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.