By Kennedy Earle Clarke — 15 September 2022
Dear reader, take a peek at the above quotation and analyse the events leading up to Independence. Neither Dr. Kennedy Simmonds nor Hon. Simeon Daniel believed in it. When PAM won three seats in 1980 and joined up with the NRP’s two seats in Nevis, making it FIVE to LABOUR’S 4, Dr. Kennedy Simmonds held his first Town Hall meeting in Sandy Point. An attendee asked him if this was a prelude to Independence and Dr. Simmonds replied, “Independence is the farthest thing from my mind!” Yet two years later he was speaking Independence and was very hostile to any Labour supporter who asked questions about it at Public Hall sessions.
At the Independence Conference in England, Nevis was able to receive all it asked for: Clause 113 ‘Secession for Nevis,’ but no mention of Secession for St. Kitts; Island Administration for Nevis, but none for St. Kitts; revenue from St. Kitts to be shared with Nevis, but no mention of any arrangement if Nevis discovered a Natural Resource. The St. Kitts Government was constituted as the Federal Government, making us the laughing stock of the world and distorting the real meaning of the word ‘Federation,’ which is supposed to comprise TWO or MORE independent states with their own governments and a Federal Government. Look at the Federal States of the USA, where each State has its own Administration and then there is the Federal Government? Our Federation is a complete distortion of the word ‘Federalism.’ Furthermore, the boundaries were changed in 1989, granting St. Kitts an additional seat (from 7 to 8) and an additional one to Nevis (from 2 to 3) — with the sole idea that Nevis must at all times be the tie-breaker. The HISTORY of St. Kitts-Nevis is like unto a recurring decimal, returning the same old answer every time.