To ring out the New Year and bring in another 12 months of hope and promise, the news from St. George’s only heightens political tensions and is anything but uplifting and joyous as we reach the height of the festive season. According to a news release from the Opposition New National Party, the current government of Grenada is preparing plans to arrest members of the former administration for alleged corrupt practice during their 13 years in office. That release stated that a Special Prosecutor is believed to have arrived in the island’s capital and is preparing charges. If this is the truth, the start of the second decade of the 21st century for Grenada could see political intrigue at an unprecedented level in an island which is no stranger to political crisis. And it seems that the twin evils here are either natural disasters or political crises because Grenada remains one of the better places to live on this planet where nobody enters an office without saying “Good Morning” to everyone else and showing “respect” is a common refrain in the local parlance. Leave it to the politicians however, the Spice Island could devolve into a Tower of Babel overnight although the stomach for political violence here had terminally ended in the ashes of the calamity of October 1983 yet, that is not to say that ambitious political deviants won’t have a good go at creating yet more national anxiety. This latest imbroglio has a stench as high as the truck that regularly pumps sewage from the Town of St. Georges into an open hole just down from the National Stadium. The fecal discharge is shocking from the country that heads up the Association of Small Island States in Cancun and speaks loudly about climate change while it burns plastics and other hydrocarbons at another center of stench in a village dubiously named Perseverance. This news is also as unsightly as the rusty galvanized urinal close to the cruise ship terminal that welcomes our international visitors. But I diverge. During the last week of August, the Public Relations Officer for the ruling National Democratic Congress wrote a twisted tome calling for a Special Prosecutor to prosecute members of the former government who are not the party in Opposition. In the case of alleged misconduct the legal route here in Grenada is for an Integrity Commission to presents its findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions after convening public and transparent hearings. However, the NDC PRO wrote that a deviation from that constitutionally normative procedure was necessary because in his view, not only is his party obliged to make good on its promise during the 2008 campaign to bring integrity to government, the Director of Public Prosecutions could not be trusted with such an important matter as the political promise of a party to its supporters. (And you thought that campaign speeches were meant just to win office). With messianic zeal and an errant bypass of the DPP, the ruling party’s Public Relations Officer asserted that the previous government spent 13 years in power all the while showing, “little regard for the principles of good governance”. For those of us who are a little show on the draw it meant that the NDC PRO now had taken upon himself the mandate of ending corruption once and for all in Grenada and its Sister Isles. Tradition and the DPP be dammed. Lest you dare think this is a hunt for justice, think again. To further quote the NDC PRO, The egregious conduct of the former government “may not be criminal in nature, but cases of “official misconduct” may be enough to give the public satisfaction.” If this were not printed even the simplest among us would be astonished. But there it is in stark bold relief. And what does he think of the DPP? Well, opined the ruling Party PRO, a Special Prosecutor was the best weapon in his arsenal of legal options to prosecute the evil corruptors of beautiful Grenada because the DPP, “was appointed under the tenure of the former administration and is expected to work with them, if by some stretch of the imagination, they should be returned to office,” (he is referring to the Opposition New National Party) “it is only natural that he will be exceedingly cautious in proceeding to prosecute them; and as such, may not pursue an aggressive criminal investigation into their actions. “ Is common sense and good judgment making full flight from St. George’s? This is a strange copulation between politics and the judiciary where the former believes that it has the benefit of an electoral supremacy to guide the hands of the law. I’m not writing here as a political operative myself although I am a dues paying member of the ruling party, but this published opinion of my PRO as an antecedent to the reported appearance of a Special Prosecutor should shock our collective credulity. Whether or not there are corrupt people who occupied political office between 1995 and 2008 is not the point I’m pressing. Instead it is this: The chief spokesman for the ruling party has disqualified, in his mind at least, the official office of the Director of Political Prosecutions for reasons that to say the least are macabre and overtly sinister. But don’t think he’s done yet. With more puffery and blind aplomb he opines that the real reason the DPP is unfit to prosecute member of the former government is that the “DPP cannot be instructed”. In other words, the DPP cannot be told upon who, when and how to bring his charges. We should all say that is a good thing for any DPP that he is not “instructed” by political operatives. The non-too subtle inference by the NDC Public Relations Officer is that the DPP is incompetent to prosecute wrongdoing because he was appointed by the former government. If an executive of the ruling party can say that about the chief lawman of the country, in print and in public, what in heavens name could he and his cohorts be saying in private about public servants that were appointed 13 years ago by the former government and who operate the government administration that keeps the mill of government active? Rumors are amok that the current government trusts the civil service as far as they could heave them which is to say they don’t –not one scintilla. Consistent it therefore follows that the DPP seems to be no exception to the general rule of distrust if not by the government leaders then most certainly by the executives of the ruling party. Typically, a Special Prosecutor is the alternative to existing law enforcement prosecutors when the chief executive determines that the ends of justice as they exist within government are compromised. One recalls allegations of police brutality, Medicaid fraud among the kinds of cases in the United States where special prosecutors are appointed. But this is never the call of a party operative. And where is Grenada’s Governor General in this potentially volatile firestorm? Certainly, by his silence the island’s constitution is seemingly silenced since it is his office that appoints the head of any Integrity Commission to commence inquiry of political malfeasance. Strangely, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas has been resoundingly silent. He has apparently left the important business of delivering on his party’s manifesto to a political operative evincing no confidence in the much touted governance and integrity platform of his own government. This issue cries out for his leadership. More than that, it cries out for the DPP to take his rightful place and lay charges if he determines. That’s his job even if an overzealous party hack thinks differently. The potential arrest of Members of Parliament and officials of Her Majesty’s Opposition is too serious in Grenada’s national interest for the head of state to sit on the sidelines. Or maybe the Prime Minister is quietly calling the shots and he also believes that the Director of Public Prosecutions lacks the integrity to prosecute wrongdoing. Along with the 110,000 citizens of the Grenada, I pray that I am very wrong. At any rate these latest developments should not overshadow the advent of a new year where fiscal challenges sit astride continuing economic woes and the rocky ride continues for the most vulnerable. We should keep hope however, since its a good thing for the nation that its Director of Public Prosecutions not yield to any political operative from any party who believe they can direct legal traffic and determine who is brought before the bar and who isn’t. By JERRY EDWIN Article obtained from Grenada Broadcast