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Dear Editor:
There is something deeply offensive about the United Progressive Party’s sudden discovery of “political persecution.”
It insults the intelligence of the Antiguan and Barbudan people and tramples on recent history that is neither forgotten nor forgiven.
The UPP is not a victim of state power. It is the original abuser of it.
Between 2004 and 2014, the UPP turned governance into a ten-year vendetta against former Antigua Labour Party ministers and supporters. The objective was never justice.
It was humiliation, intimidation, and political extermination. State institutions were bent to serve party revenge, and anyone associated with the ALP was treated as a criminal-in-waiting.
The UPP hired a foreign forensic investigator, not because local institutions had failed, but because the optics of foreign “experts” were useful for poisoning public opinion.
This was theatre, not law enforcement.
It was designed to convince the population that guilt already existed and that convictions were inevitable. None ever came.
Criminal charges were filed against Cutie Benjamin and Tanny Rose, trumpeted loudly in the media, waved like trophies at political rallies, and used to scare voters into submission.
Multiple civil lawsuits were launched against former ministers, including Gaston Browne, in an orchestrated legal blitz meant to bankrupt, silence, and politically destroy opponents.
And after years of noise, millions in legal costs, and reputations dragged through the mud, every single case collapsed. Not some. All. Dismissed. Thrown out. Laughed out of court.
The UPP could not prove a single allegation.
Not one conviction. Not one finding of wrongdoing. Not one shred of credible evidence.
Yet the damage was already done, and that was always the plan.
The most disgraceful chapter came during the 2009 general election, when the then Prime Minister publicly named former ministers and threatened to jail them.
This was not dog-whistle politics; it was mob politics.
It was a Prime Minister standing on a platform and promising imprisonment without trial. Parliamentary democracy was reduced to a threat letter.
Inside Parliament, UPP members openly threatened to hound former ALP ministers, boasting of endless investigations and permanent harassment. The presumption of innocence was mocked.
Due process was treated as an inconvenience. The message was clear: “We will chase you forever, whether you are guilty or not.”
Fast forward to today, and the UPP has learned nothing.
It continues its lazy, reckless habit of accusing without proving, flinging constant and wholly unsupported claims of theft and corruption against current ministers. Allegation has become policy.
Evidence is optional. Courts are irrelevant—unless, of course, the UPP itself is involved.
Now, faced with police questioning, the same party that spent a decade criminalising its opponents suddenly demands restraint, fairness, and respect for the rule of law. This is not irony; it is audacity of the highest order.
The UPP cannot rewrite history. It cannot pretend to be a defender of civil liberties after spending ten years trampling them. It cannot cry persecution after perfecting the politics of persecution.
And it certainly cannot lecture anyone on justice after every single case it brought collapsed under judicial scrutiny.
The country remembers who abused power, who threatened jail without trial, who hounded political opponents, and who left office with nothing to show but dismissed cases and shredded reputations.
The UPP is not being persecuted.
It is being confronted by its own record.
Charkie
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The writer is a delusional clown…. society knows the history of ALP… anyone who speaks up against ALP especially if you have a business, they will ensure your business fail!!
This is such bullshit, Charkie needs to put some more chalk in his mouth. I remember how ALP railroaded Walter’s into prison until the Privvy Council overturned the injustice. Inustice started under ALP. I am well past 60 years and the biggest curse on Antigua and Barbuda is the Antigua Labour Party. Antigua will never truly prosper until this present leadership is no more and the riches you all have acquired will blow away like smoke in the wind. Only the word of God lasts forever. Time will be the final arbiter
@ Smh: The writer just might be the country’s P.M. (L.o.l.).
Look like his writing style to me.
UPP are just a bunch of cry cry babies. Still cannot come to us the people with anything solid. Bunch a wastes they are. At this point, it’s not about colour, but who can take us forward, and UPP is not it.
If those that are responsible for the destruction of those APUA pipes as we call ourselves a christian nation and be so hypocritical that God knows in our hearts who has done it and remain silent by denying says so much of the society we live in and our children who we ougt to set good christian examples are deceived by our actions but God see and knows every thing drones are always in those areas and it would take some times money looses the tonge and everything takes time
Writer please give me your opinion on this one.
A foreigner responded in 2008 to a radio add for work which was temporary ongoing, the foreigner upon commencing work at interval when work is available showed the employer a letter of deportation address to them from the hon. Lester bird the late prime minister in 2003, the upp became the government in 2004, there was a citizenship program by the UPP, the foreigner ask if I could help them regularize their status even though the work was occasional due to circumstances, I complied, then that was a 4 months period and the temporary job was terminated including myself, circumstances had to do with tool equipment, so I was out of work for a year and few months before purchasing a next equipment costing me in purchase and customs and shipping nearly two hundred thousands, the same temporary worker came back in a boisterous manner asking how come they are not working, at that time the UPP had a political mandate to settle all labor dispute even hiring new adjudicator to the labor and industrial court, the union associated with UPP was the Antigua workers union, the said worker went to that union and the employer received a boisterous acrymonious call that was so confrontational for the brief seconds decided to terminate the call, that’s not all the AWU rep sounded arrogant on the other end of the phone because the government at the time represented the union, so without proper empirical data or investigation they foisted it into the political mandate of the labor department and executed judgement in the union favor, then the government change back to ALP and that same foreigner who now sports Antigua and Barbuda passport and the millennial act granted by the UPP is given audience at the prime minister office been assisted by the chief of staff max Hurst who then call making threats using the title ” office of the prime minister” he then some how used the legal aid department to take the matter to the magistrate court, it was dismissed in my favor, but still at different time over 15 years that person would get their policemen friends to call and intimidate me that if I had not known the law or constitution I would just comply with their attempted extortion, I would say that both political party need to let the civil servants do their work, because this person had found favor with UPP as a voter for the 2009 elections and also with the ALP for the 2014 election, Antigua is the onliest country where the labor department and immigration work against the citizens, it doesn’t matter what complains you make as Antiguan citizens you are not listened to, but when the foreigners go their it’s action. This will never obtain in the virgin islands, because even on the day I helped regularize that person they would have had to fly out and come in on my bond until the citizenship by upp was processed. Then it continue in my absence that the industrial court is supporting this claim in my absence, how can I get the system to listen and be fear? So both party use the law heavy handed when in power.
@ hurst… u are probably right lol….
Dear Charkie,
You are totally entitled to your one-sided opinion in regards to the UPP. But reading your letter, you cannot deny the blatant interference by the Maria Bird-Browne led DCA and her Prime Ministerial husband Gaston Browne.
Surely you can see that?
And also, instead of the Prime Minister allowing the police to do their job impartially, Gaston Browne leans on the new Police Commissioner Everton Jeffers to arrest a political opponent.
That is not democratic by any stretch of your or my imagination.
I tried looking back at any of your former comments to see if I could find anything of you mentioning about our Prime Minister’s lack of transparency in financial matters; the missing $1million dollars Hurricane Irma donation; the Africans that were smuggled into the country and have miraculously gone missing???
Need I go on Charkie? But I’m sure you get my drift.
Gaston Browne has been given a “free pass” on criticism from within the party and his supporters, but people like you will continue to demonise the UPP, when we actually have a demon running Antigua & Barbuda 🇦🇬
However Charkie, as I mentioned at the beginning, you are entitled – in a democratic country – to your one-sided and myopic opinion.
Regards
Brixtonian
This ALP and its supporters are so EVIL, I find myself wondering if the destruction of APUA pipes could not have been done by one or some of them to cast blame on the Opposition. Remember the devil finds work for idle and empty minds and hands and there is no better place to find them than The Antigua Lying Party
… And hopefully now Charkie, with all you have said, you’ll have no problem with Prime Minister Browne being investigated by the police authorities as well about the duplicitous vehicle acquisitions procurement scandal.
Political criticisms works both ways Charkie … isn’t it?
You have heart to mention the independent investigator when that investigator had his office blown up!!! You forget the 1978/79 year gassing of teachers who just wanted a fair wage for the work they were doing!!! Have you forgotten the disconnection of the electricity so that the chicken which was supposed to be stored in a government facility was left to spoil just so the labor party could discredit Sir George Walter…. Get away from here with your rubbish…. @Antigua newsroom you can do better than print this ignorance without first fact checking it
While I’m at it, the audacity of any ALP member, sympathizer or operative to mention or imply that someone else should feel some type of shame for something isn’t just laughable but ridiculous.
Where was the shame for gaston and his wife both being completely incompetent as heads of their ministries while tens of millions were spent on vehicles each year since 2017?
Where is the shame for the brightest people in the country being duped by an airline into bringing African refugees into our country
Where is the shame for the fact that an 18 year old man was killed by a police officer and not a single press conference months after?
Where is the shame for All Saints Road still being in its present condition despite the promise and self imposed deadline to begin work in October?
Where is the shame for the young people killed in Clare View Psychiatric Hospital and their families left with so many questions and no closure to their demise?
Where is the shame for gaston saying he didn’t even have to campaign in his constituency but was able to put voters into other constituencies to secure those seats in the last general elections?
Where is the shame for being duped by middle east “investor” for the proposed hotel at Morris Bay who then took our lease and ran with it only for our government having to go search for him and negotiate with a bank to get it back?
Where’s the shame for all the government buildings that people have to be working in despite being infested by deadly mold?
Where’s the shame for when there was ONE SOLITARY fire truck servicing the entire country not long ago?
Where’s the shame for us still not having number portability all these years after it was first promised?
Where’s the shame for the swapping of prime land at Friars Hill for reclaimed land at Dredge Bay thus transferring millions of dollars of public assets into the hands of Gaston’s baby mama?
Where’s the shame for Chet and the others who have to humble themselves after hearing Gaston refer to Maria as the only person in the party who can with the capacity to take over the reins of government after him?
Where’s the shame for the condition of St. Johns city?
Where is the shame for low down, childish, embarrassing behavior of the prime minister as he curses, degrades and threatens members of the public on social media if they commit the sin of disagreeing with him and his policies?
I can go on and on but I know it won’t change anything because you people are incapable of feeling shame.
I agree 100%.
When the shoe was on the other foot, they said nothing. Now suddenly it’s injustice.
These people that chating these shit about upp.
They dknt have no dam shame
Look in the mirow
And pick the beannout a Gaston the dog.
And he so callswap wife
Then you all can wash a you dutty mouth.
Shame on all a you.
A you need to go burry under sand and cant come out.
Gaston u an u cronies go to hell wat about does injunction Alp get way with MBS case only de little man go a 1735 say no more
And while we are at it. What about the cane fires and all the bombs scares we had, I can remember the Nail bomb that targeted Hitachi Centre on Market Street, the bombing of Rev. Broodie of Methodist Church, these wicked and evil ALP people have no shame. Don’t worry people. MisFortune like Karma is a real B.I.T.C.H and as night follows day She will pay them a visit and Antigua & Barbuda will rise again
The archives don’t lie. Court records don’t lie. If the UPP wants to talk about justice, they must first acknowledge the injustices they committed.
Pointing fingers backward won’t fix the corruption we face today. Let’s address what’s happening now too.
Courtroom outcomes matter. If you drag people through the courts for a decade and prove NOTHING you were never seeking justice, only destruction.
If we are going to talk about justice, then no party should be immune past or present. Investigations must continue for everyone.
The hypocrisy is unbelievable. They ruined people’s lives for headlines now they’re crying foul because they finally feel the heat?
Election season must be close the selective memory getting stronger every day.
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