Responding to a question posed on Tuesday, on radio, Parry explained that while the People’s Action Movement (PAM) party needed the Nevis Reformation Party’s (NRP) support, to form a government in 1980, that was not the case with the Labour Party in February 2010, when it included Patrice Nisbett in the Federal Cabinet.
The Premier said, “I do not think the relationship that we have with Labour is quite the same as we had with the People’s Action Movement,” in answer to a proposition put to him by the program host, as to whether he considered the Labour Party and the NRP to be in a coalition.
Parry explained that he was not in politics at the time when the People’s Action Movement needed that extra support to form the government, but both parties decided to usher in a different style of politics and formed a coalition. It meant that if one party left the coalition the government would collapse.
“The coalition brought in the country’s Independence (1983) and the Nevis Constitution,” pointed out the Premier. Certainly there are a number of good things that both sides can point to, out of that relationship.”
But as for the inclusion of Patrice Nisbett in the Federal Cabinet as the Attorney General in 2010, Premier Parry debunked the host’s contention that it was a coalition, “Here we have a situation where the Labour Party did not need our support to form a government, but in the interest of better relations and of getting things done, that offer (for Nisbett) to join the Federal Cabinet was made and was accepted (by the NRP).”
Speaking on the issue of the country’s political climate, the Premier advised Nevisians that despite their political differences that they should keep the difference strictly political. He lamented the fact that people are not handling the differences well, as they are getting emotional, and some of them are just following blindly, not even listening to others. He advised that for one to understand, one had to listen.
“I want to recommend that to both Nevisians and Kittitians, we need to begin to have a dialogue; an exchange and stop lecture each other. Even as we seek to press our own point, we need to remember that in the end our country will survive after we are gone, and we must make some contribution to that survival.”