BASSETERRE St. Kitts, July 22nd, 2014 -- It is difficult for citizens and residents of St Kitts and Nevis to understand why did the minority leader Denzil Douglas remove the country of origin field from our St Kitts and Nevis passports? Why did he allow our Citizenshipby Investment Programme to be compromised? Propagandists of the Douglas of the Douglas regime sought to implicate the United States government in their statement that the United States government requested them to remove that essential country of origin/birth field from our machine readable passport.
The United States government demanded a retraction of this blatant lie and Douglas’ Press Secretary, Erasmus Williams recanted but attempted to bring the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in disrepute by asserting that the removal of the origin/birth field was in keeping with ICAO’s standard. The deception and disingenuity were too much for the United States government and so it went public on Wednesday 16th July, via a widely disseminated press release.
The United States Counsul General, Mark Byfieldtold the media that, “The United States has not requested any changes to passports issued by the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis. We note that the Press Secretary to the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis has clarified that no such request was ever made by the United States. In fact, the International Civil Aviation Organization specifies place of birth as a key element of biographic data for machine readable and e-passports.
The U.S. government notified the St. Kitts and Nevis government that versions of the St. Kitts and Nevis passport that lack key elements of biographic data have caused the U.S. government to require additional documentation from applicants for U.S. visas to evaluate their eligibility. Because of the missing biographic data, holders of St. Kitts and Nevis passports who apply for U.S. visas have experienced delays in processing times.”
So to cover up the regime’s lie on the United States government, the Douglas cabal told another lie on the ICAO. Lieing and coverup come too easily to the outgoing government. Perhaps this should not be surprising as the Douglas regime is living a lie,purporting to be a lawful government yet it has neither legitimacy nor constitutional basis to operate as the government of St Kitts and Nevis.
Justice Ramdhani in his 12th February 2014 landmark judgment made it clear that in a constitutional democracy, the right of a government to govern is invalidated when it loses the majority of elected Members of Parliament. 6 of the 11 elected Members of Parliament have written to the Governor General, Edmond Lawrence indicating that they support Dr the Hon Timothy Harris to become Prime Minister and they will support the Motion of No Confidence in the Douglas government.
Rather than face the Motion of No Confidence, the Douglas regime has manipulated the Parliament and reduced it to a state of uselessness. 19 months have passed and the Motion is yet to be debated. A regime that will go to such extremes to stay in power has a lot to hide. Such a regime not surprisingly lies and corrupts the institutions of the state. Such a regime often befriends illicit actors. Illicit actors are the ones to benefit from theremoval of the country of origin/birth fieldon the St Kitts and Nevis passports.
On May 20th 2014, the United States Treasury Department told the world that the St Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Programme was attracting illicit actors many of whom were using their St Kitts and Nevis passports to engage in financial crimes and evade punitive sanctions. Clearly the United States government will not allow this to happen.
Our citizenship programme is being abused and the illegitimate government is unable to stop the abuse. Apart from vacuous promises, the weak internal controls remain intact at the St Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Programme much to the glee and to the pain andchagrinof proud Kittitians and Nevisians by birth, descent and marriage.
Douglas cabal colluded to hide the country of origin of economic citizens, as a consequence the United Sates government is demanding more documentation from all holders of St Kitts and Nevis passports, and they are subjecting these applications for visas to greater scrutiny and most likely rejection.
Clearly our passports now have diminished value for travel and purposes of identification. They are now part of the market for lemons.Only by concrete action to improve the transparency, accountability of all elements of the citizenship programme can respectability be restored over time to this programme which has attracted the censure of the United States Treasury Department?
This government is too comfortable with the Arthur Porters, AlizeraMoghadams of the world to do the right thing. To bring respectability and credibility back to our country we need a change in government.
Team Unity is Ready to Govern.
It’s Time for Fresh Elections.
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