Sean Douglas becomes another high profile DLP member to be fired
The Dominican.net Newsdesk
Sean Douglas, government’s press secretary for the past nine years has been fired by the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP).
Sean Douglas was government press secretary for over 9 years.
The news of Douglas’ firing comes just months after another high profile DL P member, and Dominica’s United Nations ambassador Crispin Gregoire was fired from his post in New York.
Douglas said he received news of his firing from a letter signed by Cabinet Secretary Felix Gregoire and dated July 12, 2010. He referred to his firing as “unjust, unreasonable and immoral.”
During the December 2009 election campaign, Douglas was transferred as press secretary to head the DLP’s public relations campaign.
Calling himself “a Labourite to the bone”, Douglas was quoted as saying “ I was borne into Labour. It’s in my DNA. So it really puzzles me why I am being fired. But believe me I remain committed, totally committed to the ideals of the founding fathers of the Labour Party. It has been an honour and privilege to serve my country as Government Press Secretary for over nine years. It has been more than just a job,”
Douglas also revealed that the reason given for his dismissal, his refusal to sign an outdated contract, “was not the real reason” for his firing. But he failed to elaborate. Douglas apparently worked for 18 months without a contract and when he was offered a contract in July, it was dated for January 26, 2009 to January 26, 2010.
Gregoire’s letter to Douglas sets August 13, 2010 as the effective date of his dismissal.
Meanwhile, local talk shows and the local press have been awash in discussion surrounding the latest firing. Some have linked Douglas’s firing and that of Ambassador Gregoire to a “purge of the DLP’ as prime minister Skerrit seeks to consolidate his position after his December 2009 success at the polls.
As Chairman of the elections committee of the DLP in the 2005 elections, Ambassador Gregoire, a longtime stalwart of the DLP, helped engineer an unlikely election victory of the DLP in the May 2005 elections, by successfully merging with the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP).
He was replaced in the New York post by former government foreign minister Vince Henderson.
