The Grenada Co-operative Nutmeg Association (G.C.N.A.), and the Point Salines International Airport (P.S.I.A., are two very important and high profile establishments in our general and special areas of development – both in the Tourism and Agricultural sectors, which together form the basis and backbone of our Economy as a whole.
And by some un-usual coincidences, they both have deep seated attachments to two of our most famous politicians who have since gone to the great beyond – in the persons of the late Eric Gairy and the late Maurice Bishop – both ex-prime Ministers but in very different circumstances. And even in that exalted position, the history and circumstances surrounding their respective lives also had some very un-usual encounters and strange beginnings and endings.
But here we are again, after over thirty-five years since their political paths crossed each other – and left behind land marks and memories that will remain high lighted in our turbulent and violent political legacies for many more years to come – facing up-heavals and national differences that will no doubt change or dis-colour the political pictures in the months and years to come.
The Nutmeg Industry Act (cap215) that brought G.C.N.A. into operation – to control and market our prized nutmeg production here at home and for export – came into being in 1958 and by that Act of parliament (then the Legislative Council) the Minister responsible for Agriculture became the person in control, or with responsibility for the Nutmeg Association on behalf of the Government of the day.
The Act made provision for a Nine member GCNA Board of Management – with six members being elected by Nutmeg producers, who are supposed to be members of the Association and the other three members appointed by the Minister on behalf of the Government.
As a producers Co-operative the people who owns the nutmeg farms should control their business – hence the (6-3) Six to Three majority of Board members for farmers.
But the Government of the day should have a say in the affairs of the Association, not only to ensure that Board members do not mis-use or abuse their positions, but also because nutmeg exports and earnings were second to no other for decades – up until Hurricane Ivan & Emily in the years 2004/5.
The affairs of the Association was intended to be managed and controlled by the Board, and the Board had a duty to advise the Minister in regard to all matters affecting the Nutmeg Industry – which the Government had referred to it, or which the Board considers should be submitted to Government.
As a precautionary measure, no doubt, the Act in section 34 of Cap.215 made provision for the Minister of Agriculture to Dissolve the Board – if in his judgment, the Board has persistently made default in the performance of its duties as laid down in the Act, or by any other law in Grenada imposed on the Board, or exceeds or abuses it powers.
That measure seems reasonable and quite normal in co-operative matters like that of the nutmeg Industry, and may be found in similar legislation in democratic societies Worldwide.
But I suppose when those farmers and advisors of the colonial days, were setting down the foundation for our future emancipation and freedom from colonial masters and Massa days of oppression – they could not have imagined, that those controllers and Rulers coming forth thereafter to take over the reins of powers from the oppressors, were only going to be of a different skin colour and hair texture, but beneath those differences they would be a dam lot worse.
Three or four years after Independence in 1974 – the so-called father of Independence and recognised hero of the working class and labourers of those days, the late Eric Gairy, using the said section of the Act Dissolved the then Board, under the Chairmanship of the late Fisher Archibald, with late members like Clarence Ferguson, Dudley Francis and L.L. Ramdhany also on the Board.
Needless to emphasize, that Grenada ’s petty political hereditary Bias was the sole reason for the illegal dissolution of the then Board.
Maurice Bishop, Kenrick Radix and myself, represented the Board in an action before the High Court to revoke the Minister’s Order – and when the Court at First instance rejected our application, we were joined by Senior Counsel Alan Alexander from Trinidad before the Court of Appeal where we also lost the case.
The Board was taking the matter to the Privy Council in London , and I was sent to England to consult with Solicitors and Barrister-at-Law Blom Cooper Q.C. for the Appeal – and while in the Chambers of the Q.C. I got a call from Grenada that Gairy had himself revoked the order of dissolution.
The next year or so, the Gairy Government was overthrown in a bloodless Revolution headed by the late Maurice Bishop.
And the number of times Gairy had Bishop charged by the Police, arrested a few times for all kinds of trumped-up charges, and brutally beaten along with the NJM six on 18th November, 1973, at Bhola’s Junction in Grenville – are all well documented history.
So you see how those two heroes in their own way became inter-linked, and over thirty years since that aborted dissolution by Gairy, and with members of the said Revolution now partly in control of the Government of the day – here we have again the GCNA Board being dissolved effective Monday, 20th April, 2009.
Over and above everything else connected to that decision, two issues stand out that give cause for concern and need to be addressed.
The first is that the Acting Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Michael Church, who signed the Dissolution Order was once the Manager of the Nutmeg Association, and he was dismissed by the Board because the members felt his performance was un-satisfactory.
He took the Board to Court for wrongful dismissal and for Damages as a result thereof, and my very reliable information is that he lost the Case.
On the surface, therefore, his action may look or appear to be a case of sour grapes and revengeful. But it must be remembered, that he acted on the advice and decision of Cabinet as a whole – and not in his sole deliberate judgment. So if there is any blame to bear, it must be on the shoulders of Cabinet.
The second issue of concern is that the Board is due to be dissolved by the end of May, and since the outgoing members are eligible for re-election, the same ones can again be re-elected as the new Board. So what would the Government and Minister do – dissolve the new Board with the same members?
The Minister may very well have had valid reasons to be dis-satisfied with the Board’s performance, so acting on the mandate given to him under the said Nutmeg Industry Act – why he could not call in the Board and thrash out the differences in the interest of the Nutmeg farmers? Why this very high-handed and draconian method of trying to show who is the real Boss?
All so very reminiscent of the Gairy methods of acquiring and nationalising those Agricultural Estates belonging to persons who opposed his Government; dissolving the Nutmeg Board at the time he did because the members were GNP stalwarts; and changing or arresting persons who opposed him politically, because he had no credible answers for their opposition.
And the same madness repeated and taken to much higher heights – by Bishop and his comrades when they took over from Gairy by Bullets rather than Ballots – and instead of restoring those human rights they accused him of betraying and abusing, they banished them completely; and those three thousand plus individuals who dared to open their mouths in any form of protests, and even those who said or did nothing but appeared not to be supporting the Revo, they all suffered the same punishment of Heavy manners in Detention for years.
And when you multiply the hundreds of family members and relatives who suffered gravely, by the loss of support from their bread-winners in jail – without charge or trial or conviction for anything – the end result escalates to many thousands.
And if that was not more than bad enough for our people to stomach and suffer under for over four and a half years – the evils that the Revolution created and spread throughout the land, those evils became counter-productive in the course of time, and the natural and un-avoidable consequences manifested themselves from the 19th to the 25th October, 1983, and the ongoing stains and indelible stigma remain to haunt and torment us at as a people to this day and age.
And as if we have not suffered enough as a people, from the bad faith and tragic let down, as a result of the demoralizing excesses during the reign of abusive and absolute power by the likes of the Gairy and the Bishop regime for almost four decades – we are now being told that come May 29th or (thereabout) 2009, the “Point Salines International Airport” will be re-named “Maurice Bishop International Airport” – in so-called honour of the Revolutionary Leader – and a constant reminder, that the evil which men do in their life time will live on long after they have departed.
Gairy had acquired the Point Salines lands many years before the Revolution in 1979 – and his vision then was an International Airport to boost the Tourism marketing of Grenada , because the Pearls Airport in St. Andrew was not suitable for that purpose, and was too far from the city over the kinds of roads we had coming over Grand Etang.
Nothing was said about any airport – during the struggle against the excesses of Garyism- but we soon found out within days after March 13th 1979, that an International Airport was the top priority on the Revo agenda, to facilitate the Soviet Union spreading of Communism.
The late U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his secret service were on the ball about that plan, and at the opportune time they put an end to the plan.
The U..S.A. and others made the Airport a reality and the rest is now history – so what is the rationale for re-naming the Airport after Bishop, and for changing the very appropriate name of Point Salines?
After all that have been said and done and known about the Grenada Revolution, and the pain and suffering that it brought to thousands of our people, and the stain and stigma it left behind after the very merciful Rescue Mission by U.S. and Caribbean forces in October, 1983 – what is the wisdom from any point of view, or the political savvy in the decision of the Nine Months old Government, to force this change on our people without even the simplest consultation with John Public, or the people’s representatives in Parliament?
I wish to warn those Eleven M.Ps and the Senators who are Cabinet Ministers – that the silence of the majority of our people is not, and must not be taken as their consent on this very deep-rooted and disturbing matter.
So many of them are so shocked and disappointed, at this most hasty decision about a matter that should be at the very bottom of the list of priorities – that they are lost for words of protest at this time, but not for all times.
It seems that every time we appear to extricate ourselves from the ravages and un-expected excesses of those we choose to lead us – or those whose bravery we support in times of need – we sooner or later get caught up in a net of dis-appointment and dis-illusionment.
Somethings about our history are not unlike the plight of the Israelites – but God is good and He knows best.
By Lloyd Noel (Attorney-at-law)
INSIDE GRENADA NEWS
