BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - "I stayed in the Labour Party Government...stayed in the administration for as long as I had confidence in him. And when it had become crystal clear that the dictatorial approach of Dr. Denzil Douglas would not change, I began to publicly indicate that to the country by speaking out on those issues."
This was what dismissed Minister Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris said in response to a question at a press conference held this morning (Apr. 9) by the "Elected Majority".
The Elected Majority comprises the Opposition along with the two former Cabinet Ministers, Harris and Hon. Sam Condor, all of whom with Sen. Vincent Byron Jr. had boycotted the Budget 2013 Presentation that was also held today.
The question posed to Harris and Condor was their reason for remaining a part of the Labour Administration for so many years and knowing that Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas was not doing right for the country.
"I have no qualms about having served in an administration in which I was a committed member and of which I served loyally," Harris said.
He stated that they all have a conscience and that there were "governance issues about which we were concerned and we attempted to address them within. When the departure came, it came after prolonged intervention, retreats after retreats in which we attempted to get the Prime Minister to come back onto us".
Harris recalled one convention where he said a former Minister raised an issue of La Valle in which he questioned how the government could incur a debt of over $200M with respects to that area and then make a comparison between the debt and the number of houses that could have been built for the "ordinary people".
"We are doing the right thing...the right thing for the people of this country, but as much as we have been loyal to the Labour Party - in fact we continue to be loyal to its philosophy and its values - our greatest duty as a citizen is loyalty to our country and on that note ourselves and Dr. Douglas could not agree.
"I was publicly fighting for the farmers; for them to get a better deal for them to get access to one of the largest hotel facilities in this country. My Cabinet colleagues were saying to me, 'How dare you upset the man?' and I had to say, 'I am ashamed of you all to come here in Cabinet to ask me not to stand up for the farmers who had to take out its insurance to the value of $1M to have access to that facility and you are defending a billionaire entity against the ordinary farmers.’ And I took that cry through and through the country, notwithstanding the disagreement and the threats coming from Prime Minister in relation to that matter," Dr. Harris explained.
Harris said he spoke out "at great risk" when the Land for Debt Swap was being debated in Parliament, adding that he also spoke out about the disrespect it was to the elected members not being aware of which lands were to be a part of the deal until the debate had begun.
"We spoke out and I said to him [PM Douglas] that I was speaking because truth had to be told. And I said to him, 'If I perish let me perish because truth had to be told.’ The truth that we were turning the philosophy of the party which we had served for so long upside down."
Harris claimed that PM Douglas was taking over eight square miles of land in St. Kitts and Nevis and making them available "for his friends in Dubai and Iran and wherever else he has them, because he is concerned about foreign interest in supremacy to the interest of the local ordinary people".
"And I could not stand, however loyal I was, knowing that the people of Lodge, Molineux or elsewhere for years waiting to have applications even being answered and seeing hundreds of acres of lands being taken away from them..."
The former Minister said that one should look around and observe the many plots of lands that are left undeveloped and question how many people could afford to purchase those lands, and one would see that what the Prime Minister was doing was almost criminal in terms of the consequence for denying the citizens the right to a piece of their history and patrimony.
"I have no regrets then for speaking out about that. I believe when a man speaks from his conscience and from his heart, the country and a people listen and a people respect that. I did what I had to do on behalf of the people. The fight of the people has always been mine..."
Dr. Harris said that he has been fighting throughout his career within the Douglas Administration for justice, especially for poor people.
He said he fought against, among other things, one of the Senators wanting to increase the weekly fees being paid for Day Care.
He noted that the public would not be aware of some of the resistance both he and Condor put up against Cabinet matters, but ensured that they were significant.
"I have no remorse over the action that I have taken; the consequences to me, the suffering, the victimisation by Dr. Douglas because I spoke truth to power. I needed to speak it publicly!" Dr. Harris said.
