June 24, 2019
The Hon. Michael Browne, Minister of Education, Science and Technology of Antigua and Barbuda, and member of the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party, was invited to St. Kitts and Nevis to participate in a ceremony to mark the official announcement of Mr. Leon Natta-Nelson as the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Candidate for St. Christopher 7. Hon. Michael Browne arrived in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis on Friday June 21st and received protocolary services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as is expected when a high government official enters the state.
At the ceremony which was held on Saturday June 22nd at the Ottleys Playing Field, Hon. Minister Michael Browne, in delivering his feature address, informed the audience that at about 12:15 a.m. on that same day, Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris had called Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Hon. Gaston Browne, expressing abhorrence that Hon. Michael Browne was in St. Kitts and Nevis to speak at the official announcement of Mr. Leon Natta-Nelson.
Minister Browne revealed further that Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris told the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda that his (Michael Browne’s) participation in the ceremony was a ‘declaration of war’ and as such, ‘his security in St. Kitts and Nevis could not be guaranteed.’ The Hon. Minister of Antigua and Barbuda reported that he was further informed that Prime Minister Harris threatened that he (Michael Browne) would not be allowed to come back to St. Kitts and Nevis in the future. The Hon. Minister of Antigua and Barbuda ended his report of the incident by emphasising that ‘he was reporting it because it was the truth.’
The St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party wishes to categorically denounce the abhorrent, dictatorial threats by Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris towards an elected official and minister of government of an OECS member state.
This development further confirms the very dangerous dictatorial, fascistic and narcissistic tendencies of Dr. Harris and offers yet further evidence of the totalitarian direction in which he is taking our beautiful country. Prime Minister Harris is a threat to free speech, general freedom and democracy, and needs to be stopped now.
The government’s continuing denial of access of the Opposition to state-owned media and community centres, its legislative attempts to deny overseas nationals the right to vote in the country of their belonging, its refusal to register Labour-supporting voters, its refusal to issue them voter identification cards, and the recent destruction of St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party billboards by Harris sycophants, are all deeply worrisome and strongly indicative that St. Kitts and Nevis is in the clutches of a galloping dictatorship.
The St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party promises to repair our broken democratic system and restore free speech, freedom of association, general freedom and democracy, after the next general election.
Long live Democracy and Freedom of Speech!
