 |
|
The march along Cayon Steet just outside The Cable office on Wednrsday afternoon. |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, FEBRUARY 24TH 2006 - A vast majority of Kittitians and Nevisians on Thursday shrugged off a call by the main opposition People's Action Movement (PAM) to join a march to protest the imposition of a fuel surcharge in the wake of escalating fuel costs on the world market.
The march, which was organised by a top official of the small opposition United National Empowerment Party (UNEP) and a candidate in the 2004 General Election, Mr. Walford Arthurton and UNEP platform speaker, Mr. Esroy Dorsette, had the support of the Political Leader of the People's Action Movement, Mr. Lindsay Grant.
"We support and stand fully behind the march on Thursday 23rd February 2006 to demonstrate our disapproval with the fuel surcharge," Mr. Grant said in a prepared statement issued on Tuesday by Managing Director of the Democrat, the official mouthpiece of the People's Action Movement, Mrs. Lorna Callender.
Kittitians, mindful of the harsh realities that the skyrocketing fuel prices are having on the world economies, also ignored repeated appeals by the PAM leader on radio stations all week, to join the protest march.
BBC Caribbean Report in a live coverage of the march Thursday afternoon reported
50 people were in the march, which later grew to about 150 persons. Organisers had informed Police they expected some 8,000 persons to participate. On Thursday morning scores of placards were still on the ground at Independence Square, the starting point of the march.
 |
|
Photos taken on Thursday morning showing placards left at starting point of the politically-motivated march on Wednesday afternoon. |
"We have more spectators standing on the sidelines," said WINNFM's General Manager, Mr. Clive Bacchus in the live BBC Report.
"It is a mix of both," responded Mr. Bacchus, when asked if the march was politically motivated or a genuine concern over the fuel surcharge.
"This is a politically motivated march. For some reason, the People's Action Movement has not been able to get a political lift in this country and for some weird reason, they seem to think that a march against the fuel surcharge is going to give them some kind of political lift," St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas had told the BBC in an interview hours before the march started.
"Our citizens in this country are highly literate. They understand what is happening in the world around us. They have their radios. They have their televisions and they know that we in St. Kitts pay the lowest fuel surcharge in the Eastern Caribbean, except for Anguilla and that is why I say that the march is being politically motivated," said Prime Minister Douglas.
Dr. Douglas said the Cabinet has given the assurance that persons who have been assessed by the Department of Social Development through a needs assessment procedure would be exempted from paying the fuel surcharge.
"If our Home Care Officers who visit the elderly, senior citizens, the poor and those who are most vulnerable and they are able to demonstrate to the Ministry of Social Development and provide guidance to the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Public Utilities them they shall be exempted," Dr. Douglas told the BBC who caught up with him while he was on a tour of local farms in the rural areas.
"We intend not to increase the hardship of our people, but to improve their living conditions," said Prime Minister Douglas, who further gave the assurance that the fuel surcharge will be lowered when the world market price for diesel decreases.
"If the price goes down, then the fuel charge goes down and if it goes down to a level that the Government is again able to afford, it will be removed from the bill of the consumer," said Dr. Douglas.
 |
|
Photos taken on Thursday morning showing placards left at starting point of the politically-motivated march on Wednesday afternoon. |
"I say to PAM that this afternoon, it will be so surprised with the low turn out for the march that it will have to go home, pack up and use some other strategy in an attempt to really rustle the feathers of this government, because this government has the full support of the people of St. Kitts and Nevis," Prime Minister Douglas told the BBC Caribbean Report.
Members of the PAM leadership in the march included Treasurer, Ms. Avernice Jeffers and General Secretary, Mr. Selwyn "Rusty" Liburd and President of the PAM National Women's Group, Mrs. Kaye Menon. Former Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Sydney Morris was also in the demonstration.
PAM leader, Mr. Lindsay Grant, Deputy Political Leader, Hon. Shawn Richards and Party Chairman, Mr. Chesley Hamilton were on the sidelines looking at the march. Political observers say they were assessing the success of the march to join, but because of the failure, stayed away.
