Time for people of St. Kitts Nevis to demand for good governance
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party-led government of St. Christopher and Nevis received its share of criticisms in 2011 and weeks after the New Year commenced, they continue.
Richard Caines – a Minister in the former People’s Action Movement-administration and current member of the Operation Rescue movement – is adamant that “the government has outlived its usefulness” and believes that the people of the Federation should demand that good governance be the order of the day.
The Operation Future activist – speaking exclusively with SKNVibes – expressed that Prime Minister Dr. the Right Honourable Denzil L. Douglas had made several “bad decisions” over the past years which have left the country and its inhabitants “in more than bondage”.
The time has come, he suggested, for a stand to be taken by the people in demanding that their wish and will be carried out by the government. And although he did not explain exactly how the people are to make such demands, he suggested that they tap into their creativity.
“The people of St. Kitts and Nevis have to get up, whether they want to talk, whether they want to march, or whatever they want to do to take back their country. That is Operation Rescue’s theme for 2012, ‘Take back the country from Dr. Douglas and foreigners’.
“The same people who want back the country will find unique ways of dealing with it. That is to say, we could start by demanding that our electoral process be handled by independent people, not Labour supporters…”
A number of the issues which Caines expressed are foremost in his mind surround the electoral process.
“We need to be advocating for registration where you live, which is according to the laws of our country. Dr. Douglas got up some time ago and said register where you want. He must go and apologise to the country and say he made a mistake! We also need to advocate for the removal of the Supervisor of Elections from that position. You can’t ask for a more sorry person than him. It’s in the CARICOM report that when they tried to convene a meeting with him, he called and said he was suffering mental and physical illness and he didn’t show up for the meeting.”
The General Elections were held in 2010 while the Local Elections were held in Nevis in 2011 and, according to Caines, there is evidence of dissatisfaction of the electorate with the results. Had the electoral process been independently run, Caines suggested, no matter what the result of the elections, the people would be contented.
“Every day when people come in here, as soon as they come in, they start to ‘buse’. Everywhere you go the complaint is the same thing…they are vexed with the government. That is because they are not satisfied that the government in place is the government that they voted for. I don’t mean individually, I mean collectively. If your system is foolproof and persons are happy with it, then they would also respect the result. But when you have like what we have here, everyone is complaining, and therefore the amount of dissatisfaction in the country – and it is growing everyday – is something that we need to take note of.”
