BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THOUGH in no great detail, Unity advocate and Leader of the People’s Labour Party (PLP) the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris has highlighted a number of areas of assistance which a proposed Unity Government would provide for the people of St. Kitts and Nevis if elected to office.
Harris at the time was speaking at his party’s public meeting held last evening (July 31) at Molyneaux before a large crowd of supporters.
“We want to bring a better life to the people of St. Kitts and Nevis. All of our people can do well and we can work towards that. So we have a plan to help (everybody).”
Dr. Harris indicated that a Unity Government would: provide assistance to craft producers with a view to developing their trade to the point where they could sustain themselves from it, some form of relief from the exorbitant cost of electricity and relief to pensioners who are unable to sustain themselves with the pension they currently receive.
The PLP Leader also mentioned an “enterprise fund” which would be designed to provide assistance to “industrious young people who are not coming to beg the government for no work, but to have an idea who want to set up something to help themselves…
“We want to help the young people. All they need is a little bailout…a little bailout could go a long way for them to buy modern equipment and appliances so that they can be state-of-the-art and they can get better business, more business, more money and take on people from their community.”
He said the young people are the “future of the country from which increased production and productivity would come “that will create a better St. Kitts and Nevis. We want to empower you”.
Mention was also made of providing assistance to agro-processors and fishermen.
“We want to assist the agro-processors, the people with their jams and jellies and sauces. They are people who want to stand on their own two feet, who want – as it were – to work in their time and work at something they love. Our government should really be reaching to the agro-processors. We have some good ones…we have people who have become international…
“And the fishermen…we in Unity want to help them, we gun help them with the engines for their boats, we will help them in doing repairs, we will ensure when they lose their boats due to hurricane and rough seas that we will provide them a grant to assist them to start again. So the fisher folks in Dieppe Bay, vote Unity in your self-interest. The fisher folks in Old Road, vote for the unity candidate….”
The former member of the St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party said the Federation has immense potential and that it would take a Unity Government to usher it into the realisation of these possibilities.
“I believe our country can be the best country in the world, the best small country, and we can work to make it happen…Unity is for all of us. Unity starts with you and it starts with me. Unity is not asking Tim to become a PAM, it is asking Tim to take a stand for the country. It is asking Tim to recognise in PAM, in CCM there are people with talents and skills. And just as we sign on the church choir to the glory of God, so too we the citizens can come together despite the fact that we are in different political parties and do the best for our country if we genuinely love it.
“Unity tells me that I must work fairly and I must represent everybody so that the citizens can say of all the countries, be they east and west, we love our land St. Kitts and Nevis the best.”
