BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, June 10th 2014 (TUCOM) -- St. Kitts-Nevis Opposition Alliance Team UNITY Leader, the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris, has called for an end to the use of historical events to promote political segregation and tribalism which have led to political divisiveness and which has created, and perpetuates, so much bitterness in St. Kitts and Nevis. He made an appeal for our communities to come together and stated that there is an urgent need to work towards unity among our citizens in our fledgling Democracy, to improve our relationships with each other, and to make a better life for all our people.
Dr Harris was responding to callers to, and pundits on, radio call-in shows on 10th June this year who commented on and gave their recollections of the incidents that occurred some 47 years ago on June 10th 1967 when a small band of Anguillans were alleged to have journeyed by boat to St. Kitts to attempt to overthrow the then Labour Government of Premier Robert Bradshaw. Anguilla was at the time a part of the Associated State of St. Kitts Nevis and Anguilla and many Anguillans were dissatisfied with being ‘ruled’ by the Bradshaw Administration seventy (70) miles away in which they had no representation and which they felt did not care about them.
Each year, the 10th June has been used to open old wounds in an effort to further divide the country to promote certain political agendas. Claims and counter-claims abound on all sides, with accusations of treason leveled at the Opposition Peoples Action Movement who were accused of aiding and abetting the Anguillans. Some (17) seventeen members of the Peoples Action Movement were arrested and spent months in jail, and considered themselves political prisoners who suffered unjust detention and victimization under a Labour Government.
Labour supporters have felt aggrieved. PAM have felt vicitimized. High Court trials which attracted legal defence teams from across the Caribbean were eventually aborted. And Anguilla eventually reverted to British rule when in 1969, British marines met by smiling and rejoicing local inhabitants, “invaded” Anguilla to restore law and order under the British Crown. The State of St. Kitts Nevis and Anguilla continued in name only until an Order in Council by the British Government in December 1981 officially severed Anguilla from St. Kitts and Nevis.
But Team UNITY Leader Dr. Harris has declared unequivocally that the time has come to end the use of this event and all other dark periods in our Country’s history to promote division and perpetuate political separation among our people.
“On this June 10th 2014 I want to declare to the Nation that this day should mark the symbolic end to the use of these and all dark periods in our history to promote political divisiveness in our country. This day June 10th has been a pivot of divisiveness for far too long,” said the Team UNITY Leader Dr. Timothy Harris.
“We need reconciliation among our people. The dark periods of the past must not continue to be used to exalt the Legacies of Exclusion, division and victimisation. The Legacies of Exclusion, division and victimisation must be a thing of the past. We must not continue as individuals and as a nation to be imprisoned by our partisan stance to the detriment of the development of us as a people and a Nation. We must use these dark periods to learn and form a basis for our people to UNITE for the overall development of our country rather than using it to fan the flames of division,” Dr. Harris continued.
Dr. Harris aptly quoted the late South African Leader Nelson Mandela when he said: “Reconciliation means working together to correct the legacy of past injustice”. As Leader of a Team UNITY government I declare to the nation today that the perpetuation of the Legacies of Division can never properly build a nation and we must bring the perpetuation of those legacies to an end. We in Team UNITY will strive to move forward in like manner and towards a result which will ensure Prosperity for ALL ,” concluded Dr. Harris.
Dr Harris concluded by calling on the nation to use June 10th 2014 as the symbolic day to begin to re-anchor and reposition for a Better Nation.
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