Some people in St. Kitts & Nevis are asking what a National Unity Government is.
Well, the answer is simple. It’s a coalition government.
Coalition governments are formed when different political groups and individuals link up to take office. They’re quite common.
Indeed, following the 1993 general elections, Dr. Denzil Douglas took a fast boat to Nevis in the dark of night and invited both NRP and CCM to join up with him to form a new coalition government.
At that time, he was trying to break up a 13-year old coalition government between PAM and NRP. Both Nevis parties respectfully declined his invitation.
But he has always kept the coalition option open, and 17 years later, following the 2010 elections, he formed one with NRP, which still exists today.
So the arithmetic will tell you that there has been a coalition government in Basseterre for 18 of the past 33 years. That’s 55% of the time since 1980.
And that’s okay.
National Unity Governments are usually more broadly based, and more inclusive, than your typical coalition government, and they’re assembled in times when a country is enduring natural or man-made difficulties so severe that different, and otherwise competing, political parties and interest groups feel an urgent need to come together, putting country above party.
That’s a necessary and admirable thing to do. I only wish there was more of it. After all, what can be better than a political culture which enhances and ennobles human relationships, rather than diminishing, debasing and demonizing them?
What can be more wretched than a society which regards unity as a last resort rather than the being first order of business?
And, worst of all, what can be more sad and tragic than seeing people who have nothing but hatred and contempt for unity? Especially people whose history has been so bludgeoned by trenchant, deliberate, imposed and institutionalized disunity?
Now, is our country experiencing severe difficulties? Is political partisanship off the chart? Are we in urgent need of healing? Have our economy, our social and political fabric, our institutions and instruments of governance, and the very integrity of our Federation, been put at great risk? Are too many of our people falling woefully short of the mark in terms of the enlightenment and independence of thought that are fundamental safeguards of democracy? Are politics and corruption in politics causing a major drag on the nation’s productivity, cultural buoyancy and general sense of well being?
The honest answer to all of these questions is: YES.
Is a political party or a government under the rule of Denzil Douglas likely or able to redeem the situation? Honestly, NO.
Is there a broad consensus that Douglas has been and is a key cause of the severe difficulties which we face? YES. And that he needs to be replaced? YES. This view is held even within his own Party, although you’ll only hear it voiced in extremely discreet and fearful whispers.
And is it likely that any single Party will win a clear majority of seats in the next general elections? NO. So confusion will take over unless there’s a National Unity Government.
At the centre of all of this mess and melee is Denzil Douglas. Both the street talk and the empirical data show that.
The man has wrought more havoc on St. Kitts & Nevis than all of the hurricanes, floods, earthquakes of the last 30 years, combined.
He screwed up its financial and fiscal affairs, running up $3 billion worth of debt, forcing the Government into the embarrassing situation of calling upon creditors (including the Social Security Board, Brimstone Hill Fortress Society and some
churches) to take ‘haircuts’, and giving up nearly 5,000 acres of the people’s land to banks as security for that debt. That is 12% of the entire land mass of St. Kitts.
Now the banks, especially the National Bank, need to sell off the land quickly in order to avert disaster in our financial system. And already, 1,200 acres are in the works to be sold off.
Kittitians, historically landless, but given hope by Bradshaw in 1975 and Simmonds in 1981-2, have been navigated into a shameful reverse by Dr. Douglas.
This dastardly act by him, and his sheer incompetence and recklessness towards the people’s debt, their land and their birthright, have caused unprecedentedly severe difficulties.
So what are self-respecting, altruistic politicians to do? Wait for him to wreak even more havoc, or for him to die, or both? Or should they, instead, come together in a cause that is far greater than that of their parties or themselves?
Indeed, what choice do they have other than to come together in a coalition for national healing and unity? What better choice do we, as a people, have? What will our suffering and subjugated children and generations yet unborn think of us if we fail to take this historic and vital step?
But there’s so much more that drives us towards unity.
Developers have been given full rights to block off beaches, to block out local contractors and other providers of goods and services, to abuse the dignity and the rights of locals, to build outside of the authority of the Building Authority, to effectively hold the Government and people of this country at ransom, and to set up separate, virtually sovereign ‘nations’ upon the land mass of St. Kitts.
While we must always encourage the inward flow of clean capital and other resources, the process must always be based on fairness and on mutual respect between the incoming resource and the integrity, honour and patrimony of our people. Indeed, no decent investor would want it any other way.
Then there are sweetheart land deals, fiscal concessions, passports (both regular and diplomatic), contracts for goods and services, matters relating to overseas missions, to La Vallee, Beacon Heights, SIDF, and so on.
Some documents will soon reach the general public, I hear. But you’ll get the full picture only after you’ve removed Douglas from office. I can assure you, it will be shocking!
And the only way to get the full picture is by having a National Unity Government.
Now there are people who have genuine questions about such a government.
They want to know if it can work, who would be its leader, etc., etc…
Well, let’s start here.
The government that we have today is not working. The partisan politics of the day is also not working. We have a ruler who abuses journalists, abuses citizens, abuses his high office, abuses the Parliament, he abuses our nation’s Constitution, and so on. He is abusive. He is imperious. He is a notorious liar. He is incompetent. And corruption is wide and deep in the public sector.
No self-respecting citizen or resident of this country can accept this situation any longer. The country needs fixing. It needs healing. The people need a government that respects them and their Constitution. They need a government that respects the rule of law, and one that is going to be open and accountable. They need the SIDF money in a Government account. They need back their honour, their integrity, their dignity, and their land. Young people especially need hope. They want entrepreneurial, job and landholding opportunities without having to go on their knees to politicians. They need life, and leadership, without fear, favour or ill-will.
And Douglas cannot and will not give them the things that they need. He needs to control them, while they need to be free.
What are the realistic alternatives? As I said, no single party will win an absolute majority of the seats in the next general elections, and there will have to be a coalition government. One that is made up of men and women who are ready to
put country above self, and country above party, and to give the people what they so desperately need at this critical and sensitive time in their history. Men and women who are willing and able to leave their egos at the door, to at last put the power where it really belongs, that is, in the hands of the people, and to lead this nation to a new level of politics and life, harmonious, open, tolerant, respectful and efficient, by the grace of God.
That’s a National Unity Government, Folks. Our only chance.
Will it be easy? Of course, not. And it’ll be made even more difficult by the efforts of certain people to undermine, disrupt and smash it up, for their own selfish and corrupt reasons.
But it’ll be 100 times better than what we have today, and I’m confident that it’ll make a powerful and positive difference in the way we live with each other. We owe it to ourselves, but more importantly to our children and generations yet unborn.
