Basseterre, St. Kitts - I recently overheard a well know young labour activist miseducation a youth of this country on our country;s public debt,public purse and the treasury.

The conversation drove and inspired me to do some investigation on this peddled propaganda by labour and as I had suspected it was indeed propaganda and downright lies.

Let me take the time to demonstrate to you those youths of our country who may have been mislead into thinking that somehow PAM had something to do with the dire straits we find ourselves in.

Let me tell you the truth about Denzil Douglas’ Labour government, which has brought our country to a whopping national debt of close to $3 billion. The highest per capita national debt under the sun, the national debt that when you ask Denzil Douglas about it, the most he can do is refer to a nasty part of his anatomy. No, PAM did not mess up the treasury. That is a dastardly lie.

PAM reduced the SSMC overdraft from 50 million to 34 million. Labour took a 34 million overdraft and ballooned it into a 400 million overdraft increasing the overdraft at a rate of over 30 million dollars EACH YEAR. PAM reduced the SSMC overdraft. With Labour the overdraft went through the roof. Labour’s own reports from the Auditor-General acknowledge that the SSMC overdraft was $400 million when Labour finally was forced to admit that their spending was out of control. That $400 million is still owed by this country. Labour has not begun to pay it back. They cannot keep up with the interest which is accruing to that humungous debt. Many people believe that huge chunks of St. Kitts are mortgaged as collateral for that crazy debt created under the Labour regime. Remember Denzil Douglas’ only response to the enormous national debt is to refer to a nasty part of his anatomy.

The government overdraft is a whole different story and an even sadder one under the Labour misgovernment. When Dr. Simmonds handed over the government in 1995 the government overdraft was only $16 million. Figures on the current government overdraft are being desperately concealed by Denzil Douglas but all reasonable estimates put it at over half a billion dollars. Douglas is not paying off these debts. He is not even able to keep up with interest payments.
 
The auditor general's report for 2007 acknowledges that the largest part of Government expenditure under Denzil Douglas is debt servicing. It is stated in that report to be 36% of all Government expenditure. 2008 is likely to be an even higher percentage. I have not seen the Auditor-General’s report for 2008 yet. When I talk about debt servicing I am not talking about paying off the debt. Denzil Douglas has given up any hope of being capable of reducing the debt. That is why all he can say is that nasty part of his anatomy. Debt servicing for Denzil Douglas is trying to pay a part of the interest on our debt. This country is rated to be one of the most heavily indebted on planet Earth. Denzil Douglas and his unbelievable mismanagement of our treasury will leave us, our children and our grandchildren trying to dig themselves out of a deep hole, an impossibly deep hole caused by selfishness and greed, extravagance and mismanagement, incompetence and ignorance led by Denzil Douglas. When he says he is 10 in one, we wonder if he's referring to the fact that the problems of St. Kitts and Nevis are more than 10 times greater then when he got into office by whatever means he achieved that.
 
I am not even talking yet about how Denzil Douglas has raped the Social Security fund. All of the houses he keeps boasting about and saying ‘shake your keys’; all of the money has come out of a huge new debt he has saddled this country with. Let us compare the PAM administration with the Labour administration.
 
If it were not for PAM, no one, absolutely no one could b shaking any keys for any house because the Labour Government that took away all the sugar lands in 1975 never paid one cent for those lands. Yes, Labour took away over 20 000 acres of sugar lands in 1975 under an Act called the Sugar Lands Acquisition Act. That act was challenged by the Estate Owners and the Court declared that act unconstitutional. What did Labour do? Between 1975 and 19780, when Labour was mercifully replaced in Government, Labour made no move whatsoever to pay even one cent for those sugar lands. When Labour left office in Feb. 1980 the country was in chaos, people were living on land which Government had taken away from the owners without compensation. As a result, Government had no Title to the lands. Therefore, the Government could not sell land to anybody. People could not use the land to get a loan from any bank because they could not produce a Title of their own or even one from the Government because Labour never paid one cent for those lands.
 
What did PAM do when PAM came into office in 1980? PAM paid for the lands. PAM negotiated a price which the Estate Owners were happy to accept since they were not expecting one cent from Labour. The 22 million dollars with which PAM paid for 22000 acres of lands can now be seen in its true perspective as a magnificent transaction, a fantastic bargain for the people of this country. That is what has provided on the platform for Douglas to shake his keys and talk about that nasty part of his anatomy. PAM paid off the 22 million dollars long before Denzil Douglas came into office. Douglas did not have to find one cent to pay for those lands. Thank god for PAM and the farsighted leaders of PAM who saw to it that our people inherited the lands on which our forefathers toiled and sweated as slaves. Thank god for PAM because if it were not for PAM would Labour have ever, ever paid one cent for those lands?
 
I do not have the figures for the monies raped from the Social Security fund by the Douglas Administration to build houses for Labour people and then to shake his keys and talk about that nasty part of his anatomy, but reasonable estimates put those figures into hundred of millions of dollars which Douglas has no intention of putting back into the Social Security fund, even though many of the Labour people in those houses built with money belonging to all of us do not intend to pay for those houses.

Whoever says PAM messed up the treasury is an ignoramus. The truth is that PAM over the 15 years it was in office actually reduced taxation overall in this country. We all know that Douglas put up electricity by 600% at one shot, just to name one instance of his backbreaking tax regime. Everybody knows that PAM abolished personal income tax in 1980 and that although Labour criticized it fiercely; Labour after 14 years in power has realized what a sensible move it was and has not reversed it. We also know that Labour has a wicked VAT tax holding back to drop on this country to create even more havoc in the cost of living, if they manage to cheat their way back into power one more time.

PAM is the party of relief for the poor, not Labour. It was under PAM that barrels of food could come into this country duty free from relatives and friends overseas. Labour has sneaked back duty on food barrels. Under PAM, St. Kitts and Nevis had the highest growth rate in Latin America and the Caribbean for 5 years in a row. Under Labour, St. Kitts and Nevis had the highest murder rate in the world 5 years in a row.

It was PAM that introduced a free hot lunch for school children in this country. Labour had said it could not be done. Yet PAM established it and many a poor child who had nothing at home to eat could be sure of a free hot lunch, thanks to PAM since 1980. Under Labour the free hot lunch programme has been cut.

Under PAM people suffering from diabetes and who need insulin everyday to survive were introduced to a programme at the JNF Hospital, a completely free programme, where they could go to the hospital everyday and get free insulin and free injections everyday from nurses being paid by the PAM Government. Labour has cut out that programme. It does not exist anymore.

Let us talk about sugar workers and the sugar industry. PAM increased wages for sugar workers in 1980, in 1981, in 1982, in 1983, in 1984, in 1986, in 1988 and in 1989. Tell me how many times Labour increased sugar workers’ wages under Denzil Douglas.

PAM abolished the sugar levy which sucked the lifeblood of the industry in the 70s. In 1980 PAM introduced the End of Crop Bonus as a realistic incentive for workers to cut cane after Easter. In 1980 as well, PAM introduced the Dull Season Bonus to relieve workers’ hard times. Tell me how many bonuses or incentives Labour introduced for sugar workers under Denzil Douglas.

In 1981 PAM paid sugar workers the largest Goat-Water bonus in history, amounting to 2.6 million dollars surpassing the combined total of the 3 largest Goat-Waters paid by Labour. Tell me how many Goat-Water bonuses Labour paid sugar workers under Denzil Douglas. No, let me tell you. None. Not one.

As I mentioned before, and it bears repeating, PAM settled the inherited sugar lands problem by paying 22 million dollars which was gratefully accepted by the Estate Owners who had been robbed by Labour in 1975 and who were happy to pass Title, good Title to the Government under PAM. It is that same Title Denzil Douglas is using to tell Labour people to shake their keys in PAM peoples’ face, when it is only thanks to PAM they can have that Title to build on.

Let me say a word about Labour’s bogus Commission of Inquiry. Up to now, Denzil Douglas cannot tell the people of this country how much he took from the Treasury, the healthy Treasury left by PAM, to squander on a silly Commission of Inquiry into the PAM Administration. The amount of stupidness that came up in the Inquiry would be laughable if it were not such a waste of money given to Douglas’ cronies and hangers-on. Dr. Simmonds, the 1st Prime Minister and the man who is responsible for the legacy of a united St. Kitts and Nevis and an Independence which has withstood all of Labour’s attacks on it, had to go on the stand to answer what? Why he was claiming to have the floor of his new house repaired after Hurricane Hugo damaged in 1989. Imagine that. 

In spite of all their unworthy efforts, Labour could not say Dr. Simmonds stole one cent from the Treasury. None of his Ministers was proved to have stolen one cent from the Treasury.

Let us look at Labour. Denzil Douglas himself has a lot to answer for putting the Republic of China, our best international friend, in a position where the Ambassador from Taiwan finds himself on the fringe of McKnight paying God-Knows-What  to Denzil Douglas personally. Personally. You tell me what the country is getting out of that deal. You tell me. Douglas used Zambo Heath and Sam Condor to start a Company that bought and would not pay for a house that was on the same land. Next thing you know Denzil Douglas turns up as the Owner and the previous owner the Company bought from still did not get paid. 

This is a national disgrace. Sensible people in this country should hang their heads in shame. Do you think the Taiwanese Ambassador wants to live between the hood of McKnight and the hood of De Village? Gunshots bursting in their eardrums, bullet whistling through the hood. Do you think the Taiwanese Ambassador wanted to leave the house at Frigate Bay is Embassy was renting? We are all being embarrassed so that Denzil Douglas can fatten his bank account every month and knock his chest and say he is 10 man in one. It is no doubt true that Denzil Douglas through this abominable rent business is getting ten times more from Taiwan than anybody in St. Kitts and Nevis could ever hope to get. And to think that Denzil Douglas put a Commission of Inquiry on the Right Honourable Sir Dr Kennedy Simmonds to ask about his insurance company paying for hurricane damage to the floor of his new house.

No, PAM did not mess up the Treasury. PAM left the treasury healthy and vibrant. Check out the facts and you will see that over the 14 years of Denzil Douglas in Government his budget has accumulated deficits of more than 600 million dollars. Check it out.