BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, November 4th 2009 (PAM Secretariat) – Responding to statements made by Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas that the affairs of the Federation should not be entrusted into St. Kitts and Nevis’ pirates, Leader of the People’s Action Movement (PAM) Lindsay Grant said that the PM continues to demonstrate his inability to act and speak responsibly.
Grant said like many listeners, he was disappointed wit the comments uttered by the PM on his weekly “Ask the Prime Minister” aired on ZIZ radio on Tuesday of this week. “It has been clear for some time now that the Denzil Douglas-led administration is a stranger to good governance and every day we are seeing more of this,” Grant said.
PM Douglas was heard agreeing with a known Labour supporter who suggested that St. Kitts and Nevis has Somali pirates who wanted to run this country. The PM told the caller that those individuals (opposition party) are like St. Kitts and Nevis’ Somali pirates.
Grant, in responding to what he labelled as desperate attempts by the PM and his associates to hold on to government, noted that the issue of good governance must imply a scrupulous regard for the resources of the state, good management, probity, efficiency, a lack of corruption, and the timely conduct of the affairs of the state, among others.
“I am very sad to see what this once striving Federation has been reduced to, and to see what has occurred over the past 14-odd years leaves much to be desired and ask the popular question of how much longer will we continue like this,” Grant said.
He pointed out that it is very distressing that none of the mentioned qualities characterize the Douglas-led administration which continues to see the rapidly growing crime rate added with high national debt, broken families, poor health care, unemployment and a broken tourism industry.
He suggested that that negative feature seems to be the primary hallmark of PM Douglas and his administration. “I must be frank and say that it is his gross inability to carry out the functions of this beautiful Federation in an acceptable timely and processional manner,” he said.
The PAM Leader stated that because of this, the Federation is being operated in a sad, less than systematic manner and more often than not the Kittitians and Nevisians are the victims. As such, Grant made reference to the loss of 25 lives, with two being women and also a questionable death of a man by a security officer with no proper findings being released. He added that the incompetence of the government to address crime and unemployment might result in further job losses and more murders.
“I am heartbroken as a public official who honestly and genuinely wants to see development and empowerment of our locals so that St. Kitts and Nevis can move forward positively. As such, it hurts me to have to once again address these issues as I do not want to find me or any member of my party having to respond to the Prime Minister’s continuous gross inaccuracies, thus dwelling on any negative aspects of political life in the Federation.
“However, the continuous inability of government to stem the rampant shooting and crime wave and their refusal to tap in to my party’s offer of assistance in helping them as a Federation to collectively address the problems faced in both crime and unemployment is a clear indication of the continuing terrible management of this government since taking office in 1995,” Grant declared.
Grant pointed out the need for the government to be dissected, which he noted would help the people of St. Kitts and Nevis to better understand the price of “misrule” by Dr. Douglas and his administration.
Grant declared: “All within this Federation must realize the critical importance of what we have at stake here. And, therefore, there are two pertinent questions that we must ask ourselves as nationals and residents…Can we continue under the Douglas administration or will we continue to allow the blatant deterioration of this Federation?
“I would like to state on record that history can state that at no time during the PAM Administration in the Federation did Kittitians and Nevisisians ever experience such ineptitude, incompetence and downright failure.”
