PAM Deputy Leader refutes PM Douglas’ allegations

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DEPUTY LEADER of the People’s Action Movement (PAM) the Hon. Shawn Richards has refuted claims made by Prime Minister and Leader of the ruling St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas.

At his monthly press conference last week, Douglas blasted the former PAM administration for what he deemed their poor performance in the areas of housing and education. The PM also alleged that during PAM’s reign of power (1980-1995), persons who were not supporters of the party were victimised and discriminated against.

In rebutting Douglas’ claims, Richards highlighted several circumstances which seriously affected the former government’s ability to be as active as it would have liked. He noted this was especially true in the matter of land distribution, as unpaid sugar lands and the poor state of many schools were its top priorities.

“When PAM came into power in 1980, the first order of business was to pay for the sugar lands. 

They had to be paid for so they could be transferred to people so they could have title. The government could not distribute the lands otherwise, because in order to access a loan persons must show they have title. 

“Additionally, in 1980, sugar was still the mainstay of our economy. Certain quotas existed in our contracts with suppliers. In order to meet them, we had to keep a specific acreage of land under sugar production. As sugar became less profitable the quotas decreased; therefore, more lands were able to be taken out of sugar and put into other areas of development,” he informed.

PAM’s lone Parliamentary Representative (Constituency Number Five) also pointed to the dilapidated state of many of the island’s schools, which he said had forced the PAM administration to devote its energies to rebuilding and repairing them.

In response to Douglas’ boast that his Labour government had constructed 2 500 homes, Richards issued a number of pressing questions.

“If this housing programme has been so successful some 14 years after the National Housing Corporation (NHC) was established, why are there no accounts? How many persons are making the payments on a regular basis? We need to know NHC’s status. Every time the government wants to build homes they have to borrow money from Social Security. If they have built so many homes and you have persons paying mortgages for these homes, how is it you have no money to put into building additional homes?

The PAM Deputy also disputed the PM’s allegation that only PAM supporters received loans during the party’s leadership stint, and challenged Douglas to publish the full list of loan recipients during that time period.