By NextGen SKN
BASSETERRE, St Kitts – A domino effect or chain reaction is the cumulative effect produced when one event sets off a chain of similar events. The phrase “All fall down” is appropriate in such a context.
This is exactly what is happening now to Dr Timothy Harris-led, Team Unity government which is set to be the first one-term government in the history of St Kitts and Nevis. When this happens, Dr Harris will not only make history, but he will also be history. The straws that broke the back of Dr Harris (Mr Big Stuff) is a double-whammy.
The first blow was yesterday’s Court Action by the NextGen SKN – St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) against the State of Emergency. So far Team Unity has had it – all its own way. The State of Emergency curtails campaigning by the NextGen SKN labour party but does not have any effect on canvassing by Dr Harris and his candidates or force any action by the police. “If we try to do that,” a labour front-liner said, “is lockup for us.” In fact, yesterday the police drove Marcella Liburd and her supporters off the streets but allowed Jonel Powell and a large crowd of paid hangers-on to proceed without impediment.
The second grievous blow was that the national airwaves of ZIZ is now open to the NextGen SKN labour party. Within an hour of the case being filed, ZIZ invited the labour to be part of the election programming.
The previous damages that caused the meltdown and the domino effect now taking place were individual downfalls and failures in all the constituencies.
Team Unity is now Team Mutiny as its supporters are breaking ranks and coming back to Labour. Sam Condor was the first and most prominent but not the only one. There has been a tidal wave of desertions that are accelerating the domino effect.
Yesterday was made worse for Dr Harris because he tried to say that the NextGen SKN labour candidate in #1, Geoffrey Hanley, was a US Citizen and not entitled to run as a candidate in this election. When he saw Geoffrey’s renunciation certificate, Dr Harris almost fainted. In the meantime, Ian Liburd, the incumbent, Team Unity Candidate defending against Dr Hanley, has Dr Harris in hot and deep-water with Pier No. two, said to be breaking down faster than London Bridge.
While the threat of Jonel and Lindsay being disbarred precipitated an election before their trial date, neither can escape what the Judge said in their trial about their ‘misappropriation of monies belonging to their client and also the breach of their fiduciary duties and duty of trust owed to the Claimant’. The Judge was clear that they had both engaged in ‘conduct that constitutes professional misconduct’. This means that effectively Dr Harris is going to lose #2 and #4 especially as the two labour candidates, Marcella Liburd and Steve Wrensford are people of proven integrity.
Worse, in the case of #4, in addition to the prospect of Grant losing his licence to practice law, the people there have pointed out that Grant is a “high-flyer, if only on other people’s money, and gives the top positions and directorships to his rich drinking buddies”. Nobody from #4 has ever been put on a board, especially the ‘Frigate Bay board’, and very few, if any, have ever got work in tourism through Grant.
Dr Harris thought he knew Shawn’s lack of capacity and Carnival fixation so he refused to make Shawn the minister of finance and instead put him in Education and Sports. What he did not realise at the time was that Shawn’s tendency to Play The Mas’ does not allow him time to do anything else. Shawn’s Constituency office was closed for years. Shawn’s monthly PAM meetings were abandoned. As everyone in St Kitts knows, Shawn is “scandal-prone”.
This means trouble for Dr Harris who is desperate to win the election by “hook” or as some people believe by “crook” (the hooked staff of a shepherd).
While Dougie took back Sam Condor and the labour supporters greeted him with open arms, that will never happen or be allowed when Dr Harris loses. End of the line, baby! Dougie is “Mr Nice Guy” but Dr Harris and his seemingly “nepotism and corruption” are unforgivable.
