Published 6 December 2022
Basseterre
Buckie Got It, St Kitts Nevis News Source
Credited By:sknnewssource.com
Mark Brantley, a PREMIER failure
MARK BRANTLEY IS LIVING UP TO THE TITLE OF PREMIER: premier in unconcern; premier in incomplete projects, and a premier in fruitless foreign travels.
Brantley, as Premier of Nevis, is, among members of his Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), also premier in FAILING TO LIVE UP TO THE FIRST WORD of the party’s name, observed Dr. JaniceDaniel-Hodge leader of the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP).
She cited as an example that some 150-plus persons lost their jobs in Brown Hill after Brown Hill Communications wrapped its operations there. Daniel-Hodge told a campaign rally that Brantley, as Premier, was nonchalant about the sudden spike in unemployment among the population he rules.
“So many job opportunities lost right here in Brown Hill. Brown Hill Communications gone, and you know, the bad thing about it is that the Premier said that it’s a business decision and he can’t do anything about it,” Daniel-Hodge recalled him saying.
She knocked Premier Brantley and the CCM’s performance in office in the past five years in a passionate speech at a campaign rally, cautioning listeners not to be duped into believing the misrepresentations, innuendos, and outright false utterances by Brantley.
Foreign firms are offered numerous concessions, and should not be able to pack up and leave at their whim as seemed to be the case with Brown Hill Communications.
Residents were made to suffer unnecessary economic hardships because of CCM’s lack of vision and poor leadership, combined with Brantley’s frequent fruitless overseas trips which helped him lose touch with reality and confronted daily by hapless Nevisians.
Daniel-Hodge and the NRP would have been heartened if Brantley’s regular, and often, foreign trips redounded to some benefit for citizens and residents, such as luring investors, resulting in increased local employment and trickle-down economic prosperity.
“We know that when you have development and when you have companies coming here before they get here you sit and negotiate because you give the concessions. You understand and your representative should understand that they are coming here they are getting concessions so that they can create employment for our people.”
“So, when things are not going too good for them, and they decide to leave, you need representation to say it’s not that easy our people need work. And when they leave, how long has Brown Hill Communication been there? You mean all the trips across the world you could find millions and millions in passports for so many new countries…but not one project to bring to the people of Nevis and not one project to replace a business that closes?” she asked with biting sarcasm.
“So, we are saying we need representation because people must understand that without jobs the economy will be dead; without jobs, our people will suffer and struggle. We say when the priority of your representative is not right, our people would not be treated right,” she emphasized in her fiery presentation.
“We have seen enough of …neglect; we have seen enough disrespect of our women; we have seen enough of a government that doesn’t care and we say change must come because the people of Nevis deserve better,” she declared.
She recalled the better days of Nevis under the past NRP administration, promising that the current slate of candidates has the qualifications, temperament, vision, and wherewithal to help restore the island to its once glorious past.
“When we look at where Nevis was in the 70s, in the 80s, and even in the early 90s doing good, doing so good that people from St Kitts used to come over to Nevis to work. Look at where we are now. If you sit in government year after year and do not do anything to diversify the economy, eventually it will die. What we need right now is a government that understands, not just understand the need for diversification, but understands how to diversify the economy,” she noted.
The NRP leader pointed to several projects now white elephants under the CCM regime. Dr. Daniel-Hodge said that CCM is legendary for imitating ideas, they are poor at execution. She challenged voters to ‘pull the plug’ on the CCM administration, bankrupt on performance.
“The most heartbreaking is our hospital as our people continue to struggle. As they would say, we have to bang water (beat) to go to St Kitt’s and when we look at the equipment that was already here and allowed to be destroyed, we must say ‘not this time”.
“When we look at what has been happening in Nevis, project after project cannot be completed. Just this week we hear about the monies for the geothermal project. We must say that each time you start a project you have to start and stop, start and stop you are wasting money. Here we have the geothermal project; we have a well that was dug recently and now that well has to be abandoned.”
“You know why that well has to be abandoned? Because when you rush to do things because of an election, when you rush to do things, you do not take the time to plan to make sure that you can get your projects right.”
“Look at the road at St James that they took a loan to construct. Didn’t know that the Bank of Nevis was there and they can get a loan? So now in the wet season, in the rainy season, they are digging up and fixing a road. You do not try to fix a road like that in the rainy season,” she reminded her knowledgeable listeners.
Dr. Daniel Hedge is seeking to be the first female Premier of Nevis.
