Premier not showing ‘all hands on deck’ approach – Doug Wheatley
During the 3D Show, aired on February 22, 2013 on a local radio station, the host expressed, “the Premier talks about all hands on deck, but he has not yet demonstrated, to my utter satisfaction, that he wants all hands on deck.”
The host remarked that upon examination of the hands on deck, they are usually of one particular political persuasion.
Wheatley earlier referred to the ‘clean sweep’ that occurred in Grenada’s elections as PM Keith Mitchell’s intention to unify the human resources of the island of Grenada. According to Wheatley, it is an ‘interesting’ gesture that needed to be replicated in the Virgin Islands (VI).
In the instance of Grenada, the Mitchell led New National Party (NNP) won all 15 seats available at the elections held on February 19, 2013. Here in the VI, the host said, “we need to unify the human resources of our Territory… in this I would like to see, Hon. Myron Walwyn take a lead again, since he seems to be very strident.”
The tendency in the Virgin Islands, Wheatley felt, was that “we begin to reward the persons from our party or party affiliation… with positions, whether it’s chairmanships of committees, memberships in committees, consultancies...”
He added, “If we are to move this country forward, we can’t move it forward if one of our hands is tied behind our back.” All should be involved in governance to make [the Territory] go forward, Wheatley asserted.
His contention was that the present government needed to reach across the political aisle and employ persons, as long as they are competent and capable, who may not be of the same political persuasion.
What we have to do in the Virgin Islands, Wheatley continued, is to adopt the practice wherein persons working in the civil service are able to do their job in a professional manner and are judged based on their performance in the job, regardless of their political affiliation.
“If those persons are capable and able, then we give them an opportunity, because we can only make this country more successful if everyone is involved in the governance of it,” the Host maintained.
Co-host for the evening’s programme, Natalio Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru, ‘in his humble opinion’ felt, “ they've operated quite partisan” when referring to the two major parties in the Virgin Islands, The National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Virgin Islands Party (VIP).
“When VIP is in, well it’s our people’s turn to eat… when the National Democratic Party comes in… they say it’s our turn to eat now… I don’t think we can govern a Territory like this,” he expressed, “you can’t have hungry people out there in the street… you have hungry people you’re going to have some problems.”
He advised that leaders should not assume that once someone identifies with a particular group, that they won’t treat their work with integrity. “Even if I disagree with you, but this is the policy… I have to execute it,” Sowande stated.
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16 Responses to “Premier not showing ‘all hands on deck’ approach – Doug Wheatley”
This sounds all good and dandy but if these people dont like you or your family or they cannot control you to do evil then it doesnt matter hoe efficient you do your job. They will disrespect you by putting incompetent and inexperience family friends and political pups to supervise veteran agent.