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Basseterre, St. Kitts — SKN Times Exclusive |
In a fiery and unflinching statement that shook the National Assembly to its core, People’s Labour Party (PLP) Leader and 3rd Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris, delivered a scathing condemnation of what he described as the “mockery and dysfunction” of the St. Kitts and Nevis Parliament — blasting the Speaker and Government benches for their unprecedented dereliction of parliamentary duty.

The former Prime Minister’s remarks came during a tense sitting of the National Assembly, where he walked out in protest, citing the Government’s continued failure to table and confirm minutes of parliamentary sittings for more than three years — from 2022 straight through 2025.

“This morning the Parliament, as usual, got off to a late start,” Dr. Harris declared. “That has become the norm and is a clear indication of the Government’s inability to even organise its own affairs. The last person to arrive was the Prime Minister himself — who is scheduled to present a bill today — strolling in around 11:06 a.m. Parliament was to start at 10 a.m. This repeated lateness and disregard for order speaks to callousness, indiscipline, and total disrespect for our people and for democracy.”

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“A Guinness World Record in Incompetence”

In a blistering denunciation of the Speaker’s management of the House, Dr. Harris revealed that not a single set of minutes has been confirmed since the Speaker took office in 2022 — not for 2022, 2023, 2024, or even 2025.

“This is an absolute disgrace. Not one set of minutes for three years! In all my three decades in Parliament, I have never witnessed such gross negligence,” he said.
“The Speaker should be ashamed. This is either laziness, incompetence, or arrogance — or perhaps all three. We are now making history for all the wrong reasons. If there were a Guinness Book of Records for parliamentary dysfunction, this Parliament would be on the cover.”

Dr. Harris underscored that the confirmation of minutes is not a mere formality but a foundational principle in Westminster democracy, serving as the official and authoritative record of parliamentary proceedings.

“It is the first substantive matter on the Order Paper,” he reminded. “It takes precedence even over messages from the Governor-General. To defer it repeatedly for over three years is not just irregular — it is unconstitutional and illegal.”

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“A Threat to Democracy Itself”

The PLP Leader did not mince words in calling the situation a direct threat to democratic governance, warning that such procedural neglect erodes accountability, transparency, and trust in government.

“What we have is a creeping authoritarianism wrapped in incompetence,” Dr. Harris said gravely.
“When a Parliament cannot even confirm what transpired in its own sittings — when the Speaker allows the record of the people’s business to go unverified for years — that is not democracy. That is decay.”

He accused the Government benches of complicity through silence, stating that no minister or government MP has raised concern or attempted to correct the issue.

“They sit there, comfortable in chaos, pretending not to notice. Not one of them had the courage or the conscience to say, ‘Madam Speaker, this cannot stand.’ Instead, they enable the erosion of the very institution they swore to serve.”

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“Deferred, Deferred, Deferred” — And Now, A Cover-Up

Dr. Harris further condemned the Speaker’s reported plan to approve the backlog of 27 sittings’ worth of minutes “in bulk,” calling it “an outrageous breach of parliamentary practice.”

“You cannot approve three years of parliamentary records by bulk! Each sitting’s minutes must be individually reviewed and confirmed. To attempt otherwise is to rewrite history in one sweeping motion — a bureaucratic cover-up of monumental proportions.”

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“Shame, Disrespect, and Democratic Decline”

The veteran parliamentarian lamented that the current Speaker, despite traveling across the Commonwealth at public expense to attend conferences on parliamentary best practices, has failed to apply any of the principles she should have learned.

“She has the office but not the discipline. The trappings, but not the competence. The pomp, but not the performance,” Dr. Harris charged.
“She must take her work seriously. She must read the rules and apply them. She is not above the law.”

He added that the Speaker’s mismanagement reflects the broader pattern of disorder, arrogance, and indifference that has come to define the current administration.

“From the Electoral Office to the Boundaries Commission to the Parliament itself — we are witnessing the corrosion of democracy by people who profess expertise in nothing but failure,” Harris said.

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“A National Wake-Up Call”

Dr. Harris’s walkout, he explained, was an act of protest and principle, a statement to awaken the nation to the dangers of allowing parliamentary collapse to go unchecked.

“This can no longer be explained to rational beings,” he concluded. “It is wrong, it is irregular, and it is oppressive to the rights of Members of Parliament and to the people they represent. If we continue down this road, our democracy will not just be wounded — it will be destroyed.”

The PLP Leader ended with a call to action for all citizens:

“Every Kittitian and Nevisian must stand for democracy. What is happening in Parliament today is a stain on our history — but it is not too late to demand better, to restore integrity, and to remind those in power that they are not above the rules, not above the people, and not above the law.”

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SKN Times Commentary:
Dr. Harris’s searing statement lays bare a disturbing reality — that the parliamentary process in St. Kitts and Nevis has fallen into administrative paralysis and constitutional disrepair. If left uncorrected, this scandal may go down as one of the most shameful chapters in the nation’s democratic history.