BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 29th May 2020) – “You can’t have people questioning your integrity after five years and think that’s ok. That’s not ok and my father will not be a part of that. He will not, not, not be a part of that… My father will not die a hypocrite.”
So said 33-year-old Terrence Zikomo ‘Ziko’ Condor, son of well-known public figure Sam Condor, who has publicly supported and touched the hot topic of his father’s decision to leave the Team Unity administration and returning his support towards the St.Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP).
The junior condor made an appearance on a live edition of Freedom FM’s ‘Issues’ programme aired on Tuesday 26th May 2020 which spanned over one and a half hours and told listeners that his presentation “is rooted in my father’s belief “ and that “I will never let anything compromise my father’s integrity.”
Condor also shared with listeners details of a near six-hour meeting between his father and SKNLP opposition leader and immediate former Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas which he also had attended two years after the Team Unity took office following the February 2015 general elections.
“We could have stayed out and that is a position that a lot of people have taken that ‘you guys are flip… flopping’ but as I said at the end of the day…every five years you look at where the country is, where we are going. You look at the two sides …who gives us the best chance of doing this. If you ask me, it is a question of competence and ability to accomplish things.”
According to him: “I have never been engaged this close to politics and I’m only being engaged because I decided I was going to the father to the meeting when he went and met with Dr. Douglas because he asked me to come. I am the architect of this too which a lot of people don’t know…”
Condor gave his view that the Team Unity construct will not last another five years citing the differences among its members.
“They do not get along…so many things that they don’t want to be associated with so I find it very hypocritical- especially the Prime minister- to talk like my father is confused about something or don’t know what he stands for or don’t know what he wants. We know exactly what we want, we know exactly where we stand and we know what we are about. This aion’t nothing personal with anybody; I don’t have anything personal with anybody.”
Grading the Team Unity’s government performance over the past five years, he highlighted the intent of work displayed.
“…you can’t let my father’s sacrifice be attached to a con; that wouldn’t suffice for me. The only thing that would suffice for me if they had come in here, put their head down [and] do the work. Put down your head for five years and show the intent. I’m not saying that you’re going to accomplish everything but at least show us intent. At the end of the five years, we must look back and say ‘boy they ain’t get to accomplish everything but I see the direction that they were going.’ That first term should have reminded me of Labour’s first term in 1995-2000.”
Addressing comments by critics levelled against Dr. Douglas in regard to his family’s renewed relationship with him, Condor commented: “The last five years, Dr. Douglas has shown my family more respect, empathy and consideration, and it’s going to be very difficult for me for you to convince me that a man like that is. It’s going to be difficult to convince me that a man that has had so much of a positive influence on a whole country and so many people have benefitted directly from him, small business owners.”
Condor who describes Dr. Douglas as a “political genius” continued: “He has looked after people; you can’t negate that. You can say whatever you want about politics right but I think people try to negate the fact that he did do what he did; the history is around you-the jobs, the hotels, the infrastructure is there for you to see…and so you can’t negate that because you feel like he’s somebody that you don’t like personally.”
Pertaining to the meeting with Dr. Douglas, he outlined: “He (Douglas) is somebody who has shown up. Two years after the election, he reached out to my father and said that he wanted to have a conversation. He was never comfortable about how things ended and they thought that with the way they came from and the relationship that they had and the legacy that they have built together –that they deserved to have conversation, and that conversation was almost a six-hour conversation between two real comrades, friends; they started this thing together. A six-hour conversation, my father walked with his pastor…”
Condor went on to say: [Douglas] was pursuing that [conversation]; he wanted to look across from him and say ‘Sam, whatever happened, it happened but we got too much history and we got too much respect for one another for us to not even have a conversation. There is honour in that. There is honour in a man that says ‘Boy Ziko, I went through ever possible emotion after the last election. I was hurt, I was depressed, I was angry at you and your family because for a long time I blamed you guys for what happened because I knew that movement only got validity and credibility when you guys went over there so I was disappointed that you did that but I found acceptance while I was in depression. Acceptance in two things – (1) That this did actually happen to me and I need to realise that and accept that and (2) I had a part to play in it; this didn’t happen by accident…I am a man too I have to take responsibility for my actions and what brought me to this point’.”