BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, June 20, 2010 (PAM Secretariat Press Release) - I wish to congratulate the people of the OECS Region as they honour the legacy of their founding fathers with the signing of the Economic Union Treaty on the 29th anniversary of the historic Treaty of Basseterre on 18th June, 2010.
I wish to use this medium to express my gratitude to the rank and file of the People’s Action Movement and of the constituency #4 group in particular for their overwhelming expression of confidence in me. I thank you all for enabling our party to have a productive and event free Delegates Convention.
As I embark on the next three years at the helm of our great party I’m looking forward to being able to work hard on behalf of the ordinary people who went out in their numbers and voted for the much needed change.
Our difficulties are only going to increase but so must our resolve in order to lawfully and peacefully wrest the future of our country from those who have shown over and over again that their sole purpose is to destroy it.
Just last Friday, June 11th, the Prime Minister revealed his plan to increase our already too high National Debt by another $500 million. Our debt to GDP ratio is already 180% and as our economy continues to shrink so does our GDP. A shrinking GDP and an increasing debt is a recipe for a disaster that will be worse than anything nature can throw at us.
The ratio in Greece is only 115% and we all know what is happening there. Prime Minister Douglas is also watching Greece which is why he has made relationships that enable him to continue to borrow in order to pay salaries and pensions despite our country being a terrible credit risk.
In addition to more debt Prime Minister Douglas also revealed a further increase in taxes. Only the most incompetent government can continue to tax and borrow and yet still not have enough money. There must be a limit to how much tax ordinary Kittitians and Nevisians can pay and how much this government can borrow and what will happen then.
Of course not even after 15 years in office can Prime Minister Douglas extend common courtesy to his colleagues on the opposition benches. Opposition parliamentarians were only made aware of these resolutions when they arrived in the house. There was clearly a plan afoot. Without any prior knowledge there was no public discussion on this issue and by Monday the news media were deftly distracted from giving these important issues the necessary attention by a puerile fascination with gossip. We must not allow ourselves to be so easily distracted.
