MP for West Kingstown says he was slighted at ceremony to hand over houses

Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) for West Kingstown, Daniel Cummings said he was slighted at the recent ceremony to hand over houses to residents of Rose Place.

On Nice Radio last Tuesday, February 1, Cummings noted that he was not invited to the ceremony at Lowmans Bay to mark the handover of houses for the resettlement of 47 families of Rose Place who will be affected by the construction of a modern port in that area.

Nevertheless, he said he thought it important “as the representative” for the area to be there. 

The MP, whose West Kingstown constituency includes Rose Place said that he arrived at the site of the housing units at Lowmans Bay before two in the afternoon, which was the time the event was supposed to begin. 

 “..All of the platform party met me because where I was seated they had to pass through that area to get to their platform, and greeted me, some of them,” he recalled. 

“Yet in the introduction they recognised every member of the ULP (Unity Labour Party) team, yet nobody felt it important to recognise the elected representative for the constituency in which the ceremony was being held,” he pointed out. 

None of the speakers mentioned Cummings, instead using the all-encompassing ‘senior public servants’ and ‘other distinguished guests’ Some opted for ‘protocol already having been established’.

“The reason I mention this folks is it has nothing to do with me. I don’t care if they mention my name, but what it speaks to, and this is for the children, it speaks to why this country is in such a sad state.”

Cummings further said that, “those who are in authority fail to understand the importance of being civil. They fail to teach the young ones what is civics.”

Cummings expressed his displeasure that senator, Renée Baptiste who is the speaker of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Assembly, would “sit and entertain” the “ridiculous behaviour and not do anything about it.”

He commented once more on the “state” the country is in and what he perceives to be a situation where partisan politics is paraded as “the way to go.”

“….It is just sickening. I didn’t ask for them to have me up on the platform. I didn’t expect them to invite me to speak at the ceremony, although they are required so to do, but as a minimum they ought to have recognised the Parliamentary Representative for the area in the audience,” Cummings also said, adding, “But then class is class…”

“…For the young ones who growing up, this is not how decent people behave, this is not how civilised society behaves. Protocol is important. You have a system of governance, you have a system where people are elected to look after the affairs of those in their constituency and with that goes a certain level of decorum.”

Cummings viewed the actions as “a very, very sad reflection on where we are as a people. Very, very sad.”

The West Kingstown MP, who earlier was critical of the project recently moved to public commendation, labelling the houses as being “of a good quality” and the infrastructure as being “fine”.