BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CIC), Evangelical Association (EA) and Christian Council (CC) have said that “communication glitches” resulted in last week’s “boundaries communiqué” fiasco.
“We experienced some communication glitches and this was a result of systems and mechanisms we had not implemented at the time,” said EA President Bishop Ron Dublin-Collins. “The discussion on the areas in the release is ongoing; they are inconclusive and a final position has not been taken.”
The revelation came after days of a heated dispute that saw Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas and his ruling St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) enter the fray.
On Tuesday (Nov. 10), the NGO coalition issued a statement warning that “boundary changes so close to the general election...may actually lead to instability”. Douglas and the SKNLP subsequently lashed out against the release and its authors, demanding it be retracted “without delay”.
On last Saturday’s (Nov. 7) edition of radio programme “Inside the News”, Sydney Osbourne, Chairman of opposition party the People’s Action Movement (PAM), read parts of the joint communiqué - three days before it was disseminated for public scrutiny. Meanwhile, CC President Rev. Isaiah Phillip called the communiqué’s release “malicious” and said his organisation had not agreed to the statement.
During a press conference earlier today (Nov. 16) at CIC headquarters, representatives of the three organisations sought to ensure there had been nothing underhanded about the process.
“We had prepared a statement for immediate release on Friday (Nov. 6). After meeting with PM Douglas, we realised that there were certain things that needed to be changed. We instructed those on the committee to put a hold on the release, but unfortunately, the CIC member who gave the communiqué to Mr. Osbourne was unaware of this development,” Rev. Phillip explained.
The priest admitted he had not consulted with the CIC and EA before issuing comments to the media, and noted he could have handled the situation differently.
“I did make some calls, but it was a bad day in the sense that people were caught up elsewhere. I made several calls and got no response...I could have benefitted from further reflection. I have a strong belief that there was never any malice intended,” he assured.
Chamber representatives confirmed they were aware of who had distributed the release, but declined to divulge his or her name.
Meanwhile, Dublin-Collins stressed that the intentions of the three organisations were “pure” and “free from political influence”.
“Our NGO coalition is fully cognisant of fact that the CBC has been legally constituted. We have a moral and civic responsibility to express our grave concern over matters that could erode strides taken towards national development. We have the best interest of the country at heart.”
