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The political tensions in St Kitts & Nevis are running high, after local Kittitian media reported that former Prime Minister, Denzil Douglas, holds a diplomatic passport from Dominica, and actually published a copy online. Even more outrageous is the fact that a fair reading of the passport lists Douglas as a citizen of Dominica, even though this is patently false, and Douglas himself has denied that he holds a CBI citizenship in Dominica.*
Sources in St Kitts indicate that Douglas' Kittitian diplomatic passport was voided when he left office, several years ago. How on earth was he permitted to obtain a Dominica diplomatic passport, especially one which fraudulently showed him as a Dominican citizen ? The passport must be regarded, as a matter of law, as void ab initio, not merely voidable.
How many other East Caribbean politicians have diplomatic passports from St Kitts ? There is no legitimate reason for them, other than the maintenance of a corrupt "old boy network" of politicians in the region, exchanging favors, at the expense of those they govern, and raising the risk levels for money laundering, as the use of diplomatic passports can allow the holder to evade customs officers at ports of entry.
Perhaps the question we should be asking is when will the complete list of non-Dominican holders of that country's diplomatic passports be made public; this is known as government in the sunshine, and unfortunately, when it comes to play-for-pay passports, it does not exist in the Commonwealth of Dominica.
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* Contrary to popular belief, a diplomatic passport does NOT confer citizenship in Dominica. In truth and in fact, the application form for a diplomatic passport, which we have published here on this blog, required the applicant to indicate precisely how he or she is a national of Dominica.
