ST. GEORGE'S, GRENADA: A FORMER ADVISOR to Grenada’s Prime Minister Keith Mitchell has written to the Grenadian leader telling him he should apologize for his behavior surrounding the money-collection controversy. Cajeton Hood, Mitchell’s one time Permanent Secretary and Speech Writer told the Prime Minister in a letter this week that everything was wrong and irregular with a head of government receiving cash from someone in their home for state business. “If you cannot see that this is patently wrong then you are not fit to remain as our Prime Minister because you are leading your country into a morass of immorality and debased standards,” Hood wrote in his letter. Hood told the Prime Minister he should stop trying to justify the action because it just does not make sense. “You further tried to say to the nation that cash transactions such as that which you reported are not unusual… I have traveled many times on the business of the Government of Grenada and received cheques from these organizations which I had to sign as receiving,” he said. “Furthermore, the sums were not paid at someone’s private home but in a public place, and any person with proper authority could obtain the information on the details of the transfer of money from the organizations’ records,” he said. The Grenadian leader has been caught in the center of a raging controversy on the island about his conduct during a European trip in 2003. Hood, now a lawyer in Grenada, accused the Prime Minister of not acting as a statemesman by threatening to sue reporters and lambasting the opposition for questioning his dealings. The lawyer said people are now afraid to express themselves on the issue because of the threats of libel action, which he said is not in keeping with a democratic society. “Remember that an opinion stifled is not an opinion that is changed or lost. It will get expression in a way that you may not like at all,” Hood warned. Hood said he will offer free legal services to any local journalist sued by his former boss. SOURCE: CARIBUPDATE.COM