By Stephen Walwyn
Last week I offered an honest assessment of my own perspective on the recent election and the campaign leading up to it. Negative campaigning characterized the chosen tactics of the NRP in a disorganized and unsuccessful effort. An appeal was made to elevate the level of the debate in the country and instead of detracting from the issues, our leaders in both parties should focus on ideas and substance.
To do otherwise is to insult the intelligence of the electorate. The people have the power and impart some of it to those they elect at the polls. The people therefore must take far greater responsibility for what happens after the election is over and appreciate the role they play even at the time of the election.
For example, allowing one’s vote and hence one’s integrity to be bought in cash is to both abdicate that sacred responsibility and to dirty the entire process. There is a need generally to look at the role money plays in our elections so that we ensure that the rights of Nevisians are secured and that big money from either outside or within does not dictate our course.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
Has the time come for us in Nevis to look very seriously at demanding from our leaders campaign finance reforms that prevent our leaders from accepting campaign contributions over a certain amount from any one entity, be it business or individual?
Our island may well be sold wholesale into the hands of outside investors who are increasingly gaining a greater and greater stake in the outcome of our elections and the development and ownership of our island.
If for example an ex-pat or outside investor puts into a campaign $50,000 (a rather small amount or mere pittance for most of the investors we see on our shores), what is he expecting in return and what is he getting in return?
There is one thing about which we can be sure, people with money do not spend their money, ever, for nothing. They always expect a return on their investment. Imagine the folly, contradiction and hypocrisy of engaging slavishly a long time policy of restricting foreign land ownership through the process of the Alien Landholding License Act which forces any foreigner who wishes to buy land to submit an application to the Cabinet of the Nevis Island Administration, only to realize that the same outside investor is able to hold to ransom the same Cabinet to not only give him carte blanche permission to own any amount of land his shrewd fiscal mind dictates but also has a say in decisions made in the running of our country.
It is just as important that no national or Nevisian who has the means to do so, be allowed to dictate what happens in the island by pressuring leaders through their large contributions to take a certain course in respect to development or the general management of the island, and thereby keeping the process of our elections as clean as possible.
To refuse to act on this is to allow our political leaders to be beholden to the wishes of those outside forces with money and who can further erode our sovereignty by buying out our most prized land assets at prices few, if any of us, can afford, or persons within Nevis with a greater say over what goes on than they ought to have.
We already face this kind of threat with the economic citizenship program so aggressively pursued by the Federal Parliament and which affect us even more adversely since we have so much less to lose. Our leaders therefore face on one hand young aggressive Nevisian males who offer their votes at a price and investors, both within and outside who will inevitably call the shots at a considerably higher price.
Our leaders clearly need backbone and integrity as well a process to assist them in keeping Nevis in the hands of Nevisians as well as a zero tolerance policy against anyone paying out money on election day in order to secure and increase votes.
The bulk of the money in our campaigns is spent on bringing Nevisians who live abroad back home to vote. Their tickets are paid for outright. They have a right to a vote and to decide who their leaders should be since many of them will come back home to live at some point and since they continue to have a vested interest in their native country.
But they should exercise their franchise on their own steam and not at the expense of a campaign expenditure budget or at the self-indulgent whims of big money interests. If Nevisians living abroad are truly interested in their Island, then they should spend their own money and come back home to vote if they wish.
I call on those in power, both in Nevis and especially in St. Kitts, to accelerate the process of electoral reform and stop this practice of spending money to allow citizens who are not domiciled in the Federation to play such a significant role in the outcome of our elections. The hypocrisy among our leaders is blatant and shameful. These Nevisians are exploited being waltzed during trips abroad, promises made, their votes garnered, only to have some of them return to live and treated most dismissively.
CONCLUSION
We in the Nevis community have become to my mind entirely too partisan and place way too much emphasis in elections and their outcomes. Our country is divided badly and perilously with politics playing an increasingly greater role in every single affair of our community. Few of us allow ourselves the rigor and discipline of objective thought, choosing instead to allow a schism or ghaut to run through every aspect of our community life. Indeed there is nothing sacred it seems. Little wonder our political races are so acrimonious and caustic, since we seem unable to imagine any solution to the many issues we face as an island community, outside of a political context.
This particular race is over and the people have spoken, having chosen an extremely capable, articulate and proud Nevisian to represent us in the Federal Parliament. His campaign did indeed capture the hearts and imaginations of the majority of the people in District 9, comprising St. Johns and St. Pauls.
Let us unite as a people and rally behind him, praying for him and his family as we seek a common agenda with mutually beneficial objectives between both parties as he and his colleagues advocate and negotiate on our behalf.
Let us put politics aside as we place our confidence and trust in Mr Mark Brantley but place our faith and support in the Nevis Island Administration as well, in the hope that they would do what it takes to elevate their governance and politics to a level both satisfactory and even inspiring over the next four years.
