Thursday, March 5th, 2015: - The term ‘A.D.’ comes from the Latin term ‘Anno Domini’, which means ‘The Year of Our Lord’ or ‘The Year of the Lord’. It is a term that is used in reference to calendar years since the birth of Jesus Christ. The years before the birth of Christ are referenced by the term ‘B.C’ which means ‘Before Christ’.
So we are now in the Year 2015 A.D.
But for me this year does not only mark the 2015th anniversary of the birth of Christ. It also represents the year in which we finally said “Adios, Douglas” (A.D.) and the year which marks the beginning of a new era of life in St. Kitts & Nevis ‘After Douglas’ (A.D.)
And it’s good that in the 2015th anniversary of the birth of Christ, we have put ourselves in a position to celebrate the death of disrespect by our country’s leadership for the Constitution and the Rule of Law, and the death of the Denzil Douglas brand of ‘one-man-ism’ and leadership by manipulation, divisiveness, abusiveness, crudeness, crassness, recklessness and flippancy which so terribly and increasingly diminished and disgraced the people of this country over the last twenty years.
An ugly cloud seems to have been removed, and a breath of fresh air and fresh hope now blows across this land.
We need to inhale it deeply into our hearts and souls so that we might be energized to do our parts in ushering in a new and better St. Kitts & Nevis. And while I encourage all of us to inhale, I especially invite those of you who supported Douglas and his candidates at the polls to take the deepest breath of this fresh air and fresh hope into your hearts and souls, because what happened on February 16, 2015, is, and has to be, intended for your benefit as it is for those who voted for Unity.
Some of you supported the Douglas regime because you were enjoying an unfair advantage, whether through land deals, concessions, contracts, positions, or something else. This is no secret. And while you were enjoying that unfair advantage, others, and the country as a whole, were being victimized. Today, all that you need to do is to accept, even quietly to yourselves, that you were benefiting in an environment of grave injustice, and to appreciate that everybody deserves a fair chance, including you. That’s all: a fair chance.
You now have the opportunity for your epiphany.
And there’s absolutely no reason, in this year, 2015, Adios Douglas and After Douglas, why you shouldn’t be able to do well, and even better than you were doing before under the unjust system, provided that you truly believe in fairness and that you truly respect and love this country and its people.
Some of you supported the Douglas regime because you mightn’t have been aware that you were being used, abused and victimized, plagued by low self expectation and high dependency. You know who you are. A number of you, while you paraded with your Full Confidence paraphernalia and proclaimed victory even before the day of reckoning, had little or no idea when your next pay check or even your next dollar would come from, living lives always ‘behind the 8 Ball’. Yet you soldiered on in blind faith and vain hope, guilty of believing that electing Douglas for a fifth term would somehow work miracles for you that didn’t and couldn’t be worked during his previous twenty years of reign over you.
The fact that some of you expected different results from the same people and using the same approach is sad testimony to the callousness and the success of the agenda of the Douglas regime to pull your thinking caps from your heads and your self-respect and dignity from your hearts and souls.
You were, in effect, no different from those who proclaimed to be Labour to the bone and to be unable to vote for anybody but a Labour candidate, when all it took was a little observation and honesty to recognize that nothing about Denzil Douglas and his regime was Labour. Both sets of you got it wrong. And I say that with respect, and with no ill-will whatsoever.
And while people who did not support Douglas were simply victimized, you all suffered more because you were deceived, manipulated, abused and victimized.
But this is 2015 A.D. Adios Douglas, and After Douglas. Time to let go of the past and grab on to the future.
And lest you think that this breath of fresh air and fresh hope is blowing across St. Kitts & Nevis only, you’re wrong.
Since the election, I’ve been getting phone calls, emails, and other messages from all over the Caribbean, and they’re all saying the same thing. They feel that what happened here on February 16, 2015 A.D., has produced a breath of fresh air and fresh hope across the entire Caribbean region. They too want fresh starts in their countries. They want to be relieved of the politics of divide and fool, and they’re now more determined, and will demonstrate their insistence on live in modern and true democracies.
Old time, Douglas-styled politicians and parties, are destined for the same fate.
Once again, Folks, you, the people of little St.Kitts & Nevis have set the bar for governance in, and the political culture of, the Caribbean, as your forbears had done in the Buckleys Riot of 1935.
But this time it was different. One Caribbean friend told me that the people in his country would never have accepted the abuses meted out to them by the Douglas regime over, especially, the last two to three years. He said that there would’ve been riots and mass unrest.
He said that he found the faith and self control of our people incredible and amazing, especially in the days leading up to the election, on election day itself, and during the two days after the election.
Again he said that his people would’ve erupted.
But he said:”Dwyer, not a drop of blood was shed as the people of St. Kitts & Nevis got rid of Denzil Douglas! Incredible!!”
That’s the difference between 1935 and 2015. Three were killed back then, and several injured. This time around, not a drop of blood!
Wow!
And the breath of fresh air and fresh hope has even reached North America and Europe. One reliable contact of mine in Canada told me that two private sector persons had separate meetings with a high-level official in the Canada shortly after that country had ended our visa-free travel privilege, and that the official told the two of them that if the corruption is cleaned up in our Citizenship by Investment Program, then Canada can start to re-examine the matter.
The Canadian official felt that there was hope under the Unity Administration, where perhaps none had existed before, but he cautioned that all concerned would have to be patient, because much has happened.
This, like a multitude of other challenges that form the legacy of the Douglas regime, is given a chance (note that it cannot happen overnight) to be remedied, now that we’re in 2015 A.D.
Adios, Douglas! And welcome one and all to the fresh air and fresh hope of life in St. Kitts & Nevis After Douglas.
2015 A.D.
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