Defending the Nation

A Special Note from the Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer

In 2004, the mission of the United Progressive Party was to rescue the nation from the condition of a failed state and a nation in the hands of the Bird dynasty. Mission accomplished.

The mission of the UPP this year is to defend the nation and all we have achieved together. This General Election falls due in a period of crisis; as did the 2004 General Election. This election takes place in a period of crisis triggered by ongoing global economic convulsions, by the sustained trauma of skyrocketing oil prices prior to the current slump, by escalating food prices around the world last year, and by the Stanford catastrophe, which immediately hit home hard in Antigua and Barbuda.

In March 2004, Antigua and Barbuda was also in deep crisis. This country had long attracted global notoriety as a preeminent kleptocracy, in which the dominant characteristic of governance was the enrichment of members of the ruling dynasty and favoured insiders; with the state of the nation and the needs of the people of minor consequence to the ALP power brokers.

Except for the five year period, 1971 to 1976, the Bird dynasty had ruled Antigua and Barbuda for some fifty years, with inconsistent degrees of efficiency; diminishing levels of benevolence; and in the post Independence period, a runaway propensity for plundering the people’s patrimony.

On March 23, 2004, in a General Election driven by a call for justice, the Antiguan and Barbudan people used the power of their votes to remove a scandal-ridden regime whose greed had shamed the country for decades.

The legacy of the ousted regime was a collapsing economy, ostracism by international agencies, stagnant tourism, and deeply disaffected youth.

The first crisis the UPP administration faced on taking office was that of meeting the public service payroll, with no provision in place for that commitment.

That state of affairs defines the character of the governance of the ALP.

The other initial imperative was the need to win the respect of the international community, which had been completely eroded by the misdeeds of the Bird regime.

The UPP’s quick turnaround of our battered economy was hailed around the region.

It is clear to the Antiguan and Barbudan people that there is need to defend the nation from the enemies within and from the external threats that can plunge our economy into free fall and our society into chaos.

No one, however, should test the will of my government.

I never have and I never will shirk my duty to defend the nation. I had no hesitation advising the Parliament two weeks before the General Election to legitimate the measures necessary to enable the Government to defend the Stanford workers.

The United Progressive Party is a different proposition. We came to office with a legitimacy the previous administration could not claim.

The results of general elections prior to 2004 did not always reflect the will of the electorate. Commonwealth observer missions and other election monitors found significant incidence of election fraud; and election rigging, generally, in prior elections. This prompted a call from the Commonwealth observer mission after the 1999 General Election for genuine electoral reform, with personal voter identification embedded.

Not surprisingly, the Antiguan and Barbudan people’s overwhelming support for the United Progressive Party was faithfully rendered in a decisive mandate for the UPP in the 2004 election.

The people’s mandate places the United Progressive Party under continuing obligation to defend the nation against such enemies as ignorance, poverty, injustice and exploitation and intimidation of our immigrant communities.

I say to our Hispanic, Jamaican, Guyanese, St. Lucian, Dominican and Vincentian brothers and sisters, that I stand by my statement that there will be no second class citizens in Antigua and Barbuda.

No one will be left out; no one will be left behind.

I invite all within our shores to work to build one another, together. I remind all voters that persons convicted for certain crimes can face disbarment from sitting in the Senate or in the House of Representatives.

It is my duty to point out that nowhere has a political party gone into a General Election with so large a number of its frontline leadership as defendants in matters involving ethics and integrity in public office, as is now the case with the ALP.

I urge all to use their votes in defense of our nation.

I thank the Antiguan and Barbudan people, and our Caribbean brothers and sisters, for the overwhelming warmth and support you have given the UPP in this election campaign.

I urge you to use your vote to move our nation forward.

When the nation goes to the polls on March 12, 2009, you, the voter, will have the power.

Use it to defend our nation.

Use it to protect what you have.

Choice does not mean chance.

Sanity, sobriety and decency are to be demanded of those to whom you would entrust the leadership of our country.

The United progressive Party has worked hard to serve you. We might have made mistakes. We have, however, delivered meaningfully on our campaign promises.

We present in this Manifesto a report on our stewardship and a roadmap to a future you can believe in. We confirm in this Manifesto, Agenda for Change for the Second Term, the United Progressive Party’s decision to place the Antiguan and Barbudan people at the commanding heights of the country’s economy by making them shareholders, as well as stakeholders, in the major assets owned by the Government and those organizations in which the Government owns substantial equity.

We proclaim this on the first page of this Manifesto, under the heading Power To The People. In this unprecedented development, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda will divest to the people, a number of entities with manifest potential to generate significant profit to shareholders.

Those organizations are the Antigua and Barbuda Airport Authority; the Port Authority; the State Insurance Corporation; the Electricity Department of APUA; and the Telecoms Department of APUA.

The Government will also divest to the people, a portion of its 25% equity holding in the company which has replaced The Bank of Antigua.. The Government is now in negotiations to acquire West Indies Oil Company, with the intention of divesting its equity in that company to the Antiguan and Barbudan people.

This divestment programme represents the single most profound demonstration of empowering the people in the history of Antigua and Barbuda, and the wider Caribbean region.

As I return their government to the people, I again appeal to all in the society to participate fully and peacefully in the electoral process.

Whatever happens on Election Day, we will all have to live, pray and work together to overcome the daunting challenges facing our beloved country.

The future of our country and the future of generations yet unborn are in our hands.

We have no option but to put aside political differences and to cast aside political extremists.

This is the framework in which we must elect our next government. I particularly appeal to first time voters to engage fully in the process. Our youth, after all, will inherit the nation. Make sure you keep it in good hands. Make sure that we keep our beloved Antigua and Barbuda in God’s hands.