By Hastings R. Daniel
Well I Hastings R. Daniel has not attended a NRP Convention for seventeen (17) years. Indeed the first one I attended I was elected Party Secretary. Even when I attended in recent years I was never a delegate. Notwithstanding that, I am a diehard NRP who has given my time, efforts and resources to the only political party I know on Nevis. Whereas some have been jumping on the bank and in the river I have remained steadfast in my vote, contribution and writing. Indeed let me remind all that I wrote 150 articles in the Labour Spokesman for the NRP over three years under my own name: In the Public Interest. Lest we forget those articles got me in trouble with the libel court and cost me and my family $100,000.00 from our own pockets. I have spoken on every platform for the party throughout the length and breadth of this land that bore me. CCM sent me home in 1992 and 1997. My brother Hensley sent them home in 2006. Ah so it go. I was weeping in the long night and joy came in the morning, that lovely dawn in 2006.
Since then, I have watched from the sidelines while the NRP snatched defeat from the joys of victory by letting the CCM back in during the Federal elections of 2007. Since then the NRP has been hiding leather and running for cover. What started the rot for the party was the failure to close ranks and fight the common enemy CCM. NRP people turned on themselves to their detriment. Since 2013 NRP has been sitting like the children by the rivers of Babylon weeping when we remember Zion. They that carried us away in captivity, requiring of us a song. How shall we sing the victorious song in a strange land. We are hanging our heads in the willow. NRP infighting has brought us here.
What happened before Sunday 21 at Jessup’s, I do not want to know. Who was talking against who, and who was backing who, I Hastings R. Daniel do not want to know. If you got a slap or a cuff I say forget that. We have a duty to party and country to restore Peace Progress and Prosperity to Nevis. Who say and who did not say I care not. The NRP in truly democratic fashion has chosen a leader by votes at a convention. In politics this is the ultimate. Whoever was jockeying for position and got or did not get must of necessity be on the same page fighting with all they got against the common political foe. This is the first time the party has chosen a leader in truly democratic and high class transparency fashion.
Nobody must ask me or anybody who they supported at the convention. No leader should get to the highest office of a political party and do not get opposition and some bruising blows. Hector has to be humble and go and look for those who DID NOT support him. The people who lose must go and look for Hector. I want to see immediate healing and harnessing of all hands on deck. Be assured NRP members that your only hope is in the Party of Sim Daniel and those brave boys who withstood a political tsunami during the harrowing years of the 1970’s. Parry and the other boys bought Nevis development. Here me NRP, the CCM would not give you a sniff even if you prostrate yourself before them. We have to be all in, and we have to stay in.
It is not moot for us to reflect on whether Hector is or is not. The votes have been counted and the Party has decided. We must question not but fall in and be ready for the battle. Battle it will be. Do not let anyone feel that the forces against the NRP will show any mercy. NRP people this is a call for forgiveness and healing. We shall rally with Hector until we ask him to leave at another convention. Today we check in for duty. We perforce frighten to hear that Trump gone down by Ted Cruz in Texas to help him. Gosh man bitter enemies like these understand that the Democrats are the common foe. Why then do the NRP factions not see that Hector cannot be the enemy? The common enemy is the CCM and we need to change places with them soon. Let the NRP “lift every voice and sing” Let us embrace the Yuletide season and spirit in the words of that lovely carol “No more let sin and sorrow grow or thorns infest the ground. Let us rally to make blessings flow wherever Nevisians are found”.
In this regard, I wish to see and accept no resignations and let us march hand in hand with the new leadership. SELAH.