PM responds to Leader of the Opposition comments
By Terresa McCall
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
~~Adz:Right~~ BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LEADER of the Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis, Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas has taken issue with a number of statements made by the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Mark Brantley, during the Budget debate that took place last week.
During Brantley’s presentation, he accused the government of not placing enough focus on the issue of crime and violence with a view to positively affecting the number of criminal acts that take place n the country.
Brantley also said the approximate $9M increase allotted to the Ministry of National Security is not enough and his expectation was that more resources would have been channelled into that ministry. The St. Christopher and Nevis 2009 Budget, he said, should have been dubbed a crime budget.
In an effort to strengthen his proposal, the Opposition Leader recalled the names of the 23 individuals who lost their lives to acts of violence during this year. He also made mention of statistics which rank St. Kitts and Nevis as the second most murderous country in the world.
Making specific reference to Brantley’s reading of the 23 murder victims, Prime Minister Douglas accused him of “trying to win favour from the voters in Nevis” by engaging in “his partisan political style...”
PM Douglas said, “...just simply painting a gruesome picture of recalling the murders that we’ve had and the criminal activities over the last 12 months is not going to be good enough. That is not going to put him in good stead with the people of Nevis. He makes all kinds of wild statements accusing the government of not making enough funds available to the police. Can he count? Can you reckon as the old people would say?”
The Prime Minister indicated that the $9M increase given to the Ministry of National Security cannot be viewed as the accurate representation of the government’s commitment to the crime fight.
“As several members have made the statement before me...you can’t just simply look at what has been allocated to the Ministry of National Security and say it’s the sum total of the government’s commitment in fighting crime and violence. That is not how it is done. He is a lawyer, he is suppose to be more analytical than that because throughout the entire budget..., as several of my colleagues have said over the last few days, look at how much money has been given to each ministry; increases on whatever allocated for 2008 to ensure that there is a strong social component of the government’s programme and policy in the fight against crime and violence in St. Kitts and Nevis.”
During Brantley’s presentation he made extensive reference to what he described as government’s neglect of Nevis and its needs, as they relate to crime and violence.
In response to this, Dr. Douglas said Brantley is simply making an attempt to divide the people of St. Kitts and Nevis. He further explained with this, Brantley would not succeed.
“I want to make the point further that coming here in this House and trying to create a gulf between the people of St. Kitts and the people of Nevis will not get the leader of the Opposition, the Member for Nevis Number Nine anywhere in his political career, because that is old time politics. Fighting crime and violence in St. Kitts and Nevis is not a simplistic matter...The issue of crime, fighting crime and violence in St. Kitts and Nevis cannot be looked at in the way that the Member Nevis Nine, the Leader of the Opposition is attempting to do.
“It cannot become a...political football in attempting to divide the people of St. Kitts and the people of Nevis. It’s not going to work...The issue of National Security, the issue of crime and violence today in this country is too serious a matter for it to be dragged into Nevis versus St. Kitts, party politics and island politics. You must have a united front if we are going to seriously attack the question of crime and violence here in St. Kitts and Nevis.”
The PM acknowledged that there are “serious problems” facing national security and the fight against crime and violence in the Federation, but explained that “this government and this Budget is well on target to fight the serious challenges, the social challenges that we have in our country today...”
