Prime Minister's 2009 Independence Speech

Date: 9/20/2009

THE HONOURABLE DR. DENZIL L. DOUGLAS

PRIME MINISTER, ST. KITTS & NEVIS

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Fellow citizens, residents and friends Today, we commemorate and celebrate our twenty-sixth year as an independent nation.

As a nation we give God thanks for having successfully helped us to reach yet another milestone in the evolution of our beloved Federation We give God thanks to all those who, throughout the years and across the centuries, in ways great and small, made our Independence……our nationhood…..our sovereignty, possible.

Where did this march to Independence begin?

It began with enslaved Africans right here on St. Kitts & Nevis – our ancestors – loathing, resisting and breaking free from the brutality of the plantation slavery. It continued with the lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic that they so eagerly attended in the classrooms established for them by the Methodist and Moravian Churches.

It continued with Thomas Manchester, who knew the comforts and security of being a plantation owner, yet decided, as a matter of conscience, to side with the thoroughly exploited workers on these islands.

It gained momentum with the friendship societies and the labour unions built by our grandparents out of the keen awareness that in unity there is strength, and that united, nothing could stop them; and with Edgar Challenger and J Matthew Sebastian; with Joseph N. France…F T Williams and C. A. Paul Southwell…William Glasford and Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw - as they led AND stood shoulder to shoulder with the workers of these islands to demand, for all of us, and for generations yet unborn, equal rights….justice…..the vote…….options – at a time when our people had none.

But let us honour these men and women, now all gone, not only for what they did for us here in St. Kitts & Nevis, but for what they did for all our brothers and sisters all throughout the Caribbean as well. For it was their courage and bravery…..it was their vision and determination….it was their hard work and their tenacity that broke the iron grip of the St. Kitts-Nevis plantocracy. And it was their unprecedented impact right here at home that unleashed the outpouring of hope, and confidence, and determination, all throughout the region that led the other Caribbean islands, too, to stand up. To organize. To demand. To defend their God-given humanity. And, in the process, to march their own march….one step at a time, to self-governance. To independence. To nationhood. To the same type of nationhood that St. Kitts & Nevis attained on September 19th 1983, when our government was led by the Right Honourable Dr Sir Kennedy Alphonse Simmonds and, at the stroke of midnight, the Union Jack came down, the flag of our Federation was raised, and Sir Kennedy became our nation’s first Prime Minister.

Twenty-six years later, it is now a time for stock-taking.

And what, exactly, is it that we, in St. Kitts & Nevis, have done in that time?

During the time that my government has had the honor of leading this country, we have, in many ways, continued along the essential and visionary path that our forefathers charted so many years ago – but we have done so, and are doing so, at a far higher and a far more complex level.

I referred earlier to the fact that our ancestors understood the importance of assessing the VERY BEST TIME and the VERY BEST WAYS to break free of the cruelty of the plantation and the brutality of slavery. This break was so dangerous, so fraught with possibilities of destruction, that one could not make an impulsive dash, in an impulsive way. And now, today as well, hundreds of years later, timing, insight, and judgment are just as key to the wise running of a modern and complex economy. It was with this broad insight, therefore, that my government carefully assessed, as the years went by, the global trends regarding sugar prices; prevailing projections regarding international market access; the strictures being imposed by increasingly complex trading regimes, in general, and the rules and regulations of the World Trade Organization, in particular. We understood that these 21st century changes did not augur well for us as a people. We understood that they did not augur well for us as a nation. But like our ancestors before us, we watched, we waited, we planned, and then AT THE VERY BEST MOMENT, and IN THE VERY BEST WAY we moved with vision, with dispatch, and with acuity to restructure and rebuild our entire economy IN SUCH A WAY that there would be no social unrest…..IN SUCH A WAY that there would be no economic dislocation……IN SUCH A WAY that our people, conditioned for centuries to see sugar as the only means of survival would, now, broaden their horizons…upgrade their skills...and expand their options in the areas of technology…non-sugar agriculture…manufacturing…services. And this we did with all our energy, all the circumspection, yet all our might - because the utmost priority of my government is the protection and preservation of the stability, the viability, and the long-term prospects of this country and its people. For we know that at times of greatest challenge we must do as the Apostle Paul instructed us in Chapter 9 verse 26 in his first letter to the Corinthians that – We must run, but not with uncertainty. And we must fight – but not as one who beats the air.

So, we, in St. Kitts & Nevis, created an economy that, at the end of the day, has been able to withstand the rigors and the ravages of a global economic crisis that has wreaked untold tumult and trauma in many of the most powerful nations on earth. And we say this, not in a spirit of arrogance, but with the deepest humility and heart-felt gratitude that our efforts, on behalf of all of the people, have borne fruit. We are particularly pleased that, notwithstanding the manifold challenges that abound across the region and the globe, our National Debt as a percentage of GDP is falling, and our primary surpluses have reached record levels. My Government has stated over and over that our Debt was incurred to rehabilitate our hurricane-battered economy of 1990’s and early 2000’s and to pursue projects that would yield future economic benefits. The trajectory of our debt in recent years clearly demonstrates that we are now reaping those benefits.

We are also pleased that our stimulus package is effectively countering the dampening effect of the global recession. In particular, our package of assistance to Hotels and Restaurants has kept many of them open, to the benefit of the workers at these enterprises. Our YES programme has also contributed immeasurably to economic growth by directly training and gainful employment to over 1000 young people. Even more importantly, the YES programme provides these young people with knowledge, skills and experience that would significantly enhance their earning capacity for many years to come.

And there are other ways in which we are continuing, again in a far more complex realm, those wise and liberating steps of our forebears as they returned, repeatedly, to those Methodist and Moravian school-rooms. Except that instead of the reading and the writing that held the keys to liberation for them, we have identified as priorities, critical thinking…exercising our unfettered imagination…information technology…university training…a competitive edge in all matters professional as the keys to our liberation and independence – in the 21st Century. And that is why, in doing all within our power to ensure that the people of St. Kitts & Nevis can hold their own with anyone…..anywhere……any time, in doing all in our power to ensure that the people of St. Kitts & Nevis will, indeed, be masters of their own destiny, my government has invested almost $100 million in the minds, in the training, in the development, in the advancement of our nation’s young people in the form of Development Bank student loans, while at the same time providing more elementary schools, more high schools – like the new Saddlers Secondary School, more day care centers, and more early childhood training at the Fitzroy Bryant College than has ever been seen in our nation’s history.

SO – to recap:

We have created a new economy, and provided sound management of it.

And we have given every opportunity, for all our people, at all ages, to learn, to develop, to grow, and to become self-actualizing beings.

In addition, there is that essential area of health care. As far as the provision of health centers, hospitals, and general health delivery services are concerned, we have far exceeded anything that this Federation has every seen, and, indeed, we stand tall within the OECS. Consider, for example, the fact that next week, to be exact, St. Kitts &Nevis, the smallest nation in the western hemisphere, will be making history by having congenital cataract surgery performed on a one-year old child, right here at our very own Joseph N. France Hospital.

YET - despite all of this, despite the advances, and despite our very high socio-economic rankings, we, like many countries throughout the world, are now seeing a rage, a violence and a definite air of tumult and turmoil amongst certain segments of our young male population.

And this, as a people, we have to turn around. But let us not be like the five foolish virgins who sat around hoping that someone would bring the oil that THEY needed for their lamps to shine….waiting to see who else would assume THEIR responsibilities…….maybe even becoming surly and critical when there was no oil coming and they were stuck in the dark.

Any individual within the sound of my voice who wants St. Kitts-Nevis to be a shining city on the hill, must understand that it is up to him or her – as an individual – just as it is to all of the rest of us, to get up, to get out, and to get moving to make our own lamps shine – and our country glow. We are already a shining city on the hill in terms of telecommunications, health care, infrastructure, education, law enforcement, and so on. Where the weaving – and, indeed, the saving, of our social fabric is concerned, however, it is the values, the priorities, the involvement, and the caring of the entire society that will, in the end, determine the outcome.

Perhaps, my friends and fellow nationals, as we begin our twenty-seventh year as a nation, the time has come for all of us to ask not only what it is that each of us could be doing that might save our youth, but, more importantly, exactly what it is that we have – and have not – been doing that has been causing them to fall.

Again, Paul says in Corinthians that “If food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” As a people who want to end the rage, the anger, and the violence, it is incumbent that we begin to ask ourselves exactly what it is that we, as a society have been doing, or not doing, that is causing some of our young men to stumble.

Fellow government ministers – in the formulation of policy, perhaps the time has come for us to commit ourselves, as policy-makers, to ensuring that the “food” we offer will not only enrich the body but will also focus even more keenly on the stability and the elevation of the soul.

Opposition politicians – as we engage in the days and weeks ahead, let us commit ourselves to think less about what might be good for our respective parties, and more about what it will REALLY take to calm, to stabilize, to preserve the hearts and minds of our country’s young and to stay-on-the-straight-and-narrow.

Mothers, fathers, guardians – what is the “food” that we must give up so that our young men will no longer stumble? Is it our gruffness? Our indifference? The shrugs of which we have too many? The words of guidance, of which we have too few? The over-emphasis on the things that money can buy? The devaluing of listening….of caring…..of the stabilizing power of time? Just time – in all its simplicity - spent with children, and the young?

Teachers – If food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. You perform one of the most important roles in any society – NOT because you teach geography or woodwork or French. But because the children of any society spend more waking hours with you than they do with even their own parents. The psychological impact you have on any nation’s children, then, is enormous. What is the impact of steady encouragement? What is the impact of repeated ridicule? Yours is not an easy task, and we thank you for all you do. We ask you now, at this important juncture in our nation’s history, to re-commit yourselves to being positive influences in the lives of your students……and models of behaviour worth emulating……because your influence is far more vast - and far longer lasting - than you may know.

Shop-keepers, doctors, gardeners, artists: We have all accommodated so much that cause the young to stumble. Indifference. Callousness. Modern, corrosive, values. We need you – and all whom you know – to be aware of, to speak out, and to break the further encroachment of these toxins within our society.

And, young people: You, too, must play a part. You, too, have a responsibility to run away from those things that will make you stumble…and deny you the chance to fulfill your God-given potential: the media’s glamorization of thug culture…encouragement to spend every penny you have PLUS the pennies you do not have…..promiscuity….alcohol…..drugs….indifference. Put another way, you can believe me when I say that hard work and sacrifice will be abundantly rewarded. Good manners and patience are far more powerful than offensiveness and aggression. Countless opportunities have been put in place especially for you – developmental opportunities for your mind, for your body, for your soul. Step forward, young people. Make good use of all that this country has placed at your disposal. The lifelong benefits will be greater than you can ever imagine.

All our institutions have a role to play in advancing peace and stability in our fair land and in providing a climate in which our young people could grow and flourish as they put their many talents to good use for their own benefit and for the continued progress of our Nation. The importance of institutions in advancing peace and stability was amply demonstrated in the recent court hearings in respect of the constitutional issues surrounding the Constituency Boundaries Commission that were brought before the Court. In particular, the Court has been able to hear evidence from the Prime Minister, Government Ministers, Opposition Politicians and other prominent persons in our Society, with a view to arriving at a decision in a matter of critical importance to the entire nation.

Moreover, notwithstanding the heightened emotions of many of our people, the court proceedings were smooth and peaceful, and the authority of the Court has been respected by all of our citizens. In particular, in my role as Prime Minister, I have taken particular care to comply with all lawful requests of the Court and I have relied on the advice of an abundance of Lawyers, inside and outside of our Federation, to ensure that our Constitution Laws are respected at all times. I am also persuaded that the Attorney General of the Federation has the highest respect for the Court and the instructions of the Courts and I remain hopeful that the court processes would, in time, definitively establish his very high regard for the Court. In my view, the peaceful and respectful way in which the constitutional issues are being resolved speaks volume about the strength of our democracy. It demonstrates to our young people, that disputes can be settled peacefully by recourse to the institutions that we have created for that purpose.

Of course, the institutions of our society are as strong as the men and women who operate those institutions. Hence, as a Nation, we must recognize our Citizens who have played important roles in building our institutions and our Society. I therefore take this opportunity on behalf of all citizens, to congratulate Mr. Edmund Lawrence for having been awarded the Star of Merit for his outstanding pioneering work in Banking and Finance. He is truly a Giant of regional and international dimensions. I am also delighted to recognize the recipients of the Medal of Honour. These included Ms. Willa Franks-Liburd for her outstanding service in the Diaspora; Mr. Kitwana Tamboura for exemplary work in the field of Culture and Mr. Konris Maynard for his work in Calypso and Entertainment and for his outstanding example to young people.

Friends, residents, fellow-nationals: As I observe our people as they go about their business from day to day; as I think of all that our forebears endured; as I reflect on all the blessings that have been bestowed upon us as a people, and as I think of the challenges that await; as I think of the enormous power that resides within each and every one of us to be forces for good in this country, and of the thousands who will hear this address via radio, television, and the internet; as I think of all that I have asked of all of us, I am reminded by Barnabas or is it Paul or Apollos? in Hebrews 12:1, which states: “Since we are surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily beset us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

My fellow citizens residents and friends, let us run, with endurance, indeed.

I thank God for his many mercies upon St. Kitts & Nevis, and seek his continued guidance and protection in this our twenty-seventh year, and for every year, as long as we may live.

Thank you.