By: Fair Share For All
Because so many people had been suffering for seven years of Unity, now that Labour is back in power, they want to see all who were responsible for their trauma put out on the street. I don’t have a problem with that, provided that these people were employed before 2012 and are past fifty-five. They are political appointees. They are unqualified.
We can’t fire people simply because they don’t support the party in power. It wasn’t right when they did it to us so it can’t be right if we do it to them. Back in 1995, we recognized that we couldn’t send home opposition supporters just because, so the government set out to create employment for their people. As a result, the Short-Term Work Experience Programme was born.
Crossing guards, nurses aids, teachers aids, just to name a few, all came out of this initiative. So as overwhelmed as the STEP may be, a way has to be found to create employment opportunities for the many supporters and others who need work.
The facts don’t lie. All major investments have taken place through the work of the SKNLP. Therefore, the government has to find the investors who can bring serious investment into the country. The government also has to continue the housing revolution that was interrupted by Unity. Many people are still houseless and getting a house from the government is the only way in which some people will ever own a major investment like a home.
Another housing revolution will stimulate the economy in a real way. Unity was using the PAP initiative to circulate money in the country. But construction creates employment, labour-intensive employment. When construction is booming, so many people benefit. And ordinary people become home owners.
Look at how the rural areas were developed during the housing revolution. It is difficult to tell where town ends and rural areas begin because the SKNLP government of 1995-2015, set out on a mission to ensure that no part of St. Kitts was left behind.
That is why the government has to proceed with alacrity in doing another slum clearance programme. Government must create the legislation needed to do something about all these abandoned houses all over the place. Even Greenlands has abandoned houses now.
The government could clean up Newtown and Irish Town in its first two terms. Start with the abandoned houses and offer soft loans to owners who want to upgrade their homes. Without any fear of contradiction, many homes that are being rented to the desperate, do not have running water, hence no flush toilets. In 2022.
The Ministry of Education can provide much needed construction work also. I notice that the construction of a new Basseterre High School and the Joshua Obadiah Williams Primary School is high on the agenda. Real construction needs to begin and not the sham perpetrated by Unity where the land on the aquifer was cleared, not once, not twice, but three times and nothing else was done.
The abandoned BHS will take some time to demolish, in my opinion. While many treasures and irreplaceable items have already been lost, thanks to all who oversaw the condemnation and abandonment of the school, the government just can’t go in with a bulldozer and knock down and cart away. Teams first have to go in to see what can be salvaged before my alma mater is demolished and rebuilt.
So the housing revolution and job creation have to be pursued immediately so that people can feel and see that something exciting is happening. There are some Labour supporters who haven’t had a real, steady job since 2015 and these people can’t understand why they are still essentially unemployed.
We all know that the SKNLP remained in power for twenty years. But we couldn’t have lasted that long if we had turned away all who didn’t support us. I maintain that all who got a letter since August 5, 2022, and all who will get a letter, know who they are. We are not soft and we are not afraid. But everything must be done decently and in order.