BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, May 25, 2018 (PLP PR Media Inc.) — Premier of Nevis, the Hon Mark A. G. Brantley, who is a trained lawyer by profession, has debunked claims being peddled around that Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris was yet to answer to allegations of wrong doing that have been levelled against him from certain quarters.
Premier Brantley, who is also the Political Leader of the Nevis-based Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), one of the three parties in the ruling Team Unity Administration, told callers to his ‘On the Mark’ weekly call-in programme on Voice of Nevis (VON) Radio on Wednesday May 23 that Prime Minister had indeed said the allegations were untrue.
“I believe recently I heard him publicly say that the allegations against him are untrue,” the Premier told one of the two very persistent callers on that issue. “He (Prime Minister) said and he referred to legal opinion he said he had obtained, that said he had done nothing illegal – nothing wrong. He had accepted no bribe. He did not accept any gift in exchange for anything, and as a consequence he said that he had nothing to answer to.”
He told the callers that all people in St. Kitts and Nevis, it being a democratic country, may form one view or the other and he explained he believed that a lot of the views would be formed based on people’s political bent and political persuasion.
“But we perhaps sometimes jump to condemn our politicians because somewhere in our minds we feel that all politicians are bad,” lamented Premier Brantley. “Politicians engage in bad things, they going to line their pockets. And sometimes I myself have that difficulty and I like to remind people, speaking for myself, that I am poorer financially since I have been in politics. Politics is about service, it is about giving back, and the greatest joy that I have is when somebody I (helped) could do something.”
Commenting on the style of the Open Forum, the CCM leader said: “The Prime Minister has his own style (and) if you ask me a question of what he said and how he said it, I am not getting into that because the people that he was talking to there in the heart of his constituency I assure you if he runs tomorrow he is going to get 80% of the votes as usual in his constituency. So certainly he was speaking to his audience and the people there love him and they responded to that.”
Advising the caller that VON Radio’s motto is ‘Only the Best Will Do’ Premier Brantley said: “To use the words of Dr Denzil Douglas (former Prime Minister) sometime ago, ‘simmer down!’ Take it easy, let the situation unfold. The Prime Minister has made his position clear and I see no reason to doubt him having said what he has said publicly.”