Fellow Citizens and Residents of St. Kitts and Nevis…
Twelve months ago, all right-thinking people of our beloved St. Kitts and Nevis went to the polls for four very compelling reasons: (1) a return to democracy - democracy had been suspended for twenty five months prior to the call for general elections; (2) a burning love for our Country; (3) a deep-seated desire to turn around the plummeting fortunes of a Nation that had already begun sliding down the slippery slope of political corruption and expediency - we were on the verge of becoming a Banana Republic, showing scant regard for the bruising reputational damage of our country and our people in the international community; and (4) ending the ostracization of the majority and the increasing economic inequality. Too many of our people were on minimum wages. Too many of our people were unemployed and underemployed. Too many SMEs could not get a fair chance nor an equitable share.
On that fateful day of February 16, 2015, the people of this Country spoke with one loud, resounding voice and ushered in a Government of National Unity under the rubric of the Team Unity triumvirate of the People’s Labour Party (PLP), the People’s Action Movement (PAM), and the Concerned Citizens’ Movement (CCM) of Nevis. The outcome was the Team Unity coalition’s formation of a truly national government that won seven out of 11 seats.
As we reflect on the 1st Anniversary of our Team Unity Administration, it is instructive for us to look at the genesis of this grassroots movement. Nowhere is this more accurately articulated than in the St. Kitts and Nevis Treaty of National Unity that was signed in Charlestown, Nevis on January 31, 2015.
The Introduction of our Inaugural Team Unity Manifesto entitled “Prosperity for All” outlines the essence of the agreement:
“Team Unity was born out of the reality that St. Kitts and Nevis [had] become a nation divided by politics. This sad reality of political tribalism has failed to create better conditions for our people. Instead, over the past 30 years since Independence, we have seen the steady withdrawal from a unified approach to development that we promised each other upon gaining Independence in 1983. Team Unity understands it is time to put aside personal and political differences and put the people of St. Kitts and Nevis FIRST.”
Fellow Citizens and Residents of St. Kitts and Nevis: this was the MAJOR objective of Team Unity one year ago, and it still remains the core guiding principle of every single thing we have done on behalf of the people of this Country, in order to achieve the very best for all of us.
For the Team Unity Government this means the following:
• Defining our Citizens and Residents not by their party political affiliation but by their willingness and ability to contribute in a discipline way to the progressive and prosperous advancement of our beloved Federation.
• Dedicating ourselves to putting an end to polarization, divisions, conflict and intolerance that have come to characterize our political and societal fabric;
• Building a society that is free of violence, fear, intimidation, hatred, patronage and corruption via a solid foundation of justice, fairness, openness, transparency, dignity, equality; and equity;
• Overcoming the threats to our people’s advancement;
• Upholding, defending and sustaining our sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity;
• Reversing economic decline and improving our standard of living;
• Regaining and maintaining respect for our Country in the international community;
• Acknowledging that mistakes were made in the past and therefore seek and offer forgiveness, and pursue reconciliation in order to carve out a future that is hopeful, prosperous and full of possibilities for present and future generations.
Divine Intervention Saved Us
It is important to remember that the February 16, 2015 election victory of Team Unity did not come about by anything other than Divine intervention, trust in a gracious God, and the bruising of our collective knees in earnest prayer and supplication. From the late start of the announcement of election results, to the slowing down of reported poll statistics, and the abrupt and inexplicable suspension in the declaration of results by the former Supervisor of Elections, Polling Day was fraught with irregularities that would have tested the faith of anyone…but God was in the midst of everything! It was the same Trinitarian God on whose mercies the Team Unity movement had repeatedly and incessantly called for fairness, justice and decency to be demonstrated by the incumbent Douglas administration. God listened and had mercy on His people through thick and through thin – in the courts of law, in Parliament, and in the polling booth where every registered voter was being asked to vote his or her conscience for a better St. Kitts and Nevis.
A Bad Inheritance
Upon taking office on February 22, 2015, the 10-member Team Unity Cabinet was confronted with the Herculean task of addressing a number of urgent and difficult challenges.
These included but are not limited to:
• A politicized civil service that no longer functioned in compliance with the civil service rules and regulations but was mobilized and rewarded by the extent of its flagrant support to the corrupt regime;
• An all time low morale in the Security Forces and attendant chaos in the system. Homicides for too many years in succession were out of sync with our size and childhood odyssey when homicides were few and far between. Our homicide rate placed us as a pariah in the international community. By the time Team Unity took office the country had already recorded its eighth homicide. By extrapolation we were trending towards forty eight homicides for 2015. Thank God with Team Unity at the helm were able to contain this 28 homicides for 2015;
• A Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme that was in shambles and on the verge of collapse – largely due to the sale of passports to a number of nefarious characters – some of whom were on international terrorism watch-lists.
• The withdrawal of our visa-free access to Canada due to the former government’s failure to address loopholes and loose practices in the sale of passports to individuals from rogue States. Galloping right alongside this travel blow to our citizens was the looming loss of good diplomatic relations with other major jurisdictions such as the USA and the United Kingdom.
• A Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation (SIDF) that had become a slush fund to finance: (a) the political campaign of the Douglas-led Labour Party; (b)large hand-outs to Labour Party hacks, under the guise of small business and community development programmes; and (c) colossal investments in a number of business ventures without regard to the principles of transparency, fairness, accountability and fiscal prudence. The profligacy and recklessness with resources became the norm at this Foundation under the Douglas Administration.
• An Equality in the Quality of Life (EQOL) programme that was nothing more than a desperate re-election bid of the incumbent government. This programme - pegged approximately at $6 million - was characterised by wanton spending (during the six-month period of September 2014 to February 2015) on mostly building materials, furniture and appliances that were distributed to guarantee votes, without regard for economic means testing to ensure that beneficiaries actually deserved such pricey hand-outs.
• Fraudulently back-dated contracts to ensure that senior Labour Party hacks were guaranteed employment under the new Team Unity administration, in order to sabotage the new government while keeping the political gravy train running so that the lifestyles of such individuals were uninterrupted.
• An unsustainable People’s Employment (PEP) programme that was conceived to conceal the rising unemployment among the young people and create the false appearance of people at work. This cruel deception was played out by the past regime as a short term expedient to buy the vote of an unsuspecting and indigent group of young people. The intention as was communicated to the IMF was to cast these people out of work if the Douglas Administration was returned.
Our Score Card of Deliverables
One year later, we can now look back on where we have come from and safely say that we have achieved quite a bit in terms of:-
(a) Arresting economic malaise and decline;
(b) Re-gaining the trust of our international, strategic partners such as the USA, the UK, and the EU Member States;
(c) Re-calibrating and resuscitating the CBI programme, and implementing the recommendations of the risk management firm, IPSA.
Our Citizenship by Investment was the best performing one in 2015 outshining every other programme in the region in terms of the revenue realized. The revenue realized for 2015 was 42% better than that projected by the last Administration for 2015.
(d) Re-tooling, re-training and re-organising the Police Force to fight and prevent crime, inclusive of the appointment of a new High Command. Major Crimes in 2015 were reduced by 16.7% relative to 2014, thanks in part to our Six Point Plan.
(e) Rationalizing and restructuring of the PEP programme into a sustainable agency that will ultimately become (1) a training ground for skill development and (2) a viable employment pool from which to recruit good workers for jobs that would be needed to fuel business expansion and new economic opportunities;
(f) Lowering the cost of living by delivering on our campaign promise of removing VAT from the cost of food, medicine and funeral expenses;
(g) Providing resources to allow the pay out to some 2311 former SSMC workers the sum of $16 million in gratuities that were denied them since 2005;
(h) Revamping of the Constituency Empowerment Department into the Department of People’s Empowerment, in order to give residents and citizens a sense of ownership and leadership for the communities in which they live. This Department will also be the focal point of our Diaspora Relations, and thereby provide an avenue for our citizens abroad to meaningful contribute to the socio-economic development of our Country in transition;
(i) Advancing in our delivery of quality health care, especially in response to the growing impact of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) on our people, such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. By the end of this first quarter 2016 we should be well on our way towards the opening of an oncology centre at the JNF General Hospital, which will – in the first instance - deliver chemotherapy-based cancer treatment to our people. By the end of March 2016, the Federation will also witness the completion of the Mental Health Day Treatment Centre at Lime Kiln, St. Kitts, as a means of meeting the needs of our citizens and residents who are suffering from mental illness. The public should be advised that this project should have been constructed at no cost to Government over three years ago. Regrettably, due to the former Government’s mismanagement of the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) programme through which this Centre should have been financed, all but $170,000 of the funding was lost. The full project has now cost the Government and people of this Country some $1.3 million;
(j) Ending the shift system at Basseterre High School and constructing a new temporary home for the BHS students to the tune of $5 million. Plans are now progressing for the construction of a new, modern, state-of-the art high school later this year, for the BHS students and teachers, many of whom have suffered for over three long years from illnesses due to adverse environmental conditions that threatened both their academic life and general health; and
(k) Providing $25 million in budgetary support to the people of Nevis who are deserving of a share in the gains of our CBI programme. These are enough tangible things that you can proudly attribute to your Government at work but there are more.
Our efforts at transparency, accountability have no parallel. We have to date, brought the Freedom of Information Act to Parliament, Tenure of the Prime Minister, and The Data Protection Act. We have launched the “Working for You Programme” causing the Government, its Leaders and Managers to answer to the people. For the first time in the history of the CBI Programme, the country received a fairly comprehensive report on the issuance of passports to economic citizens. We also reported on work permit issued for 2014 and 2015.
These achievements, and many others, are all outlined in the 47-point Team Unity Report Card that this Government has published as a testimony of its delivery of promises made to the people of this Country in just 12 short months of our five-year mandate. No wonder then that political pollster to calypsonian the resounding verdict on our performance is “So Far So Good”. Nearly 70% of the population are satisfied with our performance according the Don Anderson poll.
The people of our beloved St. Kitts and Nevis can rest assured that our Team Unity Government will do all in its power to meet and surpass the expectations given by the electorate over the course of the next terms of this Government. However, governance calls for collective effort. No one single individual in our Cabinet can boast of having all of the answers. Neither does any single citizen or resident possess a panacea or silver bullet to solve crime or the zika virus or any other ill or challenge that lies on the pathway towards our desired prosperous future. As such, we require ‘all hands on deck’, as we chart a new course and blaze a trail of social, economic and political development and maturity for present and future generations. If nothing else is achieved, our Team Unity Administration must consecrate a future for our people so that generations yet unborn can benefit from the investment and legacy that we, the present generation, would have left for them as a solid foundation.
The Challenges
Among the challenges requiring collective, national effort on a consistent basis are the following:
• Abatement of Crime, especially homicides among our young men
• Strengthening of families
• Return to positive influences for Young People
• Parenting Skills & Responsibility
• Better Management of Natural Resources, including sustainable programmes and infrastructure to address rainfall shortages, water rationing issues, food security and sustainable agriculture
• Inculcation of Life Skills, Anger Management Training, Conflict Resolution and Diversion Programmes to bring about positive attitudinal and behavioural changes in our Youth
• Continual reduction in large public debt we inherited
• Health and wellness of our People
• Economic rebalancing, diversification and sustainability
• Wealth creating to secure a sound future for our people
In addition to addressing these challenges, adequate attention and investment must also be made in infrastructure improvements such as an additional cruise ship pier, a cross country highway linking the western and eastern corridors of St. Kitts, and construction of a bridge between St. Kitts and Nevis to further enhance employment and economic opportunities across the two islands. Equally, we are bound to (a) facilitate entrepreneurship, SME development and job creation; (b) further modernize our criminal justice system; and (c) adequately enhance our parliamentary structure, inclusive of the construction of new Parliamentary Chambers, improvements in the use of Hansard technology, and introduction of the committee system to encourage broad-based public consultation before bills are brought to Parliament.
New Bonding With Nevis
Our Team Unity Government also looks forward to a further improvement in relations between the people of our two islands of St. Kitts and Nevis. For the first time in our history we can safely say that we have found a coalition that better ensures such a deliverable, where gains are shared equitably. Opportunities for our young people are not made available based on entitlement, and social programmes can be dispensed without regard for colour, creed, socio-economic status, electoral preference, philosophy or religious identity.
Defining The Fair Share
This is the “Fair Share”which our Team Unity Administration continues to promote. However, we need to remind ourselves repeatedly that “Fair Share” means the following:
• That everybody cannot get what they think they deserve at the same time;
• Every effort must be made to ensure that we take care of the vulnerable groups first. These include our children, persons with disabilities, the elderly, the poor and indigent among us, and families in crisis;
• That your “fair share” must directly correlate to what your NEEDS are – not based on comparison with what we perceive that others have been given. We are all different persons with different needs. Our needs are those things which we absolutely need to survive.
• That there is a clear distinction between WANTS and NEEDS, and in an environment with limited resources, a small population and tax base, a staggering, inherited national debt, and countless other challenges, every effort must be made to focus on our needs before we can concentrate on the things we want. Wants are luxuries fueled by emotional desire that should ONLY be satisfied AFTER our needs – and the needs of others - have been met adequately.
Conclusion
As the people of St. Kitts and Nevis look forward to a future full of wonderful possibilities, your Team Unity Government is ever mindful that we do not have the luxury of resting on our laurels, of being weary in well-doing, and of relenting in our spiritual exercises of lifting up our Nation in constant prayer to the Almighty God. Ours are challenges that require joint, meaningful and demonstrative effort. Our responses to these challenges also demand genuine love of Country, and active fulfillment of our Federation’s motto: “Country Above Self”. The road ahead does not promise to be easy, but as the old adage goes: ‘many hands make light work’. Let us pledge now, as we did at the launch of Team Unity on September 26, 2013, and again at the inauguration of our Government on February 22, 2015, to move forward as ONE people – a people with an undivided vision; a unity of purpose; and a joint, integrated future where we must ford the streams and ride out the storms that are ahead if we intend to share the gains that come from the time-tested tenacity and resilience for which the people of St. Kitts and Nevis are renown.
To God Be the Glory. I thank you!
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