Part III

A Three-Part Vehicle Gate Episode of Corruption-The Fleecing of  Antigua and Barbuda Public Treasury!

By Kwame Nkosi Romeo

Welcome back to the story! A story that extends beyond the vehicle gate encapsulates a reflection on Antigua and Barbuda's political corruption as today's consequence of crumbling social infrastructure and the political failure of accountability and transparency!!

Maria, Maria, you're not like the characters in West Side Story, as described in a Carlos Santana song that depicts those facing hardships. You were born into privilege, not struggle!

So you wouldn't understand the resilience and courage of people confronting life's challenges.

Meanwhile, others loot, steal, attack, and silence truth-tellers. In today's Antigua and Barbuda politics, that song echoes among those whose hands are all over the gate of corruption: politicians in government (PIGS).

The difference between Maria, who was elected and sought further enrichment, and the other, who was struggling to survive, is obvious!

The pig sty gate is wide open, and the Politicans In Government (PIGS) rush through with taxpayers' money and large stretches of land rubber-stamped by the financial patriarch, ignoring social infrastructure development; escalating poverty and widespread crime!

So don't just stand by and watch the crime push people like Maria into victimization and chaos while extrajudicial killings bury the truth!

You've endured great humiliation, bordering on criminal neglect, and history will surely judge you harshly!

Your duty was to serve, not to impoverish the struggling masses further.

Why are you still connected to the gatekeepers of injustice?

Don’t let the Browne Emperor Crassus mislead you beyond the point of no return! I do not judge!

Rise and don't wait for the ashes to settle because the writing is on the wall; justice is rapidly approaching, and the PIGS will be left with no seeds in any win-lose scenario!

Many will fear when the specter of justice arrives, as vehicles drive off. The PIGS need to look in the rearview mirrors and consider the ghost of disturbing incidents yet to be addressed—such as where did 33,000 acres of the people's patrimony go, and who are the political and economic elites controlling it within the quad triangle of trade? 

These are troubling questions from St. Johns to St. Paul to St. Philip’s, St. Mary's, St. George, and Condrington, land is disappearing rapidly in the hexagon of Pentagon fraud!

As issues arise to bring to light the fraud of forfeiture of funds and other related issues, Alfa Nero sale, West Indies Oil Company (WIOC), Caribbean Union Bank (CUB), Peace, Love and Happiness, Antigua Isle Company Ltd, Corbinnons, Special Economic Zone, and banditry of CIP funds; and the list is endless. 

In the meantime, the ALP government and its economic elites are now under the purview of the US Department of Justice and the European Union, encircling the PIGS corruption, and imminent racketeering charges

Ask any local Antiguans if they managed to secure even a small lot of land. Meanwhile, others received acres or hundreds of acres through under-the-table deals from the quartet of benefactors.: Robert De Niro, Robert Barrett, Aziz Hadeed, Calvin Ayre, and the Bird-Browne network!

All have beachfront land; they put up barricades and buffer zones, painting lines of discrimination and racist overtures. No Blacks allowed!

Those barriers must be dismantled, broken down, and cast away along with any investors dictating those racist rules!

Who is the beneficial owner of the family's mansion at Corbison Point, which is now owned by the nominee shareholders who were once owned by Bird's nominee shareholders, Norman Wexelman? 

Is it true that it's a prominent family whose name the prime minister Browne is fearful of entangling in further corruption that extends from Crabbs Peninsula in the North East to Dickenson Bay on the Northwestern coast of Antigua?

Today, all these nominee shareholders continue to hide MPs' wealth. This baton of enrichment is now passed to the third generation of ALP leadership.

Not only that, but all of Bird's company, once under Asot Michael's portfolio, is now under the control of the Max Fernandez ministry. 

Fernandez must be summoned to give evidence of the skulduggery, since he cannot separate himself from the swines wallowing in the public trough!

You may be controlling a powerful. ministry, but you are not necessarily. The directions of B-GPS direct your every course. Now, you are facing the horns of a dilemma: former Comptroller of Customs Raju Boddu has been dismissed from his portfolio for criminal negligence, yet you survive amidst the shake-up.

The nation is following, and it's continuing sequence, with former Comptroller of Customs Raju Boddu returning clandestinely with monetary inducement as the Czar of tax collection to assess and process all import documents in the political hierarchy. 

At one time, FDR made mention of the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in reply to someone's question: "Yes, he may be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch."

The geopolitics of the Monroe Doctrine was in play, and Samoza was a useful ally to US interests.

Although Boddu is no such character, those FDR words used in the context of Boddu's failure to safeguard the nation's treasury from the vultures of plunder may aptly be applied to the autocratic collar of control that sanctions billions of dollars in negotiated duties and taxes through the Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

However, Boddu is aware that even with customs cooperation documents on worldwide importation of goods, along with documents specifying consignee/consignor and Cost Insurance Freight (CIF), will prove to be the twin-island nation's biggest scandal! 

Where did those billions of dollars in negotiable taxes go, and the big businesses that are involved? 

Therefore, it's clear that Boddu prioritizes the political hierarchy and the economic elites' financial interests over integrity.

Boddu was never fired, just elevated to a higher position, and following the warri game being played against the masses, particularly in setting up the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to divert taxes from. the public treasury into offshore MPs of government accounts.

 Boddu is aware of who holds the dossier of incriminating evidence compiled by assassinated customs investigator Njgel Christian, probing corruption involving falsified documents, complicit government collusion, and the loss of millions in tax collections.

Those who pulled the trigger to extinguish Christian's life are just as guilty, but the mastermind behind that callous and brutal crime is protected. 

How can the ALP government ignore the taking of a life without any reaction that brings the perpetrators to justice?

Power may reside in the dynamic of ALP, but that does not protect the ALP from the powerful US Department of Justice (DOJ)!

It's the story of Antigua and Barbuda masked with power to carry out extrajudicial killings and acts of assassination without any remorse.

The epitaph of Nigel Chrystain can be read "Herein lies Mercy buried by deceit."

No government MP attended Nigel Christian's funeral. The excuse was that parliament was to convene the next day. Still, exceptions were made to delay Parliament for John Fuller's funeral, to pay requiem and homage to Rob Barrett and Gerald Watt.

Where is the empathy of the ALP government towards public servants and the working class?

It's a reflection of their guilt and a disservice to the people who labor for measly pay, mold-filled offices, no back pay, dreadful infrastructure, and terrible Healthcare.

During this election cycle, the UPP must make a bold, fulfilling promise for Univeeaal Healthcare.

Monies are available to do that and at the same time increase wages to a liveable standard because if during the tenure of ALP monies can be given to affluent businesspeople as much as $300 million earmarked in the 2018  budget year while denying struggling public servants their increase and backpay it's an urgent time for change, and emergency for better Healthcare and a solemn pledge to fix the crumbling social infrastructure.

Get ready to vote dem outta powah!