St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas told the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Mr. Damion Hobson, that his Government supports the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Hon. Curtis Martin, in awaiting the rulings of High Court and the Appeal Court in Motion of No Confidence. Prime Minister Douglas was at the time delivering the feature address at annual National Consultation of the Economy at the Marriott Hotel Thursday.
Prime Minister Douglas told the Chamber president he is in disagreement with him and the private sector body of the notion that the non-tabling of the Motion of No Confidence in anyway, has undermined the economic progress of St. Kitts and Nevis..
Dr. Douglas noted that the Opposition has been boasting publicly, that they deliberately took the Motion of No Confidence matter to the court in order to deliberately delay the tabling of the motion by the Speaker of National Assembly, in order to give them time to put their house in order for the upcoming general elections.
Meanwhile St Kitts Chamber of Industry and Commerce President Damian Hobson in his address on the performance of the national economy at Thursday’s 17th Annual National Consultation of the Economy, again reiterated his call for the immediate tabling of the MONC, saying it constituted a blot on the democratic process in SKN. Mr. Hobson who spoke before Dr Douglas, said the failure to respond to 3 MONC’s in almost 2 years was not good for the business and investment climate.
“We remain with the conviction that “The Speaker’s failure to permit the National Assembly to debate and vote on the Motion of No Confidence is a serious departure from the expected standards of democratic governance in our constitutional democracy.”The failure to hear the motion is a serious matter because it speaks to the core values of democracy, and we respectfully submit that, “It is a serious blot on our democracy and a major deterrent to the advancement of our nation.
The Chamber calls again on the Speaker to table the Motion. We call on the Prime Minister to ensure that the Motion is tabled in keeping with the principle which he recognised in his address to the Chamber in December 2012. He said then that the Motion requires priority attention in the legislature.
For the past seven years we have been in a constant cycle of political turmoil, mostly related to the governance of our country, and the management of elections in particular. This is not good for development,” the Chamber president said.
In his rebuttal, Prime Minister Douglas said,”The Chamber needs to listen to all sides,” Prime Minister Douglas told the Chamber President, a well know supporter of the opposition People’s Action Movement (PAM).
“And so, ladies and gentlemen, when we consider that it was stated by the Opposition that it was the debt restructuring strategy that lead to the origin of the Motion of No Confidence, we continue to wonder if Chamber and its President have their heads buried in the sand because you see, we continue very strongly to say that with the strategies employed by this Government, we have achieved marvelous things together.
And so I emphasize for all to know – that the we continue to support the Honourable Speaker of our National Assembly for awaiting, for awaiting the decision of the Court on fundamental matters on which he seeks guidance before he can table the Motion of No Confidence. Hence I will say to the President of the Chamber and to all, as Prime Minister and Head of Government, I shall not in any way pressure the Honourable Speaker to table the Motion because the Court has to advise him on fundamental matters that he has brought for the Court for guidance. In fact, it was only recently that we’ve heard the Opposition boasting publicly that they deliberately took the Motion of No Confidence matter to the Court in order to deliberately delay the tabling of the Motion by the Speaker of the National Assembly in order to give them time to put their house in order for the upcoming General Elections. The Chamber needs to listen all sides.
I want to say further that we do not believe that the non-tabling of the Motion of No Confidence in any way, has undermined the economic progress of our country. And if it has, imagine what it would have been having achieved we have achieved to date. And so I say again, let us put aside our political differences at this level and work together to move our great country forward.” said Dr Douglas.