Basseterre, St. Kitts – Labelling what he said has become to be called the Diplomatic Passport Case of Spite and Hate, former prime minister and Leader of the Opposition the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas said the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party was of the humble view there could have been no other reasonable outcome to this case.
Commenting on Wednesday’s (Feb. 20th) judgment of His Lordship, Justice Trevor Ward Q.C., Dr. Douglas told a press conference Friday (Feb. 22nd) afternoon, from the inception, “we in the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party and my legal team have maintained that this case has never been about law.”
“Dr. Harris set about to dupe the good citizens of this country into believing that there was something truly amiss. I have always maintained that the failure of the Harris Administration to grant me a St. Kitts and Nevis Diplomatic along with the appropriate privileges and courtesies befitting my own status as a senior statesman and Leader of Opposition has been purely an act of political harassment and victimisation in pursuit of the Prime Minister’s political vendetta,” Dr. Douglas told reporters.
“This case has always been about politics and a blatant attempt to unseat me from Parliament and to impugn and malign my good character and reputation. In the typical style of elitist despots around the world, Dr. Harris tried to abuse the Constitution and the law to assist his political agenda. But Justice has prevailed and they lost, and they lost badly! And, I never had one iota of doubt in my own mind that they would have succeeded,” he said.
Dr. Douglas said the judgment has not just been a victory for him.
“It has been a victory for all whom this government has sought to oppress and victimise. It is a victory for democracy and the rule of law, which this coalition administration has sought so vigorously to undermine and abolish,” said Dr. Douglas, who pointed out that over the last four years persons have witnessed a wanton abuse of state power by Dr. Harris to subjugate and abuse civil servants, arrest and detain police officers, and to harass and intimidate ordinary citizens.
Quoting the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, at the conclusion of the bus boycott sparked by Rosa Park’s just defiance, in Montgomery, Alabama in a racially-segregated America in 1956, in which he said ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,’ Dr. Douglas remarked, “I wholeheartedly agree with him. By faith I believe, and I am encouraged that the vicious victimisation, the abhorrent corruption and the deploring of our democracy will not continue forever. They must and will be brought to an end, at once.”
Dr. Douglas said the comprehensive judgment of Justice Ward dealt a decisive blow to Harris’ despotic and undemocratic attempt to deprive the people of St. Christopher 6 of the representation for which they voted for in 2015.
“The courts of law have long been abused by the wealthy and powerful to deprive ordinary people of what they justly deserve. But we have come too far as a nation, and we will not now allow the likes of Timothy Harris, the Attorney General Vincent “Juicy” Byron, and their families to reverse the gains that Robert Bradshaw and those who served with him ushered in, and which my administration laboured to maintain,” Dr. Douglas said.
