BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AFTER weeks of hectic politicking by the ruling St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP), the People’s Action Movement (PAM) and the recently-formed People’s Labour Party (PLP), today there seems to be a deafening silence on the political platform.
Silence from the perspective of the two major political parties (SKNLP and PAM) that are no longer being regularly seen and heard on Thursday and Sunday nights in one of the eight constituencies in St. Kitts and on Fridays in Bank Street, Basseterre.
The same can be said about the PLP in Constituencies Seven and Three as well as in Bank Street.
The nation had seen marches and rallies under the banner of the Unity Government concept organised by the PAM in collaboration with the PLP. One such march was confined to a particular route but ended up on the restricted Church Street, where Government Headquarters is housed.
This particular march had seen the emergence of a number of officers of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force donning riot gear and carrying out crowd dispersal drills.
It had also seen the arrest of PAM’s former Leader Lindsay Grant, who the authorities stated had breached the erected barrier while others claimed he was dragged over it by police officers.
This chapter in the political history of St. Kitts and Nevis also saw a large crowd gathering on Cayon Street in front of the Basseterre Police Station demanding Grant’s release, and police officers, once again, were tasked to return the city to a state of normalcy.
He was charged with obstruction and subsequently released on bail.
Prior to Grant’s incident, Elvis ‘Jam Down’ Manners was charged with sedition.
On Thursday, December 6, 2012, Manners was arrested for allegedly displaying a seditious material on a placard during a PAM’s-organised “March To Save Our Land”.
It was reported that while on the march, he allegedly bore a placard with a masked man pointing a firearm at an image supposedly representing the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas.
Following Grant’s arrest there was an islandwide motorcade and a PAM’s meeting that was scheduled for Thursday, last, was not held.
It is obvious that there is a lull in these political meetings and there are many questions that need answers to this sudden development.
Is it because of the summer when many citizens and residents go overseas on holiday? Could it be as the old phrase says…“There is calm before the storm”? If the answer to the latter were in the affirmative, then what would the storm be?
Additionally, is it because of dwindling crowds at these meetings? Or is it that the SKNLP is satisfied to wait a little longer before making that special announcement that would involve every citizen and resident in the Federation?
Political meetings, especially those during election campaigns, are geared towards sensitising the ting public what the contesting candidates and parties aim to achieve whilst in government for their constituents and the country as a whole.
However, it is common knowledge that Caribbean politics can be very dirty when politicians take to the platform.
They sling mud, engage in character assassination and even let the skeletons out of the closet of their political rivals.
But what the public needs right now in this twin-island Federation, is for issues to be addressed and knowledge of the chart in which direction the country is heading for the achievement of sustained economic wealth for equitable distribution to the masses.
