BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Hon. Mark Brantley’s suggestion that the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) had a hand in orchestrating a boycott of Nevis’ Culturama J’Ouvert was described by the party’s Deputy Chairman - the Hon. Nigel Carty - as “low” and “cynical”.
Carty lashed back at Brantley during an interview with this publication in which he denied that the SKNLP was in any way involved in any supposed boycott.
“People are free to do what they want to do. I am saying as the Deputy Chairperson of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party that the Labour Party has not been involved directly or indirectly, either with itself or with others, to try to undermine what’s happening in Culturama.
“People can do what they want to within the scope of the law. Given that some person could have been turned off by the remarks that have been made by Mark Brantley, persons took it upon themselves to say they are going to have their own thing. That is exclusive of anything or any understanding that may exist between the government of St. Kitts and that of Nevis.”
Also referring to Brantley’s claim as “ridiculous”, Carty explained that the people of St. Kitts and those of Nevis are free to express and enjoy themselves within the perimeter of the law.
“The claim is a ridiculous one. I think Mark Brantley needs to understand that the people of St. Kitts and Nevis are all independent people who can think for themselves. And when a Minister or someone operating in his capacity makes the kind of statements he has made in the past to drive a wedge between the people of St. Kitts and the people of Nevis and people take their own action…should resort to the cynical as to suggest that there is some motive or some collusion among political parties to boycott what has been an annual event in Nevis. In my view, it is very low, very cynical…”
Asked specifically if he thinks it was right or wrong for an event to be held in St. Kitts on the same day that Culturama’s J’Ouvert jam was being held in Nevis - especially after both had a decades-old agreement that one island would not hold conflicting events when the other was celebrating its premier festival and vice versa – Carty said it was neither wrong nor right.
“There is nothing right or wrong about that is particular. Citizens of the country are free to do whatever they wish to do within the scope of the law. When Mark Brantley exercised his freedom to make statements which undermined the unity which had existed between the people of Nevis and the people of St. Kitts around the issue of Culturama and around the issue of Carnival, then people cannot restrain from their right to organise anything which they feel is in their own interest and they want to participate in. That is not an issue that is wrong or right. That is a fundamental right (and) a fundamental freedom which people have to organise and to engage in activities that are allowed under the law.”
He said whatever the “on paper” agreement which the governments of both islands may have had, it “cannot restrain the people from doing what is ordinarily their liberty to do. I can’t blame people who take the positions that they have taken. All I know and all I’m concerned about is that people don’t violate the rights of others. That’s my concern.”
