By LR Liburd
St. Kitts-Nevis Observer
Resultant of the response made by Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris to a question from a media representative during his monthly press conference on Tuesday (Mar. 15), three members of the Opposition found it rather distasteful and ludicrous coming from the political leader of the Federation.
The Opposition members, Dr. Terrance Drew, Senator Nigel Carty and Parliamentary Representative of Constituency Two Hon. Marcella Liburd were at the time guests at Freedom FM’ ‘Issues’ programme on Wednesday (Mar. 16).
Two clips were played during the panel discussion; one in which the journalist highlighted that a man claimed to have had an appointment with Prime Minister Harris since December 2015 but to date it has not materialised. The journalist then asked Dr. Harris what was his cut-off time in meeting with people, if it was two days or three weeks.
In his response, PM Harris said, “Not any of those things! I think we have a responsibility to educate and to get people appreciate how a government functions. The Prime Minister not going to say well, I’ll see you in two days or three days, there are functionaries which should be able to do that and do that satisfactorily.
“But the more critical point…is there a need for this man or any other citizen to see the Prime Minister on a particular matter? The Prime Minister is not the only person in service to the public. I have made the point that the model which we are operating in is a Westminster model and we have ministries where the work has been, as it were, allocated to people and to people to function. Ultimately, it is the job of the Prime Minister where people are not functioning to reshuffle the Cabinet and to put people who can deliver.”
Within an excerpt of the said clip, Dr. Harris stated that if he were the journalist he would have enquired why the man wanted to meet with the PM, and if his response had anything to do with the hospital, he would have told him, “You don’t need to see the Prime Minister for that. Why don’t you go and see Mr. Hamilton, for example, who deals with health matters, also Minister Wendy Phipps? Or indeed, maybe, even before he gets there he could go and see the PS.”
He also said in that clip that a lot of times people believe that to get a problem solved in sports “they have to see the Hon. Shawn Richards. Not under this government”.
In the second clip, Dr. Harris said, “Somebody called me today, this morning, young person, say that to say…And what was her issue? The issue was that they had a child who wanted to go abroad. And she said, ‘Could you call them for me?’ I said, ‘But did you at least call the Minister for it?…I would have people call and say lights gone, but it shouldn’t be. Because the light is gone it is that the Prime Minister must either come to see how dark it is?”
Commenting on the issue, Dr. Drew said: “Imagine he was asked in the press conference that a gentleman tried to reach you and his response is ‘people must know and understand how government works’. People must have access to their leader. They are hiding from their people.”
Drew also seized the opportunity to take potshots at the Parliamentary Representative of his Constituency.
“Eugene Hamilton has the same attitude and even worse. Nobody can find Eugene Hamilton, he seems to be hiding. In a meeting, Eugene Hamilton was asked a question and he said to that person in a town hall meeting, ‘I am not the Minister of that, you have to go check the Minister of that.’ But I think that Eugene Hamilton is missing one important fact, and that is he is the Representative. The people did not elect a Minister; they elected a Representative to represent them. These people do not understand their role and I think they are incompetent and they really don’t want to serve the people.”
He asserted that people were accustomed to having access to the former Prime Minister who used to be there for them at all hours with a line all the way up Church Street sometimes, adding “that’s what you call accessibility to the leader”.
Dr. Drew emphasised that before the February 2015 Election Dr. Harris had promised the people that he would do many things for them, but “now after the election and he is Prime Minister he is telling the ordinary people they must know how government works in order to meet the Prime Minister. Can you imagine that? That is what people voted for?”
Senator Carty was also very critical of the Prime Minister.
“The clips we listened to a while ago suggest to us that Timothy Harris is not really interested in serving people. He was interested in attaining a particular position and status. Now that he has attained that, you must be aware that it is the system that you must work and you mustn’t have recourse to consulting him one-on-one or directly if you think that your situation deserves it.
“But when people have no interest in serving people, people coming to you becomes a bother to you. If you really enjoy serving people, you are happy to be able to sit down and use your time efficiently, because you must use your time efficiently as you seek to serve a large number of people.”
And Liburd implied that just last year while in opposition, Dr. Harris was “out there calling anybody, going at anybody’s place and so on. Now don’t come to see him, be educated about how the system works. Don’t come to see him anymore because you have already know what you supposed to do and he is there”.
She proclaimed that that system is not applicable to family members of the Prime Minister.
“I could bet your bottom dollar that when his family goes to him about any issue they got to know how the system works. They will get whatever they want. He himself will make sure that his family gets whatever they want to get. But when it comes to the ordinary people of this country, don’t go to Timothy Harris. He has made it very, very clear. Don’t go to him because he is taking no responsibility for anything at all.”
Liburd made reference to the time when Ian Queeley was announced as the new Commissioner of Police, indicating that Prime Minister Harris said “the buck stops with Queeley, even though he is the Minister of National Security”,
The Labour Party Chairperson also made reference to the clip in which the lady said that her child needs to go abroad.
“It means that the child is feeling sick. And even in that he is not even saying to her, ‘Okay, I will talk to the Minister of Health and see what we can do.’ No, don’t come to me, go look for the Minister of Health or somebody else. This is what we have come to in this country, and we told you!”
