The Mentality of Criminality

By G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

He wanted his people to be cultured and civil, disciplined and dignified, honest and hard-working, learned and law-abiding, and respectful and righteous.

He listened and took what, in the public interest, he considered to be wise counsel. He liked things to be done properly and in order. And he didn’t see himself or his friends as being above the law.

And he was strong on protecting the integrity, the honour and the patrimony of his people.

Yes, he was strong, and  priorities were right.

As a result of all that Robert Bradshaw was, many of the majr successes in the social and economic empowerment of the masses of this country between about 1950 and today were achieved as a result of his vision and leadership.

In my opinion, since his death in 1978 (followed by the death, only a year later, of Paul Southwell), we have had no leader who has been strong and who has had his priorities right.

So when you hear older folks say (as they also did between 1980 and 1995) that if Bradshaw were around today, the lawlessness, the disorder, the corruption and the collapse of our value systems which we are seeing would not be tolerated, that’s what they mean.

What follows is not political spin. It is fact.

In the 1980’s, five things happened.

First, the illicit gun trade was established.

Second, the first police assassination of the 20th century that took place in St. Kitts, as far as I am concerned, was that of Constable Stafford Grant.

Third, St. Kitts became a refueling stop for cocaine-laden planes flying northwards from South America, with some of their cargoes being left here for distribution both locally and nearby.

Fourth, money launderers set up shop here.

And fifth, we saw the birth of serious gang violence.

The network that was built around these five developments engulfed and corrupted a number of individuals, both in the public and private sectors, from high to low levels, and in the broader society.

Further, with certain favoured people benefiting from corruption and bad governance, at the expense of the good name of the nation, a mentality of criminality became even more entrenched.
 
Small wonder that by 1994 the people had become so concerned, that at their very next opportunity they kicked PAM out and elected the then-called “New Labour”, whose  first order of business, as declared in the  manifesto for the 1995 elections, was Law & Order.

Yet, as events have unfolded over the last 15 years, it’s pretty clear that Dr. Douglas’ Law & Order rhetoric was hollow, because the situation got progressively worse.

And this has happened because, like his immediate predecessor, Dr. Douglas has proven himself to be unable, even unqualified, to lead the nation out of the mentality of criminality.

He is strong, no doubt. But he doesn’t have his priorities right, and his first order of business isn’t Law & Order. It’s himself and maintaining power.

How could it be otherwise when he neglected the Police Force, the Prison Service and the Fire & Rescue Service for nine years, after his predecessor had done pretty much the same for fifteen years before him?

How could it be otherwise when Defence Force personnel (who face at least as much risk as personnel in other security agencies) were not allowed to get Risk Pay until the Ministry of National Security changed hands?

How could Law & Order be his first order of business when  the security agencies begged for money and other governmental assistance in order to improve their facilities and conditions and  they were told that no money was there, while, at the same time, big boys and girls were globetrotting at great public expense, Government was, as it still  is, renting space for a police station in Sandy Point (for about 25 years now) and office space all over the place, and committing other acts of squandermania with the people’s money?

If Law & Order was his first order of business, how come more SIDF dollars have not been pumped into building out our nation’s national security infrastructure, so that our people, our properties and our businesses might be safer and more secure?

Where is the Law & Order when the people of St. Kitts & Nevis were put to lose over $110 million of their life savings to British American when there had been a warning  years earlier that this could happen? And who directed Social Security to invest $19 million of the people’s money in CLICO?

How can Dr. Douglas be for law & Order when favoured persons are allowed to act as if they were financial institutions, and, in the process cause innocent folks to lose nearly $30 million of their hard-earned money?

And how come, in all of these scandals, nobody involved has faced criminal charges or other serious inquiry?

If there were truly any respect on his part for Law & Order, how is it that certain favoured persons have been able to get Government land and flip it for quick profits; or to run up big debts to Government and not be forced to pay; or to go scot free after being caught red-handed committing very serious crimes?
 
Why would over 6,000 acres of sugar lands be either tied up in debt to the National Bank and the rest sold to investors who are yet to deliver any economic goodies to the people of this land? And why would a scampish foreigner be given a licence to pursue a development under the Citizenship by Investment Program or to own a beach bar?

Why would the ongoing Chinese racket be allowed to take place? And why would nationals of this country be marginalized and disrespected the way they are?

He cannot claim Law & Order to be his top priority when he has brought the country to this economic and fiscal precipice where, in addition to our national debt of  $2.75 billion and our debt-to-GPD ratio of about 180%, we are now hearing  that the primary balance surplus of $24.48 million for the first four months of 2010  was  not enough to cover the total Debt Service Payments (interest and principal) which was $50.47 million for that period, which means that our national debt increased again.

Some members of Government’s security agencies and other departments get hooked up in the gangs and the criminality and, for the most part, get off with a rap on the knuckles; others spend time protecting private persons and private property, while there are high rates of sickness when it comes time to do the Government’s work.

The disrespect, indiscipline and bitterness at high levels of these agencies and departments are no secret.

Favoured civil servants ‘tief’ and walk free, and use as well as ‘mash up’ Government vehicles and other property and get away with it.

The roads have become more and more of a mess, and vehicular traffic is out of hand, whether it be commercial vehicles speeding or stopping wherever they like to pick up or drop off passengers, or drivers making calls or sending text messages, or sound systems blasting out of vehicles and deafening everybody within 100 yards.

It is a free-for-all, total chaos and bedlam, lawless and disorderly, as is the country as a whole. And the police seem helpless, asking all the time for more manpower while we already have the biggest Police Force per capita in CARICOM.

Everywhere you go it’s the same: No discipline or not enough of it, and No Law and No Order. The mentality of criminality is now more embedded.

The country needs a leader who is strong and whose priorities are right. Dr. Douglas has proven beyond the shadow of doubt that he is not that leader.