BASSETERRE 10th December 2009 (Labour Secretariat) – Parliamentary Representative of St. Christopher 7 and Minister of Finance and Trade, Hon. Timothy Harris addressed the nation through the medium of a press statement presented before the National Assembly on Thursday. Harris expressed his strongest objection to the misleading story posted on local web-medium, SKNVibes, purporting that he had decided to quit the party should Dr. Douglas continue as leader of Labour.
The PAM generated article spoke of a “heated spat between Dr. Douglas and Dr. Harris over the Prime Minister’s most recent actions [to] ‘surreptitiously’ [arrange] to offer double salary to civil servants.” PAM went on to ask of Dr. Harris to make this ‘decision’ public.
Minister Harris called the story and the sentiments expressed therein “a complete fabrication, malicious in its falsehood”. He continued, “I wish for the record to fully and absolutely disassociate myself from the falsehood being peddled in this article.”
The Minister said he had no intention to resign from the Labour Party and “never expressed such an intention.” He went on to express his “immovable support for the Labour Party, its philosophy, programmes, policies, its leader and leadership.”
Harris, in his presentation, also put forward his “Labour Credentials” as one deeply rooted in the cause of the party and dismissed any insinuations of being involved in a “scheme of stealth, subterfuge, intrigue and deception”.
Harris went on to support the Prime Minister’s announcements of double salary, the waiver of the fuel surcharge and the future initiative of lap tops for school children as “the Government’s ingenuity and Labour’s demonstration of capable hands in these most serious times”.
He also revealed that there was no surreptitiousness about the revelation as “these measures had been the subject of discussions at Cabinet level, and between my Ministry and the Government’s main banker, St. Kitts and Nevis Anguilla National Bank.”
Harris also called into question the journalistic integrity and independence of SKNVibes “ to carry such a story that would be of great public interest, at this “silly season” without even making an effort to contact me to verify serious and malicious allegations made against me.”
The minister also said that the media house owed him and the nation an apology. “They should have been on the alert,” the Harris said in other statements before the house. “Why would the media want to propagate this untruth?”
Harris believes that this is a part of a diabolical plot by PAM “intended to ferment disunity in the rank and file of the Labour Party”. Dr. Harris in other statements vowed that such nefarious objectives will not be achieved as he is fully behind Dr. Douglas and the Labour Party.
