Tweet

Denzil Douglas and the Culture of Deceit  The issue of “fake news” has reared its ugly head within the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis as a 5-year election cycle comes to an end and the opposition Labour party seeks to unseat the present Unity government. Recent revelations regarding fake news as it relates to the non-existent presence of the coronavirus in St Kitts and Nevis has brought into sharp focus the lengths to which Dr Douglas would resort to reclaim power. Claims have been made and rumours spread with the sole purpose of sowing chaos throughout the Federation with the hope that a panicked populace would seek his intervention.We should not be surprised by such stories as Dr Douglas has always resorted to deceit to achieve his goals.  We are reminded that he hired the infamous fraudsters and fake news peddlars SCL/Cambridge Analytica to coordinate previous election campaigns. They in turn boasted on their website that they successfully managed the Labour Party’s campaign. It was only 2 years ago that a number of British newspapers including the reputable and widely circulated ‘The Guardian’ revealed that the CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix “gave staff instructions to handle material provided by computer hackers in election campaigns in Nigeria and St Kitts and Nevis”.  It goes on to state that “in early 2015, sources said the same Israeli team that had worked on the Nigeria campaign obtained private information of the St Kitts and Nevis politician Timothy Harris. At the time he was an opposition leader, and is now prime minister”. The staff at Cambridge Analytica were so disturbed by such illegal activities that they refused to accept the hacked information. The extent of SCL/Cambridge Analytica’s modus operandi of fake news and subterfuge throughout the Caribbean has also been revealed in the Netflix Documentary “The Great Hack”.Although Cambridge Analytica is now defunct due to the numerous scandals that rocked the company over the past 4 years, we can certainly see its influence on Dr Douglas’ current 2020 Election campaign. Having lost all credibility and as a result favourability among the electorate the Douglas Labour election campaign has again resorted to  his politics of falsehoods and fear with the aid of elements of the SCL/ Cambridge Analytica group and playbook.  Their ideology has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of corruption and are now safely embedded in Dr Douglas’ culture of deceit.While he disseminates lies and innuendo with scant regard for facts or the future of the Federation, his team of keyboard warriors seek to spread anxiety through viral messages that appeal to our worse instincts.