Team Unity media Release
Media reports of several shootings over the past week resulting in the hospitalization of several persons including a businessman, tell us that our safety and security are under threat in our beloved St Kitts and Nevis. We are now classified among the ten most homicidal countries in the world. We are a small country but seemingly we are self destructing. Worst yet the victims of gun violence are invariably our youths who are gunned down in broad day light on our streets, on the playing field, in the privacy of their homes and even at the Joseph N France Hospital bullets are fired by criminal elements. The current Douglas administration has been silent on the issue of crime in our country. The silence of the Douglas administration is however deafening. Douglas and his cabal do not want to hear or do they have any solutions to the crime problem in our beloved country.
We are not safe anymore. The Police Force and security forces in general have become too politicized. We need to promote, transfer and reward police officers for their professional services not for their party politics. Leaders of law enforcement must be loyal to the law and our constitution not to any politician. Team Unity has repeatedly called for a broad and urgent response to violence and murder in our country. We must restore a culture of peace and self respect. Such a culture is to be nurtured in our homes, schools, government and work places. The soul of our nation is at stake! People should not be scared to walk the streets in their neighborhoods.
Law and order need a champion in St Kitts and Nevis. The Douglas administration cannot be that champion because it is morally bankrupt. The Douglas regime is an illegitimate, unconstitutional and undemocratic regime. Everyday this regime serially breaks the law and ignores our constitution. It has no moral or constitutional basis to govern. Justice Ramdhani’s ruling on 12 February 2014 makes it pellucidly clear that the right to govern of the Douglas regime has been invalidated by its failure to secure the support of the majority of elected members in the House of Assembly. The elected majority has made it clear that they do not support Dr Douglas as Prime Minister. Dr Douglas therefore ought not to be acting as Prime Minister. Common decency and Parliamentary tradition require that he resigns.
Team Unity will work hard to bring down crime, deliver swift justice, and create an economic turnaround plan that will inspire our young to an alternative path to prosperity where they can succeed without resort to criminal gangs, drugs and crime.
Team Unity will allocate resources to crime prevention. Making our neighbourhoods safer and building the confidence of law enforcement authorities and public at large.
Too many of our young people do not feel part of the prosperity of our nation. Too many of our bright, smart, able, brilliant young people feel outside the system. They feel that the wealth and prosperity of the island is unavailable and inaccessible to them.
This is why Team Unity cry is an urgent one. We have a plan that returns the power and prosperity back into the hands of the people and not a select few. All should be able to eat from the land of milk and honey. All must share in the prosperity. Opportunities must be available to all. Victimization must end.
Team Unity believes the best social programme is a job! That is why we have spent time listening to local and foreign investors – big and small investors, existing ones and new potential prospects. We will create the right environment for the investors to make money, create high paying jobs thereby creating a St Kitts and Nevis with robust economic growth which is job rich and development that is inclusive.
We also call on our parents, teachers, leaders, employers, churches, nonprofit organizations and radio stations to join us in restoring values of trust, peace, non violent conflict resolution, love, history and integrity. We in Team Unity do not care what party you are affiliated with, we need you. These values must be taught. We need all hands on deck. We in Team Unity do not care where you lean politically we need you. We must all work together to restore and protect the soul of our Federation. Our future is at stake.
Team Unity will draw on international best practices to empower our communities to organize and mobilize in order to improve the living conditions of residents in their communities and establish a law abiding culture.
We will revamp the educational and training programmes to enable greater self reliance by young people and greater interest in self employment, entertainment,tourism agro processors, technology, science, agriculture, floriculture and horticulture. We will implement Technology Island so our small businesses and entrepreneurs can have access to the World Wide Web and a larger marketplace.
We will not criminals terrorize our neighbourhood.
Team Unity will be tough on criminals.
Team Unity will increase the number of prosecutors, establish a Court to deal with gun violence etc and bring other solutions to solve crime. We will not let criminals terrorize our neighbourhoods where decent hard working people live, work and play. We will implement island stat which is a programme that uses technology to track where crime is being committed and will give feedback on who is committing the crime. We will then provide those areas with the necessary resource including law enforcement, socio economic, and infrastructure to stop the crime before it happens!
Team Unity understands that you cannot have a prosperous nation if you don’t have a safe nation. The current government has been irresponsible in its response to crime. It is time to change the direction this country is headed. Let us get off the road of crime, unemployment, high vat, high debt, international embarrassment and get on the road to prosperity with Team Unity.