BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – REPRESENTATIVES from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CIC), the Evangelical Association (EA) and the Christian Council (CC) have confirmed their intention to organise a debate among political parties and independents.
Speaking to SKNVibes, EA President Ron Dublin-Collins explained that political debates were the next step in promoting his NGO coalition’s Code of Conduct (CoC) for the Political Process. The Bishop said the debates were in keeping with “the spirit” of the code and noted there was demand for such a level of discourse.
“The CoC speaks to fairness, public dialogue and discussion, and the dos and don’ts of that. We are aiming to facilitate the level of discussion that we are calling for in the Code, and a national political debate is one of the vehicles we can use to do that,” Dublin-Collins reasoned. “The public, the media, even some of the political parties themselves have been calling for a debate.”
In light of increasingly harsh political rhetoric, the tripartite group published a revised version of the CoC in July of this year. Although it has pushed for the Code’s speedy adoption by political parties and independent candidates, opposition party the People’s Action Movement (PAM) has been the only one to do so.
The coalition came under fire recently for what it called “communication glitches” that resulted in the release of two communiqués before full approval of its membership.
According to Dublin-Collins, who is now the group’s spokesperson, the idea of a political debate was broached earlier this year when the coalition met with representatives of the different political parties to convince them to sign the Code. He revealed that PAM and all the independent candidates had been receptive, and that there would be a follow-up meeting with the ruling St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party to ascertain its position.
“I believe that all the political candidates will be amenable to debating. They are concerned about whether a debate would be fair and objective, so we will work with them on selecting the moderator and fine-tuning the details so their uneasiness is abated.”
He said that planning was still in the initial stages, and added that the coalition would partner with other NGOs in the course of the project’s implementation.
“The proposal for the debate has been approved wholeheartedly by our members. What we are trying to do now is find a way to get the general public to feed into and become invested in the event.
“With the help of partner organisations, we anticipate the debate will be held in early 2010.”
