Editorial
Our country is currently suffering from the presence in office of a regime that employed lying, misleading, all manner of falsehoods and deceptions to get into office and remain there. Under them corruption has become the order of the day, and the people have been warned not to take their problems to the elected, but instead take them to the functionaries.
People everywhere are suffering from the economic and social effects of the current pandemic, and that is in addition to the naked rip-offs which have become the norm in virtually every aspect of life in our beloved homeland. People selling, those providing repair and maintenance services — plumbers, carpenters, masons, electricians, and such like — all seem to feel themselves fully empowered to indulge in all manner of trickery, deception, and outright stealing. Their behaviours indicate that they can do such things with impunity.
Undoubtedly they carry on like that because they have looked at the actions of those in office, and thus feel themselves “entitled” to indulge in whatever practices they can employ in order to scam their customers: “If those up there can get away with corruption why can’t we who are down here, and are the ones who put them where they are in the first place?”
What all of this means is that there has been a complete loss of trust in those holding office. Far more likely is the possibility that there was NEVER any trust to begin with. In either case this has resulted in the current situation wherein the vast majority of our people are so distrustful of those in office that they are reluctant to participate in a state-controlled exercise which is of the utmost importance to their good health.
Once a people have lost trust in an administration it is almost impossible to regain it. Such is the situation in which we, the people of St. Kitts and Nevis, now find ourselves.
To those holding the reins of power we issue the warning that they are attempting to go about motivating our people in a manner that will prove counter-productive. You have deceived our people in ways, and at levels, unprecedented in our history. The people of St. Kitts and Nevis are peace loving and law abiding. However, when pushed too far we react. A word to the wise should be sufficient.