It will soon be morning again in the Queen of the Caribbees. Gone will be the days when our island state teetered on the edge of bankruptcy because of the fiscally reckless actions of an NRP Government that has refused to do what every other Nevisian household is required to do during financially challenging times. That is - they tighten their belts and live within their means.
During the last full year of the CCM administration the flow of revenues into the Nevis treasury was at the highest level ever recorded. The hard-working men and women in our hospitality services sector generated almost four times as much revenue as was generated in our sister island of St.Kitts. Those engaged in our off-shore banking sector generated ten times as much revenue for the Nevis Treasury as those engaged in the off shore banking sector in St.Kitts.
These revenues are critical for providing support for a wide range of public services in Nevis. They helped to transform the face of Nevis. They were used in helping to beautify our waterfront which now appears on virtually every postcard of Nevis. They provided a substantial portion of the funding for constructing the Hunkins Drive, for re-engineering, repaving and upgrading the Main Road from Gingerland to Nisbett's Plantation --via Charlestown, for building the Long Point Deep Water Harbor, for transforming the Cotton Ginnery Complex into a shopping mall and for much-much more.
The Vance Amory International Airport was buzzing with commercial activity during those halcyon days. There were two flights per day from Nevis to San Juan providing convenient same day connections for those destined for the North American Eastern seaboard. The era has been described by some as the Golden Age of Capital Accumulation.
Five years ago, Nevisians felt safe in their homes. They went about their daily business without living in fear of the criminal elements that are often lurking around in the dark. Nevisians felt a sense of enormous pride as they held their heads high, looking forward to the day when the glorious yellow and green flag of Nevis would be hoisted at the then Grove Park, giving birth to a newly independent Nevis. They yearned for the day when Nevisians would stand tall as a proud people, speaking for themselves and representing themselves as a member of the Community of Nations.
On July 11th 2006 darkness settled over the land. The NRP government formed an unholy union with the Labor Party of St.Kitts which, for more than 50 years, oppressed the People of Nevis and stood in the way of our progress, placing obstacles in our path at every turn. During the long dark night, the Labor Government of Basseterre grabbed more than $230 million of the free grant money disbursed by the donor countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and used these international aid assistance dollars for the development of St.Kitts and St.Kitts alone. Not a drum was heard at any time in celebration of any portion of these OECD dollars being shared with Nevis.
These funds are critically important for our development. Every country in the Caribbean and the developing world has been heavily dependent on this assistance. One is hard-pressed to identify any one major infrastructure project in either Nevis or St.Kitts that was made possible without substantial international aid assistance in the form of free grant money and/or deeply discounted loans from the donor countries of the developed world. And contrary to our Honorable PM's frequent statements to his coalition partner in Nevis that the federation no longer receives concessionary grants; the donor countries are reporting that their donor assistance to the federation of St.Kitts and Nevis is at the highest level ever recorded (Based on available data from the OECD archives, though 2009).
These are funds that are badly needed for our health services sector, for academic internships, for disaster risk management, for providing student loans, for providing computers for our schools for reducing the high cost of our outstanding public debt and for waging an effective war against the hoodlums on the streets who have so far racked up 16 homicides for this year alone. On a per capita basis, the federation's homicide rate like its debt ratio is among the highest in the entire world, with a very clear functional relationship between the size of the public debt, the high cost of our legally binding contractual obligation to pay the financing cost of holding this debt and our non-binding obligation to provide the required funding for the security forces who are on the front lines in the war against crime. Put differently, the high cost of funding our record high debt denies us the means for funding the war effort.
When darkness fell upon us, Nevis became a ward of nearly financially bankrupt state, led by a fiscally reckless Labor Government of Basseterre. Without missing a beat, the NRP government fell into lockstep with its coalition partner and embarked on a tax and spend binge in which a once proud debt-to-GDP ratio of 72 percent under the CCM government soared to 258 percent under the new NRP government. With Nevis under NRP ranked as the most indebted nation on earth, at 258 percent, and St.Kitts under Labor ranked as the third most indebted nation on earth, at 186 percent of GDP; the International Monetary Fund, has now swooped in and has effectively taken over the governance of the fiscal affairs of the federation. Because of our fiscal recklessness and our refusal to live within our means an austerity program has been put in place with direct oversight responsibility now in the hands of the IMF. Our coalition Labor and NRP Party leaders have "effectively" been reduced to "potted plants".
Under the cover of darkness, what was an open and transparent CCM government has been replaced by an NRP government whose actions on critical matters that affect the welfare state have been shrouded by a veil of secrecy. The interest rate terms for the financing of the completion of the Main Road project have been a closely guarded secret. The Labor Government's refusal to grant a federal guarantee for a low cost loan from a donor country to its coalition partner is costing Nevisians an estimated $12 to $17 million more over the life of the loan, because of the higher commercial prime interest rates imposed, at the time of loan origination, by local retail lenders. While Basseterre enjoyed the benefits of a deeply-discounted loan from OPEC for the development of the Port of Basseterre at 4 percent for 18 years with a 3-year grace period before payment of so much as one dime is due, the NRP leader was utterly rebuffed by his coalition partner and forced out on the street to tussle with high cost lenders in the commercial retail lending market.
Nevisians have also been kept in the dark about the details of their obligations under the power purchase agreement between the NIA and West Indies Power a start-up rookie company that has never produced so much as one kilowatt of geothermal power any place on earth and that has refused to produce any public record of its financial condition as reflected in its assets and liabilities. We are kept in the dark on the terms of the Amman Resort Project, kept in the dark on the details of the 80-acres New Found project. None of which have been subjected to public scrutiny. These are all deeply troubling concerns. The NRP's silence is deafening on a wide range of critical issues that are of major national importance.
But, this long dark night will soon be over. Weeping endures for a night. But joy cometh in the morning. On July 12th, it will be morning again in Queen City. And, under the leadership of Premier Vance Winkworth Amory and his very able team, the pain and suffering of the past five years will soon become a distant memory. Nevisians will wake up and take a deep breath with the full assurance that for the next five years they will no longer have to live in deadly fear that Labor and NRP governments will come into their bedrooms and hit them over the head with another wicked round of VAT and other high taxes.
On that glorious morning, every Nevisian - the young and the old, CCM loyalists and NRP loyalists; those from the lush and hilly terrain of Gingerland, as well as those from the plains of Bath and the scenic vistas of Indian Castle, together with those from the rugged shores of Butlers and Bricklyn; we will again look forward with enormous confidence and pride to a brighter future. We will return to the path of progress and hope for a stronger, better and more prosperous Nevis.
My Fellow Nevisians, it will soon be morning again in Queen City. Why would anyone want to return to the past five years?
