BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - "WE are ready for a good government. We are ready for a government that will listen to its people and deliver to its people. We are ready for something different to what they have, and I know that we will deliver to you the people of St. Kitts and Nevis."
This was the promise made by the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris, Leader of the Unity Construct - the political union of the People's Action Movement (PAM), Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) and the People's Labour Party (PLP).
Dr. Harris, in his speech at the Unity Launch on Thursday (Sept. 26) to thousands of citizens and residents of St. Kitts and Nevis, made several promises that include the removal of Value Added Tax from certain items, the reformation of the SELF Programme and the abolition of pre-school fares, should the Unity Team win the next General Elections.
He said that too many people in the Federation are lacking the basic needs for comfortable living and promised that the Unity Government would do their best to change that.
Harris said that Unity intends to advance the people of St. Kitts and Nevis and would start with the very young children by "giving them an opportunity for a fresh start and a head start in life".
He told the crowd that under a Unity Government, the fares that parents pay for their children to attend pre-school would be abolished.
"As part of our genuine effort to re-evaluate and to give our young people a fresh start of hope, we will in our first term abolish the fees to the pre-schools. We will make it free from pre-school to secondary in our country. We will do that for the very young, so very early they can get themselves ready for learning and education.”
Dr. Harris also promised the people that the Unity Government would, in its first term in office, remove the VAT from medicine, food and school supplies.
"We care, and because we care we made the move to do something for you. I promise and we in Unity commit that in our first term we will pull VAT off food and medicine. We will bring you relief and we will remove it from educational materials."
He also pledged to reduce poverty within the Federation.
"I lived [in] poverty and I understand the dehumanising conditions of poverty, and I pledge as the Leader of Team Unity and the Leader of the Nation, we will work overtime to alleviate poverty in St. Kitts and Nevis."
Dr. Harris claimed that the present government has cut back on the SELF Programme which, he said, was introduced years ago by the Rt. Hon Dr. Kennedy Simmonds to assist those parents who could not afford to purchase all of their children's school supplies.
He said that parents are no longer annually receiving school clothes and text books for their children.
"If you have four children, I am told you're only getting for two. And we say that that is making a mockery. And so we want to reform the SELF Programme to ensure that every needy child, they get their books and exams paid for by the government as part of our contribution to the development of the society of St. Kitts and Nevis."
Dr. Harris called on the people to help him, along with the Unity Team, to build a better and more prosperous St. Kitts and Nevis.
"The government of which I will be a part will be an honest government, a decent government, a transparent government, a hard working government and we will be working, not for houses in Dubai, not for condos on the Peninsula road...we will be working our hearts out for the people of St. Kitts and the people of Nevis.
"We are your servants and we will serve you faithfully and we will serve you fully; no part-time service," Dr. Harris promised.
