Published 18 February 2018
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
by: Media Source
Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 18, 2018 – Having ‘sowed the wind’ in opposition with regards to the St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Programme, Prime Minister, Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris, is now ‘reaping the whirlwind’ as he celebrates the third anniversary of his Team Unity government.
Dr. Harris’ assault on the St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Programme started when he clandestinely began his treacherous plot to derail the continued progress of St. Kitts and Nevis being successfully orchestrated by the Denzil Douglas Labour Cabinet, that he was a member of since July 1995.
He did so with the assistance of his new found friends in the opposition Peoples Action Movement (PAM), who once publicly announced in a press release dated December 9 2009, that Harris was ready to leave Labour and join PAM..a charge he refuted at the time.
With the leaderships of Shawn Richards’ PAM and Vance Amory’s CCM hailing Harris as ‘the best Minister of Finance,’ the then senior minister publicly unleashed his diabolical plot and launched a massive negative campaign against the highly successful Citizenship by Investment Programme and Dr. Denzil Douglas St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party.
The Harris/PAM/CCM coalition used its propaganda online media outlets such as the St. Kitts-Nevis Times and Times Caribbean and orchestrated negative feature articles in the local, regional and international media and a massive assault during the pre-election and election campaign, aimed at crippling the once Citizenship by Investment Programme, at the time the world leader in the industry..
Dr. Harris led the charge in undermining the programme with remarks that the Labour Government ‘was selling St. Kitts and Nevis passports like black pudding on a Friday and Saturday,’ and ‘Moghadam purchasing a diplomatic passport for US$1 million.’
In his September 19, 2014 Independence message, Dr. Harris said: “the only industry vibrant (in St. Kitts and Nevis) is the sale of our citizenship/passport.”
His three-party coalition won the February 16, 2015 General Election and hours after being sworn in as Prime Minister, one of his first acts was the immediate closure of the Citizenship by Investment Unit in Basseterre and the Dubai office for several months thus creating havoc in the industry, with potential economic citizens looking elsewhere to invest.
With the Dubai office closed, the Passport Office in St. Kitts sent the new passports directly to Iran. Some were also sent to the St. Kitts and Nevis Embassy in Taiwan, which in turn sent the new passports to Tehran, Iran’s capital. The Dubai and Abu Dhabi-based Iranians never received their passports and lost out on St. Kitts and Nevis citizenship.
With the Citizenship by Investment Unit in St. Kitts closed for several months in 2015, Sebastian Mottram, a British developer, who has built the multi-million dollar Silver Reef in Frigate Bay – one of the most successful condominium projects under the Citizenship by Investment Programme during the St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Administration of the Right Hon Dr Denzil Douglas, questioned the slow pace by new Prime Minister Harris to recapture the market it has lost to several countries including Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia and Dominica.
Mr. Mottram said that while Harris claims he is putting his house in order “our competitors are stealing the march and creeping into the market.”
“It is just a matter of time. Time will tell. For me, we are at the tail end of the market,” he admitted.
Prime Minister Harris further harmed the industry with his bombshell announcement that he was phasing out the Citizenship by Investment Programme. He later pulled back denying he made those remarks although the record shows he was quoted verbatim.
The Office of Prime Minister Harris churns out news releases daily with headlines clearly aimed at misleading the people of St. Kitts and Nevis.
After one such blaring headline that St. Kitts and Nevis was the leader in the industry, it as quickly shot down by the world’s leading consultant in the industry, Henley & Partners which stated that Antigua & Barbuda was leading the region in the Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) market.
Henley & Partners told a forum in Asia that Antigua & Barbuda was leading the region in the Citizenship by Investment Programme market.
“The landscape is getting busy, there are a few other Caribbean countries getting ready to launch … but at this moment in time it really is Antigua out in the lead,” said Major.
It is said that Prime Minister Harris on taking office, handed over the St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Programme data to some OECD nations.
Having started the massacre on the Programme when in opposition and realising he is now in government, Dr. Harris probably thought that he can just wave a magic wand to stop the deterioration, but it was too late,
Dr. Harris lashed out at Western governments for putting pressure on the Federation’s Citizenship by Investment Programme under his PLP/CCM/PAM Administration.
Addressing the 62nd Meeting of the Authority of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in Dominica in November 2015, Dr. Harris accused unnamed countries of targeting the small countries and not the larger nations like Cyprus, Malta and Portugal, who are also involved in similar Citizenship by Investment programmes.
“While they are pressuring us, whilst some are saying to us that this is a bad programme, you not hearing them saying that to Malta, you not hearing them say that to Portugal, you not hearing them saying that to Cyprus…but it is as if each time we attempt to as it were to extricate ourselves from the overwhelming challenge and burden of developing a small island state, they want us to be like the children of Sisyphus – roll the stone up to the top only to have it roll down again – and we say no,” said Harris.
It took Dr. Harris nine months after taking office, to realise some countries ‘have no friends, only interests.’
Dr. Harris told OECS leaders, public and private sector officials that like tourism, the OECS nations are stakeholders in the CBI industry which they must take hold of and not see themselves as competitors.
He then made a half-hearted call for a regional approach to the Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP), but it was too late.
Following the passage of Hurricanes Irma and Maria during which St. Kitts and Nevis “was relatively spared compared to other nearby island,” Dr. Harris, forgot about regionalism and being ‘they brother’ keeper’ and as chief surgeon performed a major serious operation in which he administered the Hurricane Relief Programme, which infected the patient’s “heart – the Real Estate option.”
Still in ICU and with no recovery in sight, and belatedly hearing the cries of the Real Estate investors, it was back to the operating theatre last week Tuesday to slash the fees that government collects under the Real Estate option.
Imagine courtesy of Everton Powell
