By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 10th February 2022) — Well-known social and political commentator Dwyer Astaphan has given his view on what he saw as party-politics parading at a recent government low-income house hand-over ceremony in St. Peter’s, bashing the use of public resources like land and houses in order to bring political benefits to politicians.
Astaphan stated: “Providing and or facilitating housing for the people is a duty of government and it is a shame that citizens would be paraded and degraded in photo ops like this just to gratify insecure and self-promoting politicians. This parading and degrading seems to be part of the modus operandi of the present administration.” He pointed to the Integrity In Public Life Act section 27 subsection 1 saying: “Limp as that act is, it states that a public official commits the offence of the abuse of office if he or she uses public funds or other resources for private purposes including party political purposes. The land or the house is a public resource. Using them to promote party political gain is morally and ethically wrong, and it could be legally wrong as well. Under this same act, the punishment on conviction is a fine of up to $30,000 or imprisonment up to five years.”
He continued: “It is bad enough that this parading and degrading would take place in a public place, but Independence Square? This is the place where the slave ancestors of these very poor and needy people were bought, sold, chained and sometimes hanged — sacred and holy ground, a solemn memory to the blood suffering, inhumanity and death of the ancestors of these very people; disrespected and desecrated by self-serving leaders. These things reveal a cold, calculated and callous unconscionable mentality in the persons who are leading this country, and render them manifestly unworthy of leadership.”