BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – TRUE to his word, the former Premier of Nevis, the Hon. Joseph Parry forewent attending the opening of the Nevis Island Assembly in a show of solidarity with the persons who lost their jobs at the hand of the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) administration.
Yesterday (Mar. 27), the Nevis Island Assembly convened and the President was selected and appointed. However, neither Parry nor Robelto Hector of the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) (Opposition) attended the opening.
Parry, in an interview with SKNVibes, indicated that Hector did not attend because he was not “on island”. He however explained that his absence from the session was in silent protest against what he described as victimisation of people by the CCM-government.
Parry said that as far as he is aware, in excess of 100 individuals lost their jobs at the hands of the CCM-led government in Nevis. He said the effects of these dismissals would extend even into the economy of the island.
“Everybody said that a good job was done in the development of Nevis for the last six years. Now here comes this new government trying to say people were not working and people were staying at home, so they had to fire them. There is a contradiction there, and for me the real reason is victimisation and spite and malice.
“These are people, young people with young children in school, children in college. These are people who, with security of jobs, have taken a home in Cherry Gardens or elsewhere. Now they are out of work, they can’t pay their mortgage, they can’t support their children. And in addition to that, it takes money out of the economy and slows it down, because if people don’t have money to buy food and if the demand falls then it slows down the action of the economy.”
Parry explained that when the NRP was in government, it strove to foster a culture of inclusion, but the CCM – which also considers being part of a Unity Government – launched a spiteful and malicious campaign against certain individuals.
“This whole behaviour of CCM is not in the interest of the people. It’s not even in their own interest. It is just led by spite and by malice, especially at a time when we are talking about a government of National Unity. Many persons are talking about having CCM persons as part of this government of National Unity, and many people are talking about how bad the present government is in St. Kits, how could they be supporting this behaviour and how can people not speak out? And I decided I will speak out! I am the leader of the NRP but I am also a Nevisian.
“We don’t have a culture of this in Nevis and we certainly set an example by trying to embrace people rather than to send people home. And I felt the need to bring to the attention of the Nation today by refusing to go to Parliament.”
Parry said he could not indicate whether or not he would take this particular action again, but noted that he is making other considerations.
