Dear Sir:
Whatever you may think about the reported action of Joseph Gilbert, the Member of Parliament for St Patrick West, and however you as an individual, or part of the bloodthirsty media frenzy prepare to slaughter him as seen by several articles in the New Today dated Friday 27, 2012; I am prepared to back him all the way for standing up for us the people of Grenada in general and in particular his constituents, especially the unemployed and those people who made the extra effort three and a half years to vote him in as the MP to represent them in parliament.
I have always held the belief that parliamentarians’ first and foremost loyalty is to their immediate family, constituents, country and party in that order. Naturally, as a minister, this adds extra responsibility and loyalty to Cabinet colleagues but one must strike a balance and in this respect perhaps Joseph Gilbert got it wrong by misinterpreting the delegated powers of responsibilities assigned to him under his portfolio.
In my view, Gilbert’s action was not a sackable offence -- merely one for a slap on the wrist in private from the PM and nothing else. On the other hand, one can appreciate his reason and under the circumstances applaud him for making efforts within his ministry to try and create the environment for short term and long term jobs of a variety for thousands of unemployed people, including the youths of Grenada.
Gilbert is no Judas as some would want us to believe; realising the dire straits this country’s economy is in and has been in for such a long time, with unemployment especially youth unemployment, at its highest in our history and still spiraling out of control; with nothing fruitful on the horizon, he did what he believed was right for our country and our people. For this he was sacrificed in such an unprofessional, indecisive and media attention grabbing manner. Frankly, Thomas made a dog’s dinner of the whole affair.
Gilbert found himself in a Cabinet headed by a prime minister that is completely out of touch with the people that he (the PM) is supposed to be working for. A man (not God almighty as some press releases would like Joe public to believe) who is dictatorial; pigheaded at times and assumed being PM his word is law and should not be questioned or challenged under any circumstances. Tillman Thomas is now regarded by the general public as a bully and a coward; make no mistake about that. He bullies his Cabinet colleagues to get his own way and only his way on very important matters regardless if the rest of his cabinet disagrees; and has done so successfully by hiding behind the Constitution. Whatever happens to the conscience of opinion?
Elected members of parliament must at all times consider the effect proposed legislation or decisions by individual ministers or parliament will have on the people they represent. Depending on how strong a parliamentarian feels about certain decisions or piece of legislation, he or she is entitled to abstain if a vote is taken in parliament or for the sake of not embarrassing the government. If those individuals are members of the party or government in office, it is sometime wise to be someplace else when the vote is taken.
Elected MPs should not be seen or regarded as puppets of the PM, that role is for perhaps those lucky appointees such as Senators who no one elected; most of whom got their position courtesy the PM and Opposition Leader, for which quite frankly they are answerable to and apparently no one else. It is time members of parliament in this Tillman Thomas government stand up for their constituents and tell the PM he is wrong when they honestly believe he is wrong.
The PM’s ship appears to be sinking fast and I see no good reason for elected members to go down with it. In the UK it is commonplace for Cabinet MPs to resign from the government on principle. Such action does not affect one’s ability to represent their constituents or their standing in their political party. Some MPs even gain more respect from hard working party activists who sometimes feel betrayed by their party in government.
This coward of a man has failed to take any action against wrongdoings by members of the previous administration, despite making this an election pledge and having strong evidence to act. Those wrongdoers are now mocking him and see him as an individual without backbone and merely a toothless bulldog. In his ministerial broadcast on the Joseph Gilbert affair, the PM tried to justify his action by raking up things that happened in his youthful days, things of no relevance to the situation that exists in our country today. Young Grenadians are like young Germans, they are not interested in what the Nazis did during the war!
Instead of making a dog’s dinner of the airtime he occupied, he should have made use of it to tell our people how his government plans to get us out of the economic mess (the black hole) he has led our country into and how he proposes to go about it; also what he propose to do about the spiraling youth unemployment. Yes, the world have gone through one of the worst recessions in living memory but to use this as an excuse to do nothing to help stimulate growth in our economy is mind boggling and likely to be at his party’s peril.
During the election, Mr Thomas pledged to the people of Grenada to create jobs; this has not happened. More people are unemployed now than when his party took office. There have been more redundancies, more bankruptcies under this Thomas-led government. He promised to get people back on the land to increase agriculture production; so far this has been a disaster. The left hand has absolutely no idea of what the right hand is doing in this regard.
Under the leadership of Tillman Thomas, our country has suffered the worst spate of crimes and fear of crimes. Violent crimes, including fatalities, have rocketed; theft throughout the country is now a daily occurrence and commonplace; the fear of crime is also widespread and is affecting people of all ages. Drug taking and substance abuse, I am told, is on the increase and youngsters who came out of the education system over three years ago are still without employment. Some people (the lucky ones) get 2 weeks work out of 52 in any calendar year cleaning up the road side and Mr Thomas has the audacity to boast about this, calling it progress. It is backwards under Thomas not forward, as our citizens, especially the youths and parents with unemployed youngsters, will tell you.
Our economy has fallen flat on its face, with a steady rise in imports and a corresponding drop in our exports. The increase in the cost of living continues to rise, unchecked by a government seen incapable of doing anything about it. Parents have been complaining by saying every time they go to the shops/supermarkets they are experiencing price increase.
The government is being blamed for allowing too many imports of foodstuff just so they could collect the import tax rather than encourage local food production. One individual when in conversation questioned the government’s sincerity in poultry farming and pig farming. I was told it is all hot air and hog wash.
Petrol and cooking gas has gone up yet again! All this government seems to be doing is squeezing the last drop of blood out its people. This government has broken every election promise it made three and a half years ago to our people and for Mr Thomas to go on television and tell the nation that casinos were not in his election pledge is laughable. People expect governments to honour the pledges they made during an election not renege on them. They also see those pledges as a small part of the government’s programme. No one in living memory expects a party to pledge every conceivable thing it plans to do or likely to do if elected. After all, Mr Thomas, one may forecast or speculate but no one knows exactly what the future holds.
Thomas was quick when in opposition to request that Scotland Yard be invited to investigate the Lucasgate affair in which a police officer was caught red-handed spying on NDC meetings. We have a situation where on Boxing Day a Canadian citizen lost his life while in police custody for which strong evidence suggested this individual was beaten to death. Since the incident more allegations have emerged about police brutality over the years.
Mr Thomas as Minister for Homeland Security has the ball in his court right now. He should approach the British government and ask that Scotland Yard send senior officers to Grenada with the specific task of carrying out a thorough countrywide investigation into police practices and activities over the last ten years. The report should include a summary of the facts and recommendations. He should pledge that his government will accept the report in full, including taking the necessary action on any recommendations.
I am, as so many are, fed up and tired of the media and some freelance journalists dragging Peter David’s name into the political dirt every time the PM gets into a mess. Each and every time it is a source told them this and another reliable source told them that about Peter. Everyone with common sense knows that “reliable source” are the words newspapers use when they are making up stories about people, especially those in public life. For Go’sd sake leave the man alone. It must be extremely stressful for people with families having to read some of the rubbish that is written about those in public life who cannot defend themselves.
St George’s MPs of all parties must be frustrated with the way the PM has gone about the St George’s Zublin phase two development. It is the sort of major project that in my opinion would have almost guaranteed them another term as an MP, should they prepare to stand for parliament at the next general election. Naturally, these MPs are likely to be frustrated and anxious about their chances. Who wouldn’t?
But for people who should know better to start using words like deception and treachery to score cheap political points on those who cannot defend themselves one has to question where the hell these people have been living for the past thirty years. Grenada’s parliamentary system is based on the Westminster system (something the New Today newspaper seems to be always drawing to its readers’ attention) in which case a motion of no confidence could be brought against the PM also; the PM’s position can be challenged by parliamentary members of his own party. The last time this happened in the UK parliament it got rid of Margaret Thatcher, the then Prime Minister; it also happened recently in Australia (to got rid of the then PM), a Commonwealth country with a similar parliamentary system, so please stop fooling our people with words of deception and treachery.
Also, stop trying to blacken the names of some of our hardest working MPs in Grenada with accusations of meetings, of plots and counter plots, or money changing hands. Come on, name those sources. Give the public the time, place and how did money change hands and from whom to whom. If our politics and our politicians are dirty, give us the facts and let us all help in a cleanup of our parliamentary system. Either put up or else shut up!
What Grenada needs is a new kind of politics! We need a political party that is willing to offer the people of this country real change! Change that gives power back to the people. We need a party that offers to introduce a Localism Bill in parliament within a year if elected. A bill to change the political landscape by reintroducing Parish and City Councils, with devolved powers, including tax raising powers.
I have said this before and I am saying it again, if St George’s had its own City Council, we the people would have decided if we want a casino in our city not the PM regardless of if he lives in the city or not because local councillors representing local people would be the ones making that decision.
We are a small country with a top heavy centralised government running our country like a communist state and it is not working! We need power to be returned to the people so we can have local problems resolved by local people.
Winston Strachan
Writing from St George’s
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