By:FAIR SHARE FOR ALL

Those of us in Labour who know Timothy Harris were not at all surprised at what he said and what he did not say at his town hall meeting last Sunday.

What Timothy does not seem to realise is that this is 2018.  Not 2013, 2014, 2015 or even 2016.

After having been elected on the promise to lock up Douglas for every conceivable ill under the sun, and full three years after the only person who seems to be embroiled in scandal after scandal after scandal is Timothy, the intelligentsia who were expecting so much from him feel nothing but shame and embarrassment.

All the NGO’s, all those who portrayed themselves as the conscience of the society, all those who jumped unto the Unity bandwagon have nothing but shame and embarrassment to show for their conviction that Douglas was wrong about Timothy.

SHAME AND EMBARRASSMENT.

I know this because many of them have come to me in disbelief.  Total disbelief.

They let the 16 million US/EC slide.  The Stem Cell, the Herpes, the Ren Baio scandals all were nine days talk.

But shoes and watch?

SMH!

That one is too much.

And the lot of noise on Sunday did nothing to make them feel good.  Ask Dwyer.

These people wanted answers.  Not theatricals.

And after that performance, I do not think that there is any one in the federation who doesn’t belief that the T in TUIA stands for first and second Timothy.

I have never heard a leader of a government abuse his cabinet colleagues like that.

Muddoh!  Watch ponwud!

Mouth open and tory jump out.

OMG!

Timothy let the whole world know that if it wasn’t for him, the clincher, Lindsay, Patches and Hamilton would never have won their seats.

But unlike Patches, who has remained unwaveringly loyal to him, strong in his support, Lindsay, Jonel and Mark preferred to hold secret meetings in a boat to try to unseat the “embarrassment” at the top.

I hear that positions were already been allocated.  Prime minister.  Deputy prime minister and attorney general.

According to Timothy, suits had already gone to be dry-cleaned for them to be sworn in as prime minister.

But he reminded them that none of them who were scheming could hold a candle of correction to him.

In other words, all of them in Team Unity just as corrupt as he.

Sad state of affairs for a government.

I was watching Wendy’s and Sidney Osbourne’s faces when he was making these pronouncements.  And while Mrs Huggins was nodding in agreement during Timothy’s tirade, Wendy and Sidney Osbourne seemed more than a little uneasy.

All when he was recounting that the members of PLP were asking him if he could trust them, i.e. PAM and CCM, Wendy and Sidney did not look happy at all.

He trusted the word of Vance, he said.  To date, he has not said that he trusted the word of Shawn, Lindsay or Eugene.

He trusted Patches for his strong support. But nothing of Mark.

And unlike other town hall meetings where the whole cabinet is present and apologies are made for those who are not, Timothy made it a point to let the whole world know that the ministers present were his supporters.

What a scalamity!

What classlessness!!

But one just cannot miss the irony.

Timothy, in three short years, has to be warding off a revolt of sorts against his prime ministership.

The same Timothy who was a main player in the revolt to unseat Douglas.

Douglas, after fifteen years.  Timothy, after three years.

Oh dear!  Oh my!

What goes around really comes around and harder.

Who would have thought that after three short years, members of the Team Unity cabinet would be trying to oust the leader because they just can’t take another scandal?

All who thought that Douglas grudged Timothy and wanted to hold on to power now see why Douglas was trying to keep power away from him.

We, in the federation, are faced with a serious problem.   But the solution to the problem is quite simple.

We have to vote out this “embarrassment” in the upcoming general elections.

Timothy himself has admitted that none of his cabinet colleagues has the moral authority to chastise him for his many wrongdoings.

In other words, none in the Team Unity cabinet is good for this federation.

So when those who went away want to come back home, we must open the front door for them.  We must welcome them back with open arms.

We must show Timothy and the rest of Team Unity that we are worth more than a nice watch, a pair of shoes and a bellyful.

Over the course of last weekend and at the start of the week (Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 May), the St.Kitts-Nevis Labour Party met in Conference. Indeed, it was the Eighty-sixth (86th) Annual Conference of the political arm of the great Labour Movement since it started out in 1932 as The Workers League.

This year witnessed certain changes. The closed (or internal) session was held on one day, namely Saturday, while the open (or public) session was held on the Sunday. From all accounts the new arrangements were highly appreciated and welcomed by most everyone.

Conference 2018 assessed the organisational and operational changes which made over the past three years, and the efforts to improve our functioning were duly examined and their outcomes assessed. Efforts were assessed as having been fruitful.

There were overwhelming and wide ranging feelings that the organisational progress which made over the past three years have most beneficially improved the Labour movement’s functioning, and that such have indeed helped to set the party on the course to take back the government for the majority of people in our country.

Conference was visibly and deeply appreciative of the leadership given the entire process by Comrade Denzil Douglas, and speaker after speaker thanked him for his dedication to the party and for his outstanding role in bringing about the much needed improvements to our organisation and to its ‘machinery’.

That was well borne out by the great enthusiasm which was displayed as delegate after delegate called for the unanimous re-election of our beloved Comrade Leader, Dr. The Rt. Hon Denzil Llewellyn Douglas, PC, MP. Conference was well and truly satisfied that he is the fittest person to lead our great movement at this particular point in time.

Dr. Douglas has proven, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that he is the fittest person to lead our movement at this particular point in time.

Conference also demonstrated, unequivocally, a recognition that Comrade Dr. Douglas is also the person best suited to lead our beloved country out of the morass into which UNITIM has landed us.

His leadership in the immediate aftermath of the ignominious ‘Devil’s Island’ fiasco, the political turmoil of the early 1990s, the terrible natural disasters of the mid- and late 1990s, the closure of the ailing sugar industry, and our enviable and truly outstanding performance in dealing with the financial and economic crisis of 2008, are all most powerful indicators that he is the person best suited to once again lift us out of our present calamity and back on to the road of progress.

The fact that those opposite have been unrelentingly hammering away at what they want us to accept as ‘the need for Labour to get the rid of him’ is itself a testimony to Comrade Douglas’ effectiveness. It is ever so pleasing to observe that delegates to Conference did NOT fall for the misleading cries of those opposed to us.

Recognising the very critical juncture at which our nation stands at this particular point in time, Conference, in our assessment, acted boldly and decisively in electing to office the top officials who now have the weighty responsibility for our party’s national affairs, for keeping us on the roadway of preparation, and for welcoming back home all those who are desirous of returning to their place of origin. And what great choices they made.

It is most worthy of note that this year’s conference elected the first woman as our party’s Deputy National Political Leader, in the person of none other than our beloved Comrade Marcella Liburd. We congratulate her most heartily, and, being fully seized of her abilities, considerable experience, and unswerving loyalty (a critically important quality at all times), we are fully confident that she will once again deliver for our cause, as indeed she has in the past. We send her our very best wishes and hope that by now she is fully recovered from her most unfortunate encounter with the Virdee flu.

Also worthy of note was the election of our young comrade Dr. Terrance Drew as our party’s National Chairman. We wish him the very best in this new area of service, and are also fully confident that he will deliver for our organisation.

A full report on the outcomes of Party Conference 2018 will be published in due course, and, in the meantime, we congratulate everyone who has been elected to serve the St.Kitts Nevis Labour Party in any capacity over the course of the next year.

This is of particular importance, given the challenges which our nation faces at this point in time, challenges which are political, financial, economic, social and cultural in nature.

Last week we reminded you that since we lost office to SCHEME UNITY in February 2015 our country has been suffering from numerous political and governmental ailments which have caused pronounced declines in various aspects of our country’s affairs.

We reiterate that the most telling of these has been a leadership deficit which has caused a political paralysis. Many there are who do not want to admit it, but recent disclosures have served to underscore the point.

It is but a matter of fact that there is a very definite split in the government, not that there was ever really much ‘togetherness’ beyond their wanting to be in power for their own self-serving reasons. It will not be much longer before the political drift (about which we have giving many warnings) will become fully manifest. Most worryingly, and as we have cautioned again and again, that will lead to general instability.

Many of the grave dangers that we face, both as a people and as a nation, have now been brought into stark relief, just as we warned in times past.

Last week we pointed that in order to deal successfully with these threats and dangers ‘we MUST be well prepared, well organised, and well led’.

It is most gratifying that our great political party went into annual conference and cemented those three points. We are indeed well prepared, well organised, and, most assuredly, well led.

We are of the view that the nation at large will in time come to recognise the importance of Conference 2018, and will eventually become very grateful that The St. Kitts Nevis Labour Party is well prepared, well organised, and very well led.