declared that those who have been agitating are “right” in doing so.
“I don’t believe it (the Motion of No Confidence) will be called. I don’t believe these are exercises in futility because the demands for it to be called are well grounded in the Constitution, in parliamentary practice, in the principles of good governance and in simple ethics and morality. It is the right thing to do.
“Those who have been agitating, including myself, have been quite correct in doing so, whether or not one expects those in authority to make the right and just decision. And clearly it indicates a fear by those in authority to face the fact that the record will show that they ducked the Motion of No Confidence. And also a fear of the people of the country and an abject disrespect for the Constitution.”
Astaphan explained that in St. Kitts and Nevis the people have two opportunities to appoint or remove a government: “indirectly by the voters on election day and the other is by the voters through their parliamentary representative in the form of a Motion of No Confidence at any time between one election day and another.
“And not to call the Motion is to deprive the people and in the process the democracy of that choice in between elections which is simply and utterly unacceptable in any modern democracy and enlightened society...This is not so much an act of spite towards six Parliamentarians and their supporters, this is an act of grave injustice against the people of this country - regardless of who they support - and against their democracy”.
Astaphan suggested that those who continue to agitate, had they not agitated in the first instance, would have been “just as guilty as who is perpetrating the wrong”.
And his advice to those individuals/groups is: “Continue agitating on this and every other issue and do so within the law. Continue agitating. Their efforts have not fallen on deaf ears. The international community, certainly the regional community, is more aware. It exposes the roguishness of those who refuse to face the constitution, to face democracy and social justice, help the people of the country on a daily basis become increasingly aware of the wrongs that are being perpetrated against them.”
