By Lesroy W. Williams

Observer Reporter

(Basseterre, St. Kitts) – Words of praise for the political pioneers of St. Kitts and Nevis and the nation’s achievements since attaining independence flowed from Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, during his independence address at Warner Park on Sept. 19.

Heaping accolades upon his predecessors, the Rt. Excellent Sir Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw, the Rt. Excellent Sir Caleb Azariah Paul Southwell, and the Rt. Excellent Sir Joseph N. France, the Prime Minister said that the nation’s coming of age and success is due in part to their hard work in paving the way.

Prime Minister Douglas said that his predecessors won for every Kittitian and Nevisian the right to vote despite others’ determination to disenfranchise them; they won for them the right to a secondary education despite others’ determination to keep them locked out, uneducated and uninformed; they won for them social security despite others’ indifference to the shame and destitution that gripped the country’s forebears by the thousands when they became too old to earn their daily bread.

“More importantly, their efforts changed the way we saw ourselves - and the way others saw us. And their efforts stirred within us – and within the hearts of Caribbean people everywhere - the dream, the desire, and the demand for independence from Britain,” Dr. Douglas said.

In recognizing the first Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, he said that the Rt. Honourable Dr. Sir Alphonse Kennedy Simmonds took up where his comrades had left off.

“And so it was with pride that we saw men like the Rt. Honorable Dr. Sir Alphonse Kennedy Simmonds complete the task that Bradshaw, Southwell and France had begun, when at the stroke of midnight on September 18, 1983, the Union Jack was lowered, our own flag was raised, Sir Kennedy became the first Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, and we stood at the door of the great unknown - for the first time an independent people - vindicating the centuries-old struggles of our enslaved ancestors like Marcus of the Woods to be truly free,” Dr. Douglas said.

The Prime Minister said the Federation had done well over a period of 25 years.

“We have done very well over these 25 years; so well that our students in creating the theme for our Independence celebrations have described the periods thus: “Pride, Development, Progress, 25 years of Success,” Dr. Douglas said.

St. Kitts and Nevis is one of the smallest nations in the world but the United Nations ranks it as having a quality of life far superior to the vast majority of countries in the world today, he said.

He added that based on macro-economics, St. Kitts and Nevis is classified as a middle-income country.

Judged by the United Nations Development Index, St. Kitts and Nevis is the leading nation in the Eastern Caribbean Sub-Region and ranks third of all nations in the world, the Prime Minister said.

He said that the Federation had been successful at building schools throughout the Federation, establishing hospitals and health centers and distributing hundreds of acres of land to the Federation’s farmers.