By: Staff Writer
July 5, 2022
Premier Mark Brantley, leader of the Nevis Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) said he felt “betrayed” by Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris now wanting to serve as “Prime Minister for life,” in St Kitts and Nevis.
Mr Brantley, told to Caribbean Magazine Plus that “of course,” he feels betrayed by Prime Minister Timothy Harris, “I think the entire country feels betrayed.”
He continued, “I think our people voted overwhelmingly for this new paradigm, a new governance structure based on unity, unifying these two islands, bringing them together and allowing all of our people to benefit from the fruits of their citizenship. I think he has betrayed that trust and has ended up losing all of his friends, all of his allies.
“I think he’s burnt bridges with all political parties, so I know not know what he will do and he did all of that because he wants to be Prime Minister for life. One of the cardinal principles of unity construct was that we would only have a Prime Minister serving two terms, so clearly after having signed on to that he no longer wants to abide by that.”
Prime Minister Harris is in his second term having first won in 2015 and then again in 2020, but just two short years after being re-elected under this “team unity” faction of his People’s Labour Party along with the People’s Action Movement (PAM) led by his now fired Deputy Prime Minister, Shawn Richards and the CCM led by Brantley, he has been openly criticized by Brantley and Richards, which led to him subsequently firing both of them from his cabinet along with anyone that aligned themselves with those two.
People have suspected that the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme is the reason behind the open distrust of PM Harris leading to this political impasse, where Mr Brantley said: “The CBI is an important issue and could be a wedge issue in this election. I think people are naturally concerned about the programme and how the proceeds of the program are being dealt with and those of us who are from Nevis are particularly concerned that a fair share of the proceeds of that programme flow into the sister island.”
The island of Nevis has 30 percent of the population of SKN but only receives 7 percent of the proceeds from the CBI programme, leading to more distrust of PM Harris.
He also said that there are no particular CBI firms backing his party in this up-coming election. He added: “I think the programme needs to be looked at. The programme needs to be reformed, it continues to be a very vital programme from his existence in 1984. It is the oldest of its kind in the world and I believe that with the proper approach this programme can have tremendous longevity and we need to approach it seriously, we need to look at it in a sober way. We need to start develop partners internationally, and ensure the program is the best program in the world.”
Mr Brantley has joined forces with Mr Richard’s PAM on the main island of St Kitts, but there is no plans in the near future to expand the CCM to the main island just yet. He said: “We don’t have any immediate plans, but we do have partners in St Kitts. So that if successful in the polls will work with the PAM in St Kitts. The remaining parties of team unity, Dr Harris’s PLP were the ones who are left from the team unity construct.”
The pathway forward for DR Harris to win re-election is very narrow as his two coalition parties have now abandoned him, leaving the door wide open for the Opposition St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party who is led by Dr Terrance Drew,