Part 2

Voting Is a Fundamental Human Right!

By Kwame Nkosi Romeo

In the 2023 election, only 42,849, or 70.34% of the 60,916 registered voters, turned out to vote! The lowest turnout since 1999. The nation's voting age population is 74,837 out of 101,489:

https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/country?country=10&database_theme=293

Can people's apathy be blamed for the Antigua and Barbuda election outcome?  

Besides that, former ALP MP for Tourism, Economic Development, Investment and Energy and St. Peter constituency candidate Asot Michael became the first independent candidate to win, a rare political turning point in the public records of Antigua and Barbuda. Of the 3,606 tallied votes among four candidates in that constituency, Michael totaled 2,137 votes or 59.26% while increasing his votes by 23% over 2018! 

A noteworthy performance, a runner-up to UPP St. George constituency candidate Algernon 'Serpent' Watt, 2,146 votes. Throughout the campaign, Michael pleaded to the government to provide adequate spending within constituencies and, upon winning, insisted: 

"We must practice democracy faithfully even when it hurts." reads like a book.

Michael is aware but said nothing about the most infamous Ambassador to the US, Ronald Michael Sanders's white paper 'We Must Win at All Cost' that endangered the democratic process and was contradictory to nation-building in addition to ALP's social injustice that ill-treats people experiencing poverty with broken commitments such as that given by prime minister Gaston Browne in the 2016 Antigua and Barbuda Budget Statement under the captioned The Purpose of Budget 2016:

"The Budget is designed to start the process of giving economic power back to the people."

Instead of doing that, the Budget repeatedly enriched politicians and their associates, leaving the oppressed 'with the crumbs of life' while giving away $330 million to affluent business people two years later, additionally bailing out the failing businesses of comrades by misappropriating more public funds of $50 million. 

Again, that never concerned Michael, who was part of Browne's Cabinet and whose blind allegiance to Browne continued until compelled to run as an independent candidate in 2023. Albert Einstein expounded, "Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of the truth."

So, Michael's words are useless and filled with painful memories of ALP's undemocratic practices. Prime Minister Gaston Browne points out ALP's insurrectionist tendencies and shortcomings without prompting. 

For example, Browne is knowledgeable about the destruction of the Wadadli Power Plant; besides that, Browne's silence was culpable from 1999 to 2014, now pretending that period was one of many excesses that "took place under Lester Bird's administration." 

Invariably, Browne forgot these surplusses and allowed Michael to run in subsequent elections on June 12, 2014, and March 21, 2018.

Before Michael and Browne's fallout, there were cases of conflicts of interest and the all-inclusive corruption committed by both Bird and Browne ALP government without any consequences to those associated with Bird businesses.

Bird enterprises such as Antigua Aggregates, SANDCO, Hog John Bay Development (HJBD), Deep Bay Development Company (DBDC), Antigua Isle Company (AIL), Corbkinnons Limited (CL), and Newport Antigua Limited (NAL).

On Friday, October 27, 2017, prime minister Gaston Brown assigned these four companies, once allocated to MP Michael, to compliant MP Charles 'Max' Fernandez.

All cooperated with Devcon in the fleecing of Antigua and Barbuda with the following affiliated companies: the Royal Antiguan Hotel, Halcyon Cove Hotel, Pillar Rock, Marina Bay, and the ALP government stealing of 650 acres of land at Mckinnons on two occasions; 350 acres in 1990 and 300 acres in 2015—also, with the addition of more than 20,000 acres unaccounted-for. All this necessitates a Commission of Inquiry!

The latest revelation extends more tax concessions to wealthy WIOC investors under the guise of the government interest in the company, and just as CUB is a burdensome load to most people at the bottom of the economic pyramid. These people pay more Antigua and Barbuda Sales Tax (ABST) than the middle and high-income combined.

Some people may have been indifferent to the January 18 election date only to learn of the unfortunate consequences of shocking reality and continuance of the ALP's treachery as regards public investments and private rip-off Revelation 13:18 relate mutually with "completeness of sinful incompleteness." (Why is the Number of the Beast 666? February 11, 2015, by Gregory Beale)

Today, the absence of statutory statistics and planning corroborates the Shambolic state of affairs to a state of defeat. There have been no censuses since the Poverty Assessment in 2007, Agriculture in 2007, and Population and Housing Census in 2011, which is overdue and confirms the wrong people in government make things worse. The 2021 census still needs to be completed.

How can any government get to the next level without the knowledge of statistical planning, transparency, and accountability?

The government gave no serious thought to the nation's food security to alleviate rising food inflation, drastically cut back on imports, and advanced food security.

The worst is when viewed against the 2023 ALP government budget of $1.8 billion, the minimum wage (MW) inequality of a $32 weekly increase equals a small sum of $ 1,664-year. A yearly MW adds up to $18,720, which cruelly undervalues work dignity and is a national disgrace.

Again, this paltry sum of the working class is morally incomprehensible compared to the nation's GDP per capita income, the misleading budget, and the high cost of living crisis.

Legendary Jamaica Reggae singer Buju Banton laments the breakdown of this wretchedness, and the political system's disempowering agenda is evident as well in Antigua and Barbuda:

"...... there is this callous nature and this callous approach; everything is a nail, and they see themselves as the hammer. With this mindset, we have what we have now!

How can we break this mindset by showing more love and being the opposite of their thinking? "

(Community Heroes: Buju Banton Foundation - YouTube)

Similarities of the Buju living experience exist in Antigua and Barbuda: ALP deliberately ignored the people's self-improvement, intolerable poverty, ongoing unresolved socioeconomic issues, restriction of human rights, and the evidence of prime minister Gaston Browne confessing to electoral fraud. 

In reality, there is no enforceable precedent that guides public officials' behavior since codes of ethics are merely legalistic formulations governed by deceitful Steadroy Benjamin, the twin-island nation's chief legal advisor who independent MP Asot Michael accused of brazen corruption and called on Benjamin to resign for attempting to turn over a Privy Council ruling about passport forgery indictment: 

"I have never been charged with no criminal offense, but you were charged criminally." and raised a question the public wants answered about Benjamin's criminal indictments:

"Why were those criminal charges withdrawn?"

Another debatable issue is what action the OAS Electoral Observation Mission contemplates against ALP electoral swindling since there was an immediate resolution to Venezuela's election outcome and Antigua Ambassador to the US Ronald Sanders assigned guilt to the Venezuelan government: "..Condemning the fraudulent Elections in Venezuela." while supporting "Interim President" Juan Guaido. Sanders's sole ambition is to become the next Secretary General of the OAS, and the 35 OAS member countries should not support Sanders's aim in 2026 but the leading light Barbados prime minister Mia Motley. Nuff said!

Sanders cooperates with PLH and the ALP government to customize laws to disempower the Barbuda people of their communal land rights and destroy the Lagoon National Park, classified as a Ramsar Site: "The lagoon is one of the island's greatest economic assets as it supports a thriving lobster fishery and an expanding tourism market that is largely centered on the nesting colony of frigate birds. Sea level rise and saltwater intrusion of aquifers are foreseen as potential threats to the ecological character. Ramsar site no. 1488. Most recent RIS information: 2006."

Codrington Lagoon | Ramsar Sites Information Service

In addition, the forfeiture of people's land by the ALP government to hand over to super-rich PLH and others can result in violent consequences, and the government will be incapable of stopping that near the day of reckoning.

Why can't Browne's Economic Powerhouse not create wealth and provide necessities for its citizens but make a habit of buccaneers' financing?

No water, a fundamental human right, is unavailable, reflected in social justice warrior Ian 'Majik'Hughes words: "2023 yeah, ah so arwe wash arwe kin in Antigua. Dis ah de great Antigua wid de bes eccanemee dem say in de wirl. See wey me dey outside ah trow up watta fu wash me kin lakka 1960 and 61 and so...."

I stand in solidarity with the people of Barbuda! No one can stop a people's rebellion against injustice! 

Additionally, I hope the UPP St. Mary's South candidate Kelvin 'Shugy' Simon wins the by-election on October 24, 2023; voters must send a clear message to the ALP regime and aggressively continue the fight for change