BASSETERRE St. Kitts, April 29th 2011 (CUOPM) – Former Cabinet minister Mr. Dwyer Astaphan has neither “credibility nor virginity."
So says St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas in making strong reference to the “dismal failure of Dwyer Astaphan as Minister of National Secretary from 2004 to 2008.”
Prime Minister Douglas went on to put this in the context of a saying told to him by a wise man ie "credibility is like Virginity, once lost it cannot be regained."
According to Dr. Douglas, Dwyer Astaphan is the last person who should be blaming the Labour Government and others for the state of crime in the country today.
The current longest serving four-term Prime Minister insisted during a public meeting in his home village of St. Paul’s and earlier at a Sitting of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly that Dwyer Astaphan lost his credibility to speak on the issue because as a Minister of National Security and as a Parliamentary Representative, he was "very soft on crime."
The Prime Minister recalled that the former minister was consistently critical of the security forces whenever they conducted searches for illegal firearms and narcotics in the Central Basseterre areas which he represented in Parliament.
He constantly glamourized the use of marijuana by young people and was very critical of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) citing several articles on marijuana research which he circulated in the Cabinet and making references to large quantities of marijuana that were cultivated in California under US Government supervision.
While Minister of National Security and Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Mr. Astaphan took several hardened juvenile criminals - one of whom was on remand at Her Majesty's Prison on charges of murder - from their cells to attend the annual Prime Minister’s Gala at which Minister Luis Farrakan of the Nation of Islam was the Guest Speaker.
“Crime is nobody’s friend and there cannot be any softness on crime here in this country,” said Prime Minister Douglas at the public meeting, reminding hundreds that earlier in Parliament he disclosed that as the Minister of National SecurityMr. Astaphan brought to the Cabinet draft legislation to legalize marijuana.
“What kind of Minister could that be when he calls me when I was the Minister of National Securitry, complaining that the ‘SSU went into Mc Knight again… why they don’t go to Bird Rock, Frigate Bay and Half Moon Bay’,” recalled Prime Minister Douglas.
“There can be no compromise on crime because of party politics. You cannot be soft on crime,” said Dr. Douglas.
The Prime Minister contended that Mr. Astaphan is attempting to rewrite history relating to his tenure in the Labour Administration so as to leave a favorable legacy, but he will fail because according to the sage has ”neither credibility nor virginity."
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