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CCM needs BEST: Bacon egg sausage and toast? 8/4/2012 By Llewellyn Parris The English love their food. They do not love it because they love to eat, but they love food because they make good food. It is from the English that I learnt of the acronym BEST. I am talking about the perfect business person’s breakfast, just as the English ordered. It is not the traditional English breakfast, but rather its shortened form, which consists of bacon, egg, sausage and toast. BEST is the perfect food package for a business person who wants to get the full nourishment from the first meal of the day, without overfilling himself. A light and fulfilling, yet filling start in the morning for the busy person. In Nevis we have the near businessman’s breakfast, which unfortunately comes to us on only two days of the week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. On those days, Chef Waltie goes on radio and dishes out his Breakfast Menu that gives us a form of nourishment that no one can offer but the great chef from Gingerland. This breakfast becomes quite juicy when Chef Waltie gets ‘froggy’. His real name is Walter Morton and to catch the best of him, one is advised to tune in to Choice 105.3 FM at 7:30 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If one misses that time, a repeat programme is aired at 1:00 pm on those two days. On Tuesday July 31, Chef Waltie was not exactly ‘froggy’, but the most important thing is that he knows how to present factual information without the need to spin. He first started by chastising the real spinners who had gone on the internet to state that only fifty persons had attended the opening ceremony of Culturama. He talked of a great start of Culturama which in spite of a downpour, many people still attended and he laughed at those spinners, stating that they probably left off a couple of zeros from their perceived figure. He commended Ms Jaedee Caines for a job well done. Chef Waltie was in the company of Royalty this Tuesday. He had in studio King Hollywood, Mr Andrew Nisbett, the reigning Culturama monarch. They did not spin. They presented facts that were appealing to the listeners. I am not going on any further with Chef Waltie and his guest as I would have wanted to do in this article because on the same day, and on another radio station in the evening, I heard persons that I will restrain from calling spinners. On Voice of Nevis (VON) Radio’s Let’s Talk programme, the host Mr Evered ‘Webbo’ Herbert and three heavyweights (they used to be five -- the number that faithful listeners to the programme know), chose to confuse the world as they presented another classic ‘blank page’. On this Tuesday evening, the host portrayed his programme as an educator of electoral laws to the public and boasted: “I suppose, maybe everybody in St. Kitts and Nevis now know the electoral law and the process because we have been discussing this thing for years -- nonstop.” If one must blow their trumpet, then they must choose the right tune to play. Supervisor of Elections, Pastor Leroy Benjamin, was vilified on the programme and was even ‘defrocked’. When Host Webbo started off the debate he talked of people spinning information, while he was skirting around some vital information. How better off is he than those he was accusing of spinning? Webbo, his panellists and even callers to the programme repeatedly accused the Supervisor of Elections of having misled voters to the effect that they could still vote where they were originally registered even if they would have moved from that location. They were partially correct, because on January 11, 2010, the Supervisor of Elections, Mr Benjamin had issued a statement saying so, and even gave his own example, stating that even though he had moved to Basseterre, he still went to vote in Sandy Point. On the basis of that, VON Radio overplayed that statement in the lead-up to the election petition hearing for the St. John’s seat. Was VON Radio educating people or was it poisoning people? I will leave the readers to answer that, but only to do so after reading this: After the January 2010 Federal elections, the Supervisor of Elections took to the national airwaves on February 3, 2010 and advised all and sundry that if one had already moved from where they had originally registered that they must move their name on the voters’ list to reflect the new area of residence. To quote Mr Benjamin: “For persons who moved from one location, village or town to another place; let’s say you were living in Mansion, Molineux, Lodge or Ottley the village where I was born, and was registered in any of the above villages in Constituency #7, but have since moved to your new place of residence which is now Buckleys or West Farm, you should come to the office in Basseterre, report your change of address, fill out form # 7. “The office will assist you and have your name transferred to Buckleys or West Farm which is in Constituency # 3. The only time of the year this can happen is February 1st to February 10th each year. I urge every citizen or resident person who has changed their place of living, have changed their address and is no longer living where they once lived to go to the Electoral Office in Nevis and St. Kitts and update your true place of Residence.” Was the Voice of Nevis (VON) Radio the only media house in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis that did NOT hear Pastor Leroy Benjamin issue that statement? Is this another case of a ‘blank page’? Is it because the VON did not hear, or chooses to ignore the statement issued by Pastor Benjamin on February 3, 2010, that the Supervisor of Elections misled people? Let’s Talk programme on Tuesday July 31 was a waste of time as it shows that the host and his radio station are out fighting Pastor Benjamin, but have gone to the battlefront armed with fake arsenal. Webbo, if you must shoot, for goodness sake please load your gun with bullets and not beans. The fact that you are choosing to hide that there is a statement that the Supervisor of Elections made on February 3, 2010 will not give CCM the arsenal it needs to win any court case. Who is now misleading, Pastor Leroy Benjamin or the Let’s Talk Programme? To make the matters worse, the Hon Mark Brantley called in to the programme to say that the Supervisor of Elections had been roasted by the judge who heard the election petition. That is quite unfortunate for an officer of the court (Brantley is a lawyer) and a lawmaker (parliamentarian) to state that on radio. Has he no respect for the court that granted an appeal? Can the Hon Brantley explain to the world why after the judge made his ruling, that an appeal was allowed? Let him explain in plain words for all to understand how the courts work. I am the wrong person to explain. On his programme (also aired on VON) on Wednesday July 18, Mr Brantley spent most of his programme repeating what Judge Lionel Jones had said of the Supervisor of Elections in disregard of the fact that an appeal had been allowed. He does not know what will be the outcome of the appeal. An appeal is allowed not because the Judge was right or wrong, but rather because some of the things that such a judge would have ruled could be challengeable. While on the programme, committed CCM activist Mr Elton Marcus Hull called in and was given a lot of airtime, which is unlike the On the Mark programme as we know it. Why didn’t Mr Brantley, or even Mr Hull himself, repeat what Justice Jones said of Mr Hull? This is what Judge Jones said on page 57 of his judgement: “Out of this list (of witnesses), I have recited in full the evidence of Elton Marcus Hull as he has been relied on to support the claims by the Petitioner that the 3rd named Respondent was associated with the NRP.” On page 121: “Under cross-examination by Mr Astaphan, Mr Hull was shifty, extremely vague and unreliable.” The Judge then concluded: “I have set out Mr Hull’s evidence in full.” Can Hon Brantley explain to us what Judge Jones meant when he said that he had ‘set out’ Mr Hull’s evidence in full? Can Hon Brantley also confirm and tell the public that the Judge refused to reinstate 203 names to the voters’ list because the Petitioner (Brantley) failed in law to make a plea in his petition (see page 144 of the judgement)? Why did Brantley make a cross appeal? Why then only refer to what was said about others and not what was said about his side? When you go on radio and you choose to hide the truth, you are worse than spinners who at least do not leave out any information -- they in fact add. I will advise that you take a BEST: Before Engagement Share Thoughts (and tell the truth). The subject of the Let’s Talk programme was a hearing in Charlestown to do with a case that a CCM activist Mr Oscar Browne had brought. But I will advise them (another BEST) to find out the fate of their political bed partner PAM only last week. PAM had gone to court to insist that names of some foreign students be removed from the voters’ list. Their case was dismissed with cost by Justice Errol Thomas on Friday July 27. Worse had come in early for the PAM party when in May Mr Jonell Powell, one of PAM’s leaders and the lawyer who had taken the matter to court had his name successfully removed from the voters list because while he is registered in Central Basseterre, he lives in Mattingley Heights. Mr Powell was not alone. PAM party chairman, Mr Selwyn ‘Rusty’ Liburd was also objected to for being registered as a voter in Constituency number 2 Polling Division 3 while he lives in Cayon and his name was successfully removed. Jonell’s sister’s name came off the voters’ list as well. A number of things are happening and no one is talking about them. A lot of the political operatives in the CCM and the PAM (which are incidentally movements) need BEST and should leave politics to real political parties.

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