BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Members of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition are sticking to their guns in their boycott of what they deem an illegitimate government and an illegitimate Parliament, and earlier today they staged yet another walkout from the Federal Parliament.
Leader of the Opposition the Hon. Mark Brantley, Hon. Shawn Richards, Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris and the Hon. Sam Condor all attended today’s sitting of the Federal Parliament. However, after a prayer was offered and the House was declared to be in session, the men exited the proceedings without explanation to the Speaker of the House.
Speaking with SKNVibes, Leader of the Unity Movement and Political Leader of the People’s Labour Party, Dr. Harris explained that by attending this morning’s session the Opposition Members are no longer under threat of vacating their seat as is prescribed in the Constitution and rules of the House.
He further explained that they left the Assembly out of sheer refusal to participate in or debate any bill proposed by the “illegitimate Douglas government”, especially since, in their view, the 11-month-old Motion of No Confidence takes precedence.
“This was a continuation of our protest of the illegitimacy of the Parliament and the subversion of the Parliament to the dictates of the Executive. We continue to say that this is an abnormal situation in any parliament which would have a motion of no confidence pending for so long…
“This is the undermining of democracy and we - by participating in any Parliament session other than one that addresses the Motion of No Confidence - by our actions would be giving legitimacy to that which is already illegitimate and we would be inadvertently contributing to the undermining of democracy. And so we will not participate or engage ourselves in an illegitimate parliament, so we continue to protest. And walking out signifies our continuation of that process and our standing up on behalf of the people who have a majority of elected members.”
SKNVibes understands that Opposition Members the Hons. Eugene Hamilton and Vance Amory did not participate in the walkout because they are currently off island. This publication also understands that the Speaker of the House would have been informed of their absence beforehand.
Dr. Harris said they would also forego attending tomorrow’s special sitting of Parliament, which is being convened to recognise and honour 25 of the Federation’s outstanding youths.
He told SKNVibes that the Opposition is supportive of the youths of the land and has issued letters to each of them outlining its position.
“We have written to all of the awardees spelling out our position, congratulating them on the award. This is an important matter because we have to teach our young people about principle and there are times in their lives they would have to stand for particular things. Basically, they would get a good understanding of that. We are for youth, we are for youth development, we want them to have a good future in a healthy democracy and fully functional growing economy.”
