Whitman T. Browne wrote a book by the title "From Commoner To King". The book is sub-titled "Robert L. Bradshaw" Crusader For Dignity And Justice In The Caribbean". Whitman Browne is a Nevisian and has held a position as part-time professor of the University of The Virgin Islands since 1986.
Professor Browne's book on Robert Bradshaw is only one of several books that are available to the public. Any attempt therefore to present a false, distorted, and one-sided picture of Robert Bradshaw is bound to be unsuccessful in the midst of the volume of factual and relevant information concerning the great man. On the other hand, Robert Bradshaw's life and legacy need no defence. The great man had earned his place in History.
It is ironic that the individuals who have become the greatest detractors of Robert Bradshaw are at the same time the greatest beneficiaries of his life and accomplishments.
The fact that there is universal adult suffrage (the right to vote) is attributable to Robert Bradshaw. The wide-range of benefits under Social Security is another setoff blessing enjoyed by the detractors of the good man. When they spend their Social Security pension they should all say "thank you, Papa Bradshaw."
The abundance of scholarships that flourished in the 1960s and 1970s (enjoyed by many of Bradshaw's detractors) are due to the great man who desired, above all things, to see deserving black men and black women reach the academic and intellectual heights of which they are capable.
It was Bradshaw's great vision and determination that led to the first attempts to change our society from a mono-crop economy (sugar) to a more diversified economy (tourism, rum, clothes, and television). His government acquired Frigate Bay Estate from private owners against great opposition from the fathers and forefathers of PAM.
Bradshaw encouraged the establishment of the Fair View Inn, Ottley's Plantation Inn and the Fort Thomas Hotel. This was followed up by the construction at Frigate Bay of the Royal St. Kitts Hotel. Bradshaw also brought into being two Industrial Parks " one at Bird Rock and the other at Pond Pasture. In its 15 years in power the PAM party never brought one, single, major hotel to this country.
At the same time Bradshaw lengthened and strengthened the runway at Golden Rock (RLB International) Airport and built a modern Terminal Building there. It is interesting to note that while all this was going on, PAM was calling the modernisation of the Airport a "white elephant". Bradshaw was also instrumental in constructing the Deep Water Port at Bird Rock.
In June of 1966, the Labour Party Government entered into an Agreement with Mr. Brian Ring, Chairman of Intercontinental Development and Property Company Limited (INDELCO) for the complete development of Frigate Bay Estate at an estimated cost of $96,000,000.00.
PAM's response to news of the Agreement was to arrange with a poor, ignorant taxi-man in the Circus, downtown Basseterre, for him to take out full-page advertisements in the world's leading newspapers advising all would-be investors not to put their money in any business venture in St. Kitts.
Isn't it strange that those who hate and curse Bradshaw, are the very same ones who love the party and the people who are engaged in putting obstacles and impediments in the path of progress, plenty and prosperity for the people of this country.
We know from our history that the opponents of the Labour Movement were against the granting of Universal Adult Suffrage, against Associated Statehood for St. Kitts-Nevis and Anguilla and also against Independence for St. Kitts and Nevis. The detractors of Robert Bradshaw have always been in support of those who used every means to block the political, constitutional, social, financial and economic development of our country.
There are many PAMites today who still hate and revile the good name of Robert Bradshaw. However, much they may have and revile his name, there are certain charges that cannot be laid against him. For instance, they cannot say that he sent anyone, or went himself, to Anguilla to learn at the rifle range at Junks Hole, how to shoot down St. Kitts people.
He was never involved in a plot to set New Town on fire by setting ablaze the bulk storage fuel tanks at Pond Pasture. He was not part of the conspiracy to demolish the Defence Force Camp at Springfield with high explosives. He was not one of the Kittitians, who provided transportation for the Anguillian invaders or harboured them in his home on the 10t of June, 1967.
Whenever it suits them certain PAMites would declare that Bradshaw disrespected Administrator Greening. That is their interpretation of what took place. But is their interpretation the only one or even the correct one?
Bradshaw, being a man of principle and honour, did not take kindly to the attitude and behaviour of Administrator Greening. The perception was that Greening was siding with the memes of the Plutocracy to render powerless the Workers League and the Trades & Labour Union. As a result Bradshaw organised a candle light procession in 1946 demanding that Administrator "Greening must go."
When the Colonial Office sent Sir Kenneth Blackburne out to be Governor of the Leeward Islands he received a very cold reception when he arrived in St. Kitts one Sunday in 1950, on his first official visit to the island. The cold reception was organised by Robert Bradshaw, Blackburne was booed on his way from the Airport to Government House.
One has to be analytical and perceptive when trying to understand the reason and the purpose for the actions undertaken by Bradshaw. He was not struggling for personal fame or gain, nor was he trying to repay or avenge some personal hurt or grudge. No! Bradshaw was above that. He was fighting for a principle.
In the case of Greening, the principle at stake was that Colonial Office appointed bureaucrats should not take sides. They should practise the same principles practices and conventions in black British Colonies, the same way as is done in the United Kingdom.
Governor Blackburne's case was a bit different. Bradshaw was fighting to establish the principle that the Colonial Office should not appoint a British Civil Servant to be a Governor of a Colony without prior discussion and consultation with the elected representatives of the people, especially when there is available a pool of well-trained, well-qualified and well-experienced West Indian personnel.
It should not escape our memory that the Colonial Office sent out Earl Baldwin of Bewdley to be Governor of the Leeward Islands. He did not last too long. He was a most beloved Governor who was popular with the masses.
Governor Baldwin made himself a man of the people by the way he interacted with the ordinary man. He provided many scholarships to deserving candidates. The members of the Plantocracy did not like Governor Baldwin's style of governance.
They wrote home against him and engineered his unceremonious recall. Of course the PAMites will say that the Plantocrats acted properly in demanding Earl Baldwin's recall. They will have no mercy for and understanding of the things that Bradshaw had done.
In the past, PAMites have insulted a High Court Judge and two Commissioners of Inquiry, all for purely personal and partisan reasons. One PAM lawyer abused a High Court Judge at a public meeting at Cayon and advised the good judge that he ought to go back to where he came from.
The same PAM lawyer referred to sole Commissioner Sir Louis Bloom-Copper in the press a "Bloomers-Coopers". A 10th of June PAMite, writing in the Democrat newspaper, often referred to Professor Randolph Williams, sole Commissioner, as "Dog Face". You think the PAMites nice with their tongue, nuh?
In 1969 Ronald Webster chased out from Anguilla, William Whitlock, a junior Minister in the British Government (he was expelled) because Whitlock was considered to be rude, difficult and obstinate in his dealings with Anguillians.
The story goes that years later, long after Blackburne's first visit to St. Kitts, Bradshaw visited Jamaica where Blackburne was serving as Governor. Bradshaw was received warmly by Blackburne and both of them discussed the matter of the reception that was extended in St. Kitts many years before.
Blackburne expressed great admiration and respect for the principle that Bradshaw was endeavouring to establish. They grew to understand each other quite well. Bradshaw and Blackburne remained friends until death. Both men were persons of courage, principle and honour.
No one has ever claimed that Bradshaw was perfect or infallible. He had his faults and his foibles like everyone else. What does the Prayer Book say? It says "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
However, Bradshaw's peccadilloes and frailties do not detract from his outstanding character, or the nobility of his actions or the purity of his motives.
He struggled not for fame and fortune. He fought against the odds, not for the benefits of friends and family, but solely for the all-round upliftment of his country and his people.
The Bible records that Jesus Christ said "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone". After all, King David committed adultery and then murder, yet still the Bible records him as the greatest king of Israel. Robert Bradshaw never did kill anyone.
No PAMite can ever hope to walk in Bradshaw"s shoes. We can never forget how hard PAM and the Democrat fought to deny this country the right to Independence. And we can never forget that as soon as PAM and the NRP joined up to form the Government in 1980, Dr. Simmonds set about impetuously to make himself the "First Ever Prime Minister".
Whether it is Old Labour or New Labour, the Labour Party in Government has been found to deliver remarkable benefits to the people of this country in general. Among other things, the Labour Party Government has :-
(i) Acquired the Sugar Estates lands.
(ii) Purchased the Sugar Factory.
(iii) Established the Social Security Scheme.
(iv) Initiated the "First Ever" Low Income Housing Scheme.
PAM on the other hand:-
i. Paid the Sugar Estate land owners $22 million rather than the $12 million that Bradshaw had offered. (The Sugar Lands had been independently valued at $10 million).
ii. Abolish Personal Income Tax in order to benefit the Sugar Estates owners and their allies.
iii. Built a road from Frigate Bay right trough the South-East Peninsula although the PAM Government did not own one square inch of land in the area.
iv. Radically changed the Electoral System, unilaterally, in 1983 in order to keep the Labour Party out of government for ever.
v. Sent around, all across St. Kitts and Nevis, teams of errand boys who urged employers and employees alike, not to participate in the newly established Social Security Scheme.
The PAM Party is yet to explain why the PAM Government built a major road all through private lands. PAM cannot explain up until now why the party set out in 1976 to block and destroy and obliterate the Social Security Scheme.
PAM cannot explain, after all the years have passed, how the simple abolition of Personal Income Tax benefited all the masses of people who never, ever paid Income Tax. Jews and Seventh Day Adventists do not buy or use pork or pork products. It would be silly and stupid for one to presume that a drastic reduction in the price of pork and pork products would benefit Jews and Seventh Day Adventists.
PAM is making a great song and dance (a mighty hubbub) over the way the process of Electoral Reform is being conducted. PAM has a face of brass to be saying such a thing and PAM has no conscience either.
The most "rooting" that ever went on took place in 1983 during the debate in the House on "The House of Assembly Elections Ordinance (Amendment) Act. During that debate the PAM Ministers of Government all behaved like feral hogs.
Filled with a sense of unconquerable political power, the PAM Ministers went hog-wild in the House. They wanted to hear nothing that Lee Moore, St. John Payne, Charles Mills or Comrade France had to say concerning the proposed changes to the Electoral System.
One high-ranking PAM Minister shouted across the Chamber "You all can't tell us what to do. It is PAM time now". Another one jeered "When we finish in here today, Labour dun wid". A very senior PAM Minister had the audacity and insolence to say to the Labour members present "Labour time gone. Sit down and shut you mouth".
How hypocritical, how dishonest and how nasty it is for PAM to be now, in the year 2007, making a great, big fuss over the open way in which the Labour Government is conducting Electoral Reform.
PAM held no consultations on Electoral Reform
In 1983, PAM set about to radically transform our Electoral System, without prior notice to the electorate, the National Assembly or to the Labour Opposition Members. All of PAM's Committees were established in secret, Committee members were appointed in secret, meetings were held in secret and reports from the Committees were kept in secret. Secrecy was the watch word.
PAM kept its intentions to overhaul the Electoral System completely hidden from the electorate until one day, Saturday 29th October 1983, the Labour Members of the Assembly received their copy of the Bill entitled "The House of Assembly Elections Ordinance (Amendment) Act, 1982.
The Bill was sent to the Labour Members late on Saturday 29th October, 1983 for a meeting to be held on Tuesday November 1st, 1983. The public in St. Kitts had no opportunity of reading the Bill, discussing it and expressing any views on it.
Not a single Town Hall meeting was held to discuss the matter. The Bill was passed into Law same day and rammed down the throat of an unsuspecting public. PAM was very pleased with the way the party hoodwinked the country.
After hoodwinking the nation in 1983 and feeling quite smart about it, PAM, like the great hypocrite that the party is known to be, is bellyaching about the open, inclusive, innovative and internationally acclaimed manner in which the Labour Party Government is conducting Electoral Reform.
PAM has no shame! PAM has no conscience. PAM has no decency!
