2013 will be ‘The Year of Truth’ for our nation.
Why do I say so? Well, in case you’ve just arrived from Mars, here’s what has happened over the last 3 years or so.
The PM declared in his budget address of December, 2009, that as a result of his sound leadership, St. Kitts & Nevis had escaped the brunt of the global financial meltdown. “It’s Working”, he said, as he delivered a tax-free budget.
At the time he had introduced a large-scale, temporary employment program called ‘YES’, an acronym with positive vibes which, along with the “It’s Working” slogan was deliberately and strategically selected (thanks in some measure to the mind-bending consultants on the payroll) to influence people, particularly young people, who Dr. Douglas wanted to follow him around and vote for him and his candidates. Influencing the youths was more important to him than empowering them.
Part and parcel of this mind-bending game that he played with the youths were letters to hundreds of them advising them that for $100.00 (yes, one hundred dollars) down, they could be assigned a piece of land, and become land owners. And many of them, naturally, jumped at the opportunity.
Of course, if you think about it you’ll realize that if things were really working, there’d be absolutely no need for such a large-scale temporary work program.
Yet he claimed that it was ‘working’ so well that he gave public servants a double salary that month, and even included the persons in the YES program by giving them two weeks’ bonus wages for Christmas.
What he chose not to declare in his budget speech was that by the same December, 2009, he had run up the national debt to $3 billion; that two years earlier, nearly 8 square miles (or about 12%) of St. Kitts, former sugar lands, had been already been put in the hands of the National Bank as security against $1billion of that debt owed to the Bank, and that there was no intention by him to pay down that debt in order to save the people’s land from his own excesses and callousness; that a year earlier the Government had already begun to default on its debt repayments; that the economy had already dipped into recession (he didn’t need the global crisis to do it for him, he did it on his own); and that right after the elections, scheduled for a month later, he would move to introduce VAT, raise electricity rates, raise the Housing & Social Services Levy, send home Government workers (of course, on a very selective basis), freeze civil servants’ increments, put the country under IMF supervision, and call on creditors to take a ‘haircut’ on the debt owed to them by the Government.
What he also chose not to declare was that the Government’s financial situation did not allow for the payment a double salary to public servants, and the two weeks’ bonus to YES workers, in December, 2009.
Or that shortly after the said elections he’d be closing down the YES program and sending home the young people who would now have little or no chance of being able to pay off for the land. So for them, landless, $100.00-less, and jobless. And for the vast majority of them, powerless.
And when he was giving them the land letters before the election, he knew that he’d be sending them home a few months later. That’s as callous as a man can get.
Dr. Douglas had once again lied, and fooled a lot of people.
But people started to wake up to his trickery, especially with the extra pain and suffering that he has inflicted on this country since the election of January, 2010.
Little wonder, therefore, that soon thereafter the term “give dem a Dougie”, coined by the popular calypsonian ‘Unexpected’, would become embedded in our nation’s folklore.
Nevertheless, even today, on the doorstep of 2013, he continues with his games.
Let’s look at some situations.
Firstly, Dr. Cuthbert Sebastian will finally be replaced as Governor General by Mr. Edmund Lawrence. But information on the street reveals that another option for the GG’s post was recently explored.
That option was Mr. Sam Condor. The idea was to offer the post to him, and the Deputy Leader’s and Deputy PM’s posts to Dr. Timothy Harris. That way, both of them would be neutralized, and Mr. Condor would be replaced in a by-election or a general election.
The street says that Mr. Lawrence was okay with that, if only because it’d help to end the internal difficulties. Of course, it would also sap both Messrs. Condor and Harris of whatever political momentum they’re presently enjoying.
But the street also says that both gentlemen declined the offers made to them. So, Mr. Lawrence is to be the new GG, as we await the news as to who will succeed him at the National Bank. He can’t hold both posts.
Meanwhile, Dr. Douglas has established Dr. Vance Gilbert as a possible alternative to Dr. Harris in Constituency 7, and he’s considering, as a replacement for Mr. Condor, Mr. Jason Hamilton who, some years ago, had taken a principled stand and resigned as Treasurer of the Labour Party.
That act of resignation lifted the young man’s stock massively among Party members who wanted to see things go right, as well as among well-meaning outsiders.
So it would now, at least for me, be inconceivable that he’d accept the offer of the same leader from whom he walked away as Party Treasurer, especially for the principled reasons that made him walk away. His credibility would be shot. And he’d find himself, especially at this time, like a salmon, swimming up river to meet his inevitable political death, although if you were to take out your calculator to count the casualties that Dr. Douglas has left in his trail, you’d be forced to conclude that Mr. Hamilton would just be one more dead salmon.
So while it may be true that Dr. Douglas is considering Mr. Hamilton, I can’t see how Mr. Hamilton could justify a turnaround like this.
Of course, Mr. Hamilton has been seen as Mr. Condor’s protégé and natural successor, and perhaps he has become somewhat impatient awaiting his turn. And given the fact that tearing people apart and turning them against each other has always been a weapon in Dr. Douglas’ arsenal, the opportunity to bend Mr. Hamilton’s mind and get him to see Mr. Condor as an obstacle to his political career would’ve been irresistible to Dr. Douglas.
I can imagine hearing: “Why wait? Why let Sam keep you back? You’re young and this is your time, you’re the future. Sam isn’t going anywhere. Come with me, and it’ll be good”. Like in the Garden of Eden.
Of course, he’d never tell Mr. Hamilton that there’s at least one other person who, even if he signaled his availability after Mr. Hamilton were to accept, would become the new candidate without hesitation and Mr. Hamilton would be unceremoniously cast aside.
In addition, it’s possible that somebody, though not acting on behalf, or on the directive, of Dr. Douglas, but who wants to see the back of Mr. Condor, might dangle some sweet professional offerings to Mr. Hamilton’s law firm.
But Mr. Hamilton or his partner would never compromise their good names, their firm’s good name, their employees’ honour and respect, and their clients’ good faith, and go for that.
So I just can’t see how Mr. Hamilton would accept such an offer, if at all there’s one.
Finally, as Dr. Douglas prepares to complete his list of candidates, he’s starting yet another short-term work program, to fool people off yet again.
This one is called PEP, another catchy and upbeat acronym, selected (again) from professional advice, with a clear intent to bend people’s minds. And it’s to be funded by SIDF money, which is rightly the people’s money.
This was predictable. I stated many months ago that he’d prefer to use this money to prop up himself politically, and to use it for election gimmickry, than to reduce the national debt and save the people’s land for them and their children.
And he feels that although it’s only been three years since the fast one he pulled on them, under the name ‘YES’, he can still get away with another fast one called ‘PEP’, because he thinks that he’s Mr. Smartness and that the people are fools, are easily pleased, and have short memories.
But the fact that he’s having two of these programs in just three years is compelling and conclusive evidence of failure on his part.
Anyway, the people have wised up to him. And they’re wetting their hands and waiting for him on election day 2013 when it’ll be their turn to give him back a Dougie.
Yes, the young people will take the PEP jobs, and they’ll give him back PEPPER in return.
2013 will indeed be The Year of Truth in St. Kitts & Nevis.
