Frett appointed to pull youths back into VIP

in All News, Politics / By: BVI News Online on January 27, 2017 at 8:00 AM /

Khalid Frett at the VIP Mix and Mingle event this week

Khalid Frett, who told BVI News Online in 2013 that his childhood dream is to become a politician, is the man selected as the interim leader of the youth movement affiliated with the Opposition Virgin Islands Party (VIP).

His appointment comes at a time when the party’s youth support is severely lacking – a reality that VIP Chairman Andrew Fahie this week blamed on sheer nonchalance.

“The Virgin Islands Party did not have a youth arm [that was effective] not because the youth wasn’t with us, but because we dropped the ball and didn’t study them in terms of a whole group.”

As a result, youth voters gravitated towards the governing National Democratic Party (NDP) in the 2015 general election, Fahie indicated.

“When people ignore something, anything that passed their way they go with it because everybody needs a listening ear,” he added.

Fahie further told VIP supporters at a ‘Mix and Mingle’ event in Pockwood Pond this week that, going forward, young people will be targeted.

“We are not going to drop the ball with the youth; and I mean it when I said it,” Fahie vowed, adding that a number of young people already have been showing up at VIP events since he became chairman of the party late last year.

“Brand new young people [are] joining the Virgin Islands Party,” Fahie told the gathering.

Among the ‘brand new young people’ now on-board is Frett, who this week told BVI News Online that interim leadership of the youth movement is the first formal political task he has been given. He hopes to become the substantive youth leader at a later date.

Before now, Frett was a silent VIP supporter.

Before Frett, Rajah Smith was the substantive leader of a VIP youth affiliate that called itself the Ready Committee.

Frett, whose various non-political ventures include co-founding the ‘Crazy Threadz’ clothing line, is a former employee of Trident Trust Company.

He is also a past President of the Leo Club of Tortola, and a former Deputy Head Boy at Elmore Stoutt High School.

“I was a silent [VIP] supporter, but I am a public supporter now as you can see. I am no longer with Trident [Trust Company] as well. I am full time in my own business and giving back the resources that so many have given me within the Virgin Islands,” Frett told BVI News Online during the VIP’s ‘Mix and Mingle’ on Wednesday night.

The aspiring politician thinks he has what it takes to breathe new life into the VIP youth movement.

“My aim is basically to grow the youth arm of the Virgin Islands Party, to be an advocate for youth leadership within the territory, as well as to have meaningful conversation and dialogue with the young people concerning many issues that we may have.”

“[As it relates to] youth involvement within the Virgin Islands Party; we have a lot of new faces even on the executive arm of the party. It is a process; we are rebuilding; we are refueling; and I invite others to be members,” added Frett.

Before him, Rajah Smith was the substantive leader of a VIP youth affiliate that called itself the Ready Committee.

But Smith relinquished the position in 2015 and unsuccessfully contested the general election.

He, this week, told BVI News Online that he no longer had an interest in the position.

While Smith was campaigning in 2015, the VIP youth group announced that its then Vice-President Kevon Lettsome would have led the group until after the general election.