BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A representative of the NGO coalition, which forwarded the Code by which politicians are to conduct themselves, has expressed his agreement with certain comments made by social commentator Washington ‘Washie’ Archibald.
In an article posted on SKNVibes.com, Archibald declared his lack of confidence in the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CIC), the Evangelical Association (EA) and the Christian Council (CC) mainly because of their near-deafening silence since the 2004 General Elections up until now. Months ago, the groups launched their Code of Conduct (COC) and asked that all political parties assent to it.
He explained that for the tripartite group to resurrect its COC only when the elections are upon us, having sat by as the Federation was subjected to all manner of vulgarity from the political platforms, does not speak well of the organisations. It is this silence, he explained, which cements his lack of faith in the group.
SKNVibes contacted president of the CIC for a response to Archibald’s comments and was forwarded to the President of the EA, Bishop Ron Collins, who explained that Archibald’s expressions on the group’s silence are, in his opinion, accurate.
“Mr. Archibald is correct. There has been silence from the organisations from since the last election until now. He is also correct and I totally agree with him. There has been a lot of vulgarity and the rhetoric has been such that is doesn’t contribute to any good debate or national unity. I have personally seen cases.”
Although noting he was not involved in the elections process at the level at which he is now associated, he sought to provide a possible explanation for the organisations’ silence. He stated that a system of monitoring and policing the Code ought to have been then implemented.
“The committee should have established, prior to this, some sort of monitoring aspect but that was not done. However, there is a genuine concern now to do that. Why now? Because now it is being addressed and we are basically saying now there is a cry for it. Prior to that, I really didn’t know anything about the Code and, during the last elections, I was not involved in the process. But the area I am serving at right now, it is my conviction that we need to not just have a code and say there is a code there, but to monitor the Code and to encourage all to adhere and observe the various (elements) of the Code.
“I also want to suggest to him that I am very new to this whole process. I came onboard as President of the Evangelical Association, an organisation which I hadn’t had that level of leadership even before I could have been involved in this. Secondly, the Code never had a monitoring aspect to it, regrettably. Its like you gave a dog a bark and no bite and inasmuch as the bite may not be a severe bite, nevertheless, it is a bite…So the process has evolved and so now we are at the stage where we came together and said…the Code has always been in place. It is not a code to monitor the elections, it is to monitor the entire electoral process.”
Collins said he regrets that “for that reason, he (Archibald) has no faith in the organisations…”. However, he is calling upon Archibald and others who may have similar sentiments on the issue to “give us a chance”, as they endeavour to effect change through the policies of the Code and its monitoring systems.
“I totally agree with Mr. Archibald’s point of view that there have been a lot of breaches and so on. What I would ask Mr. Archibald is to give us an opportunity, now that we are in a new phase and we have just implemented this aspect of monitoring.”
The EA head indicated that through the establishment of the “permanent” tripartite group and the institution of a monitoring system for the COC, the groups have committed to police the Code beyond the election period. He said the NGO coalition would also function when “any issue of national interest” is brought to its attention.
