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Fellow Dominicans, our country has been engulfed in a sea of controversy surrounding the granting of our diplomatic passports. In recent weeks, such controversy has come to the fore through the story \u2013 Passports for Sale – aired on the CBS 60 Minutes programme on January 1st2017; this matter has been widely debated in Dominica.<\/p>\n
We too the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) took some time on Wednesday 4th January 2017, on our radio programme aired on Q 95 FM, to share with our listeners frank views on the matter. But it is clear to us that the CBS programme called into question two broad areas, first our capacity to do adequate due diligence regarding those to whom we issue economic citizenship and secondly \u2013 our honesty.<\/p>\n
More recently, there has been the story by TDN concerning the Iranian man \u2013 Alireza Zibahalat Monfared, who was arrested by Interpol agents on accusation of helping embezzle billions of dollars from the sale of Iranian oil sold in violation of international oil trade sanctions against Iran.It is reflected in the said article that Monfared who together with Dominica\u2019s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit were involved with the My Dominica Trade House (MDTH), was issued a diplomatic passport in 2015 as well as a regular passport in 2014. The article when on to say that following his arrest, it was revealed that he (Monfared) used his various passports to help evade capture.<\/p>\n
The controversy was further compounded on the release of an article on Kenneth Rijock\u2019s Financial Crime Blog entitled \u2013 Prime Minister of Dominica under criminal investigation in the United States. The article notes that reliable sources have confirmed that the Prime minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, is currently under investigation being conducted by an agency in the United States, for his role in selling a Dominica diplomatic passport to Alireza Zibahalat Monfared. Moreover, Caribbean News Now! noted in an article that: \u201ccontrary to Skerrit\u2019s denial, US law enforcement sources have since told them that his possible collusion with Monfared in providing travel documents that enabled him (Monfared) to evade arrest, is indeed under active scrutiny by the US Department of Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
These recent disclosures\/allegations are very troubling to the Dominica Freedom Party. These disclosures\/allegationsare very troubling to the People of Dominica.<\/p>\n
This is about preserving our good name! A good name is better thanriches \u2013 Proverbs 21:1. We put it to you the people of Dominica that one of the most important things we will need to enable our country to overcome our current economic and social difficulties is our good name!<\/p>\n
Our young people are struggling and yearning for a better way of life, for better social and economic opportunities, for better recreational opportunities; our families need jobs so that in dignity we can send our children to school, take care of our sick and care for our elderly; our senior citizens want to leave behind children, grandchildren and great grandchildren that have a real future in our great country; and we disparately want to live in a country that is tranquil, caring and crime free!<\/p>\n
Some of our working people are still struggling to make ends meet and the jobless cry daily, though it is unfortunate that some of us who seem to have good paying jobs for the time being seem not to hear their cry!<\/p>\n
The mission is great and we in the Dominica Freedom Party believe that the tide of this country can be turned once again to an upward trajectory the way we left it when the party demitted office in 1995. The Dominica Freedom Party had a good name back then, and so we know how important a good name is to development as we used that good name to the benefit of the people of Dominica.<\/p>\n
The web-site – http:\/\/luke1428.com, puts forward 3 reasons a good name is better than riches. An excerpt from the first reason says \u201cWhen you have a good name people can trust you. That trust is a stabilizing factor in your relationship with them. They know what to expect from you and can lean on your decisions with absolute surety, knowing they were made with pure motives. Those whose good name has been tarnished have a difficult time building trust. Their motives will always be questioned as insincere. They are more or less seen as looking out for themselves and taking little consideration for the needs of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow Dominicans, let us understand that the loss of our good name will hurt us! It will only lead us down the road of underdevelopment. It will affect our ability to attract help and investments from abroad; it may harm our very way of life and our ability to travel!<\/p>\n
But we must be frank with you our people. Our country has been losing its good name for some time now. The explanations given so far by the current government have been inadequate. They do not adequately address the fundamental issue of: whether Dominica\u2019s due diligence process related to the issue of diplomatic passports or the economic citizenship programme is robust enough; whether the due diligence process is adhered to at all times and taken into consideration fully at all times and if they are, why are there so many instances of our diplomatic passports and regular passports falling into the wrong hands \u2013 nefarious characters as described on the CBS programme- and falling into these hands much too often for comfort or for it to be considered co-incidental; whether the arrangement surrounding agents in the economic citizenship programme is adequate and does it leave room for agents to be tempted to sidestep due diligence processes or to collude with government officials to get around them; whether diplomatic passport are indeed sold; or were any benefits given that should not have been given in return for the issue of some of these passports that have come into questions; whether political figures, or political parties have been personally or directly benefited from the sale of passports; and other questions of that nature.<\/p>\n
It is not enough for the government to unilaterally order an investigation and expect that would suffice. For the people of Dominica to have full confidence in an investigation, due attention must be paid to the selection of the persons who would do the enquiry or investigation. These persons must be chosen in a way that would cause all to be satisfied with their suitability.<\/p>\n
In our current political context and our \u201cgang-political culture\u201d it is sometimes hard for our people to decide who is telling the truth. But, you can continue to count on the integrity of the Dominica Freedom Party! We will always be truthful, fair and frank with you the people. The truth is that our country is viewed as being corrupt, and there is a very real possibility that if we do not stop and turn the corner we the people will pay the price forour government\u2019s actions that are being perceived to be placing the security of other countries at risk.<\/p>\n
We could pay by losing access to visa-free travel to some countries;we could face greater scrutiny when we travel; we could have greater difficulty accessing travel visas; financial and other sanctions can be placed on our country which could make our lives very- very-very difficult, and these sanctions could affect even our ability to receive money from our families abroad and our ability to send monies to them, especially our students who are studying abroad. Moreover, we could pay dearly if bona-fide investors who we need to help move the country forward, stay away!<\/p>\n
We should not expect those countries who think that our actions related to the granting of diplomatic passports, compromises their security, would sit and do nothing! The Dominica Freedom Party supports the Economic Citizenship programme in principle, but we insist that it must be well run, open and transparent,so that it does not damage the security interest of other nations. Sanctions that could be imposed by aggrieved countries could well turn out to outweigh the funds that we have been collecting from the economic citizenship program. Moreover, government elected officials and others who may be complicit in breaking international law and placing other countries security at risk may pay a high personal price if they are pursued and found guilty by these countries.<\/p>\n
As fellow Dominicans, we do not wish ill on these persons. However, we call on the government not to side-step the real issues. People of Dominica, let us treat this issue with the seriousness it deserves. Moreover, we urge the government to be frank with the people concerning the prospects for continued collections under the programme. Given the competition from other countries, and the value of our passport (in terms of access to visa-free ravel to countries) can we continue to expect the investment flows under the programme that could support the hotel projects that the administration has recently touted? Are there other avenues to attract bona-fide investments into Dominica? And this is where a good name really counts!<\/p>\n
That is where true creativity and hard work count. Is this administration creative enough to take this country forward? Are they capable of doing the hard work that is required? Why is there an over-dependence on the sale of passports?<\/p>\n
We need to stop the bleeding! Our country is hurting too badly! For the sake of the people of this beautiful Dominica, and given the seriousness of the issues, we call on the Labour Party Government to immediately set \u2013 up the commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of this passport scandal.
\nThis will either clear the good name of our beloved country or it will allow us to have a fresh start. Failing this, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and his administration should tender their resignations and make way for the formation of an interim government with the involvement ofcivil society with a mandate to stabilize the country and to hold general elections in 18 months-time.<\/p>\n
We ask the current administration to do the right thing. Fellow Dominicans, we have to warn you to brace yourself for possibly even worst news and accusations. But should the government not heed our call, peaceful, non-violentpressure should be brought to bear on them by all Dominicans at home and abroad to put an end to this very serious scandal surrounding our diplomatic passport and the poor governance practices of our country\u2019s affairs by the Roosevelt Skerrit administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fellow Dominicans, our country has been engulfed in a sea of controversy surrounding the granting of our diplomatic passports. In recent weeks, such controversy has come to the fore through the story \u2013 Passports for Sale – aired on the…","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":171627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n