From Talk to action!

Last week Thursday I met a gentleman who said to me that he was hearing me. Assuming that he was recently listening to the Dominica Freedom Party's radio discussion about moving from "talk to action", I responded – "great; all I want is for all the people to prosper!"

Indeed that is what I really want, but beyond just prosperity, I want our people to thrive, meaning that I want them to enjoy life in our country, feel that they share in the prosperity, that they belong and are looked out for and that we have a shared responsibility to protect and cherish our Nature Island which is a rich and rare gift that must be passed on intact to our posterity for them to also enjoy.

You see, if our people are prosperous and thriving, then they can't be easily controlled towards the selfish ends of evil politicians. They will be free to express their views. They can't be easily be victimized through economic terrorism especially if prosperous people band together! A dictator can't survive in the midst of an independent people who are thriving. As for that matter, dictators often work towards making the people dependent on them so that they can control them!

We want all our people to thrive – none must be left behind. With integrity, creativity and good planning, a cake that is big enough can be prepared so that all the people can partake to their full satisfaction. In that way there should be no need for discrimination especially not on political grounds. It is small minded, weak and ungodly people that behave the way the current political regime in Dominica behaves!

Given our current political reality of a ruling regime that lacks legitimacy, and one that is bent on subjugating the people through poverty, dependency and military force, must we, the people, just sit and wait? The Dominica Freedom Party is certainly not going to do that. Instead we will do everything we can (not just talk) while not in office to organize our people and lead them into prosperity and independence from a tyrant. Towards that end we will foster strategic partnerships with our people abroad and with others as necessary and we will do so prayerfully.

So why not just do the usual politics and wait for our turn to get into office? Be assured that we will do the usual politics as well, but we can't just wait while our country goes down the drain! We must begin to take action where we can!

Furthermore, we will start to act because the current political regime appears clearly to be incapable. They seem incapable of attracting the right skills and the best skills among our people at home and abroad. Moreover, the current regime is corrupt. Even if there is some capability in their midst, they are so steeped in corruption that nothing works well and ultimately, even otherwise good programmes, flop under their administration.

Also, we will start to act and not just talk because the politics practiced by the current regime is not just partisan, their politics is also wicked and foolish! The regime attends to their supporters with a little cake while they keep the big cake for themselves. But their supporters don't realize that they could be a lot better off if the country was run by a capable government of integrity – the cake available to them would be much bigger – much bigger than the combined little cake and the bigger stolen cake.

But where do we start to govern even if we are not in government? We will start with agri-business in the context of the big idea – Dominica the Nature Island of the World. There is also an important link to be made here with tourism – agri-tourism, which we think can be a game changer. What is the big idea all about? What is agri-tourism? We will explain in the next article.

Let us lay down a few foundation principles out of which will arise some of our actions. Then within the next twelve months, some more specific projects on which we will be acting will be revealed. Now the main foundation principle are as follows:

• Land is precious! Our message will be - resist selling your land, it will be the basis for your prosperity.

• We must overcome the constraints to success in order to move from ideas to reality.

• We must invest! But how do we do that given our limited income? There are actions that can overcome the financing constraints.

• We must get the young people involved. They must see a bright future!

• We must tap into the skills and investments of our people everywhere given that there are many Dominicans who reside abroad.

• Integrity will remain a foundational corner stone.

• Dominica First! Freedom Party will continue to be a party that places the interest of the people above all else.

In the next few articles, we will expound on each of those foundation principles.

Kent Vital

Political Leader

Dominica Freedom Party.