Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 11, 2021 (SKNIS): The scope of National Security extends beyond crime and criminal activities as outlined in the National Security Strategy. National Security involves all the threats to a nation, its citizens, the economy, and the institutions and the actions to be taken by the Government of the day and the civil service to mitigate those threats without far-reaching negative effects on the country as a whole.
Osmond Petty, Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of National Security, stated, “National Security involves more than just the gangs, although that is a very important part of it. National Security is not just the Defence Force, or the Police, although they are very important in enforcing laws. National Security is everybody coming together,” he added.
“The current threats to the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis” as stated by Retired Major General Stewart Saunders in his capacity as the National Security Advisor, include but are not limited to “illegal firearms and ammunition, illegal drug trade, organized crime, trans-organized crimes, financial crimes… food and water security, natural and man-made disasters.”
The National Security Strategy which entails the entire list of threats can be accessed at sknis.gov.kn.
Addressing the threat of corruption and its effects on good governance and economic growth, the National Security Advisor stated that corruption must be eradicated from both the private and public sectors of the economy to ensure the prosperity of our nation.
He further said that by enforcing legislation, “the investigatory records of law enforcement entities have to be improved in to rid society of that [corruption]”. He noted that politicians must be responsible and “divorce themselves from relationships with gangs, criminals…because that adds to the public corruption of officials.”
The National Security Strategy provides the framework on how government agencies within the Federation will be able to effectively mitigate and manage the threats to the country.
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