By Caribbean News Global contributor
BASSETERRE, St Kitts – A confident NextGen SKN team leader Dr Denzil Douglas announced that his St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) is prepared for victory to reverse the five years of pain and the lack of support from their government during the present and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic emphasised; “the earlier we regain power, the better it will be for the suffering people of St Kitts and Nevis.”
“We are confident of victory in the election,” Dr Douglas, leader of the SKN labour party explained. “When we heard that the date for the elections is June 5, his enthusiastic response was, “The earlier the better. We are ready.”
Asked about his party’s chances of winning, Dr Douglas said: “We are confident that our citizens have experienced enough hardship to know that in the past five years our country has been moving in the wrong direction under a despotic, nepotistic, incompetent and uncaring government,” he added, “The time has come for the people of St Kitts and Nevis to exercise the power of their franchise and elect the leadership they deserve with joyful expectation for a brighter future.”
Dr Douglas noted that when the labour administration left office in 2015, St Kitts and Nevis was one of the leading economies in the Eastern Caribbean and pioneered a success story in human development. He made a stark comparison between his party’s management of the economy and the damage to the country wrought by the Dr Timothy Harris government.
“We left EC$900 million in the treasury and almost one billion dollars in the Sugar Industry Diversification Fund. For the first time in the history of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the labour government returned almost 50 million dollars of unused funds while reducing our outstanding debt to the IMF to a little over 60 percent of GDP. We became the first country in the world to fully return an IMF loan,” said Dr Douglas.
However, commenting on the five-year Dr Harris term, Dr Douglas shook his head in sorrow and explained: “I am saddened by the situation of our country. We are now in the middle of the economic fallout from COVID-19 and it is clear to everyone that the Dr Harris government does not have the capacity, skill or competence to provide the necessary support and assistance to the thousands who have lost their jobs and the many businesses which are struggling to stay afloat.”
Dr Douglas lamented: “In their greatest moment of need, the citizens and residents of St Kitts and Nevis have nowhere to turn for help. The boasts by Dr Harris of surplus after surplus has been proven to be nothing but lies and propaganda. The reckless “looting” of the Social Security Fund, yet again, is ample testimony to that fiction.”
Dr Douglas confirmed that the COVID-19 Emergency Economic Stimulus Plan was inadequate and failed to reach the people who need it most.
He said bitterly: “Right now many of our citizens find themselves in dire poverty and the aid they thought they would get is not forthcoming. Our farmers are treated with scant regard as their animals die because of political discrimination in the distribution of funds. However, we already know what we have to do to get our country back on track and undo the damage that Dr Harris, his family, and friends have done to our economy.”
