PM Douglas assures nationals country’s progress will continue, says SKN Labour Party will win fifth consecutive term
Basseterre, St. Kitts (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas says his governing Labour Party will win the next general election for a fifth consecutive four-year.
Speaking via telephone with Freedom FM `s Juni Liburd, Prime Minister Douglas said his former senior minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris and the PAM party that he now leads, “cannot stop the progress that the St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party is bringing to our country and whenever the elections are called, they will be defeated as they have been defeated four times in a row.”
Dr. Douglas who is in St. Vincent & the Grenadines to attend the 25th Inter-Sessional of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) said he has been well received in the Windward Island nation.
Ask to comment on the presence of Dr. Timothy Harris in St. Vincent at a time when the CARICOM leaders are in Kingstown, Prime Minister Douglas said the former senior government minister Dr. Timothy Harris is aware that the CARICOM Leaders are very serious people.
“What he is doing here is a mockery of what the procedures are at CARICOM and how matters get on the agenda but what Timothy Harris does not seem to understand is that the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are part of the Caribbean. They know that Timothy Harris is power hungry and is trying to become the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis without going through what are the normal procedures as outlined by our own party constitution and the normal procedures outlined in our constitution at the national Level,” said Prime Minister Douglas.
He said that the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been told in several interviews that he had on Monday morning that St. Kitts and Nevis continues to remain very positive and progressive despite the attempts of the Opposition to create problems in the twin-island Federation.
“I have outlined the tremendous progress that we’ve made in terms of the economic development and that growth has been very much up, the national debt is down, people are finding jobs and they are there at record levels. Civil servants are being paid on time and recently received an increase in their basic salaries and wages together with pensioners,” said Prime Minister Douglas.
Dr. Douglas said the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are not in any way displaying hostility to his presence.
“I have not seen it,” he said pointing out that he arrived in St. Vincent on Sunday night by LIAT and when he left his villa for the official opening of the Inter-Sessional on Monday morning he was unaware of any hostility.
“Only crazy people will make statements of that kind. I came in via LIAT out of St. Lucia, arrived at the airport went to the conference site and I did not even hear one protestor. This morning (Monday) I came straight to the conference Hall,” said Prime Minister Douglas, who reiterated that had been engaging the press and had interviews with CMC’s Peter Richards and local journalists.
Dr. Douglas, pointing to the hypocrisy of Dr. Harris, noted it was just a few weeks ago that Dr. Harris was critical of a St. Lucian-born citizen who he said ‘bang water’ to come to St. Kitts.
“It is very sad to see that he is now here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, now having to ‘bang water’ to come here from St. Kitts, but since that he can in some way give people of the Caribbean and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines wrong impressions as to what is happening in our country,” said the Prime Minister.
“The country remains calm. The country is progressing. In fact all of the CARICOM Leaders are very impressed with what is happening in St. Kitts and Nevis. So much that recently you have heard that the Jamaican Government is now considering doing what St. Kitts and Nevis has done by introducing an incentive programme for investors thus allowing them to access citizenship of Jamaica,” said Dr. Douglas.
St. Kitts and Nevis he said continues to be a leader in the Caribbean, “leading the region, leading the world with our economic development strategy.”
“This is what I believe Timothy Harris is upset about because despite all of their attempts in St. Kitts and Nevis to create instability, to destabilise the country, to rock and push back investor’s confidence in the economy, things continues to be positive and rolling forward,” said Prime Minister Douglas, the longest serving Head of Government in the Caribbean.