Call for strengthening of OECS unity

Dr. Len Ishmael

ZIZ Newsroom, Basseterre, St. Kitts, August 16, 2012: OECS Director General, Dr. Len Ishmael, has noted the importance of strength in unity within the OECS block.

Speaking at a sensitisation workshop on Monday, Dr. Ishmael said that it was encouraging to see representatives from governments and oppositions coming together for the good of the region at the launch of the OECS Assembly.

This, she said, “shows real political maturity on the part of both the opposition and government sides across the region because they are led into the OECS assembly, not as one side and the other side, but as national delegates coming together in a regional forum to speak, debate and deliberate on issues of significance at the national and regional levels.”

She said that both groups have agreed to put the OECS agenda in a politically neutral zone.

She also said that the OECS has come of age and that while we must all be proud, the work must now begin.

Dr. Ishmael insisted that we must no longer subscribe to the “Us vs Them” mentality, persisting that we are “many islands, one sea, one space, one people.”