'Boldly together or stumble separately'- Premier Fahie on regional unity
The Premier was at the time speaking at the People’s Action Movement’s (PAM) 54th Anniversary Convention on Sunday, April 28, 2019, in Basseterre, St Kitts & Nevis where he was the Keynote Speaker at the invitation of Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, The Honourable Shawn K. Richards.
Mutual Respect
“For unity to succeed there must also be trust and mutual respect. Too many times in the Caribbean we spend more time tearing down, than uniting. We have to understand in this coalition, none is more important than the other. But you are not the least either, you must demand respect and you must give it,” Hon Fahie told those gathered.
“I come to you today as a friend, and as an observer, but also too as a member of the wider Caribbean fraternity… I come to you also as one of the strongest believers in regional unity, and so I also want to allude to the concept of unity on a regional basis,” he said.
According to Hon Fahie, for Caribbean leaders to truly deliver on the promises of a better way for its people, “there is no better way than to act as one united Caribbean.”
He pointed out that since coming to office as Premier in the Virgin Islands (VI), through the Virgin Islands Party (VIP), his government has made it a robust and an aggressive policy to move on many fronts so the VI can be an integral part of the regional unity process.
VI Leading the way – Hon Fahie
“Indeed my first overseas trip as Premier was to the OECS [Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States] authority meeting in Guadeloupe. We have also joined the Association of Caribbean States and I had the pleasure of joining the recent head meetings in Nicaragua,” he further revealed.
According to the Premier, the people of the VI have long accepted the notion and the understanding that “we not only have a shared history in the Caribbean but a shared destiny.”
As such, “the option is to either go forward boldly together or stumble separately into irrelevance,” he said in pointing out several strides his government has made, including giving legal status to residents of other Caribbean territories.
The Premier mulled that it is imperative that the region must find meaningful ways to strengthen economic and cultural ties through shared resources and ideas.
He said due to the shared colonial past of the Caribbean Region, “Our generation only now has the duty to consolidate and formalise the commitment to unity that our forefathers made.”
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6 Responses to “'Boldly together or stumble separately'- Premier Fahie on regional unity”
ask you mo.....!
Moreover, the regional Anglophone countries are resource-poor. With the decline of sugar, tourism, a fragile industry, is the region’s primary economy; mono-economy. The region needs to form some type union to use the region’s limited resources for improving regional growth and development, improving standard of living and quality of life, stemming brain and skill drain .........etc, ie, delivering the highest level of service to the greatest number of people. There are opportunities for regional cooperation on education, medicine, disaster management, insurance, law, economic growth and development, national defence, environmental management.......etc . There is strength in numbers.
Unification is working for much larger locales, ie, US, Canada, Australia, EU....etc. Premier Andrew Fahie states: ‘Boldly together or stumble separately.’ Which bold regional leader will step forth with a bold new regional plan. The Caribbean Anglophone countries of approx 6.8 million people deserves the opportunity for a brighter future. Freedom of movement historically has been a challenge for many countries. However, if opportunities are created in all countries, freedom of movement becomes a non-isdue, for people like to stay home among family, friends.....etc.