Kent Vital is a practicing economist with a BSC in Economics from the University of the West Indies and an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of London. With more than 25 years of professional experience, he has a thorough knowledge of the economies of CARICOM countries. He has had direct responsibility for monitoring economic developments in several of these countries on the behalf of the Caribbean Development Bank where he worked for close to 12 years, and on the behalf the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank where he worked for five years. He has functioned as a development planning consultant since 2013 and sees good political governance as a key driver for sustainable development alongside effective strategic planning and visioning. This conviction has led him to offer his skill sets to serve the people of Dominica in the political arena. Since August 2017, he has been the political leader of the Dominica Freedom Party.
By Kent Vital
The Caribbean region and the world ought to be very alarmed by what is going on in Dominica! Caribbean and world leaders must intervene urgently before the situation gets to the point where peaceful protestors are slaughtered by the Roosevelt Skerrit administration using the Special Security Unit (SSU) of the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force to do his dirty work.
It has become routine now for this Special Security Unit to engage in the intimidation of protesters. They show up at the slightest of political protest dressed in full army fatigues, armed with automatic weapons and tear gas, and supported by armoured ambulances painted in military colour! They seem eager to engage unarmed civilians who are simply seeking to preserve democracy in our land as enshrined in the constitution!
The SSU behaves like bullies, enemies of the people, and the mercenary arm of the Dominica Labour Party. This is the same SSU that seem powerless to stop the operations of the drug cartels in Dominica. This is the same SSU that seem powerless to prevent the regular transshipment of drugs through Dominica. But they seem ready to face off with unarmed civilians.
Are we observing an SSU that is really being used as the private army of Roosevelt Skerrit and the current Labour Party political administration? Are we observing an SSU that deliberately turns a blind eye on high crimes, and protects high criminals, but seem eager to crush any political decent that threatens the rule of current ruling Labour Party government? Why can’t the SSU be engaged in meaningful civil works that would build their public image such as repairing police stations that were damaged by Hurricane Maria?
