BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE speeches made during the first two terms (1995-2004) of St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas have reflected his administration’s policies and responses to challenges and opportunities, and are now available in the first of an anticipated series of his books: Coming of Age.
Almost 200 government officials, members of the diplomatic and consular corps, members of the private sector and friends of family of the Prime Minister turned out to pledge their support at the official launch of the book at the St. Kitts Marriott last evening (June 22).
Over 800 of the Prime Minister’s speeches and pronouncements were recorded and, through careful selection, a representative 76 were chronicled on the pages of the new text. The speeches were organised according to policy areas and were recorded chronologically to make it easy for readers to trace the progress over his 10-year stint.
Editor of the book and regionally-acclaimed communications consultant Ken Tilley said that organising the book was a long and tedious process but was necessary in order to retain an important part of the nation’s history. He said through the book, scholars and others would be interested in the government’s policies and programmes and their impact, both now and over the ensuing years.
“The genesis of this project was in recognition that despite the valiant efforts of a few, most-notably National Archivist Victoria O’Flaherty, St. Kitts-Nevis was in danger of losing some of the fundamental documents of its current history. That led to the idea of collecting together a selection of Prime Minister Douglas’ speeches so that they are easily available to the public,” Tilley said.
The book covers themes from National Security, Housing and Land to Healthcare and HIV/AIDS; from the Economy and Tourism to Education and Media/telecommunications and from matters of Nevis and Small Island Developing States to regional and even international affairs. Speeches made to the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party and the St. Kitts-Nevis Trades and Labour Union were also recorded as part of the Prime Minister’s collection.
Professor and eminent political scientist Neville Duncan said the 447-page book has a defining thread of justice, fairness and rebuilding a nation of beauty, peace and love throughout. He said the content of the book is what makes it “monumental”, as he claims that each speech is “remarkably free of political jargon and verbiage” save the section where the Prime Minister addresses party and union issues.
“Noteworthy was that regardless of categorisation, each speech revealed a high degree of consistency of purpose and followed a unified, logical dynamic: love of country, peacefulness and justice. This calm leadership assurance and sufficiency of creative and successful responses to crises and challenges is characterised in every speech. Each speech...serves to demonstrate the coming of age,” Duncan said.
In his remarks at the ceremony, Prime Minister Douglas thanked the government officials, colleagues and family members for their support while he served the people of constituency Number Six in Parliament. He said that from his own socio-economic and political orientation, he was motivated to serve his people in a political capacity.
“Everything in my community was centred on the sugar industry. That is what, to a large extent, stayed in my own memory and which today continues to hold me very close to those same people, because I have seen the struggles that they have been through as the people of St. Kitts-Nevis have struggled...and so I will always remember that early beginning,” Douglas said.
After his secondary and tertiary education, the Prime Minister recounted his calling to politics in the late 1980’s – a call which launched him into opposition and prepared him for public office.
“Those very many long nights in opposition, starting our party executive meetings at 7:00 and finishing way past midnight, as we hammered out what would be the roadmap for the party to follow in attempting to take the reins of power of government from one party to the next in the democratic process,” Douglas said as he maintained that his speeches have been delivered from the heart to reflect his party’s philosophies.
The book will be available at a number of book stores in the Federation within the next three days. The collection of speeches is offered in paperback copy for US$25 and a special hardcover copy for US$45.
