BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Tuesday, November 30, 2010 (Labour Secretariat) - Every decent law-abiding citizen and national of St. Kitts and Nevis bemoans the breakdown in the moral fabric of the society that continuously gives birth to crime. Crime is a monster without a face and no direction. It threatens the economy of St. Kitts and Nevis at a time when economies throughout the entire world are teetering on the brink of collapse because of one of the worst economic recessions in living memory.
Because crime poses such a great threat to the stability of a country’s economy and a danger to the peace and unity of communities, it must be confronted with unrelenting force. Equally important is that parents, guardians, the churches and the schools and all and sundry in the country assume the noble responsibility of instilling a sense of morals and ethics in our children, not only by instruction but by example.
As sinister as crime is, there is something that can be judged just as sinister, and that is the politicization of crime. Playing politics with crime does not redound to the advantage of anyone but only seeks to polarize a country more than it already is. Polarization is gang mentality.
It is ironic that almost every time a criminal activity takes place in the country, Leader of the People’s Action Movement (PAM), Lindsay Grant, takes to the airwaves or uses his pen to lament. The evidence would suggest that Grant is playing politics with crime. He seems to be more concerned with attaining political mileage and increased voter support rather than concretely addressing the crime situation.
Nothing speaks more to this than an article posted on SKNVibes in the wake of the unfortunate hold-up and robbery of a tour bus carrying 17 tourist in Sandy Point. The article can at best be described as hypocritical and at worst sarcastic.
Posted on November 15, 2010 and headlined “St. Kitts opposition party leader saddened by recent robbery of 17 tourists. Assures visitors that St. Kitts a safe place to visit”, the article gave the appearance in its opening paragraphs that Grant was very concerned about the robbery of the tourists and that he wanted to assure visitors that St. Kitts was still a safe place to visit.
But, any intelligent person reading the article would realize that the author had a sinister agenda. The author really wanted to portray St. Kitts as a crime-infested country, where the government was incapable of controlling crime.
Grant is quoted in the article as saying that he had every confidence in the police to bring the perpetrators to justice and that St. Kitts was a still a safe place to visit.
How can one reconcile this statement with chronologically highlighting crime over the past 10 years and saying that the government was inefficient? By doing such was Grant really sincere in inviting visitors to the shores of the federation? The answer to that is no. The article’s headline alone starkly contradicts its contents. The intention of the author was that of playing politics.
This modus operandi characterizes the PAM. Crime is simply seen as a political issue; one that they can use to score cheap political points.
One can only remember that over a year ago agents of the PAM were in New York giving out flyers to potential visitors to St. Kitts to try and dissuade them from visiting “the murder capital of the world” according to them.
They were trying to take bread out of the mouths of the citizens of this country by this anti-patriotic act.
More recently a picture on the front page of the PAM mouthpiece, “The Democrat” showed a terrorist pointing a gun next to a cruise liner in highlighting the robbery of the 17 tourists.
It is clear that this was a calculated and malicious assault on the tourist industry of this country. Was such a photo plastered on the front page of the Democrat designed to lure tourists to our beautiful country? No!
It is time that the PAM stop and think about the blind politics that they are involved in.
Crime should not be politicized.
We continue to bemoan the robbery of the tourists. It was not only a crime against our tourism-based economy but it was a crime against hospitality. Kittitians and Nevisians are hospitable people. Every effort would be made to ensure the safety of our visitors who are dear to all of us.
