ST. GEORGE ‘S, Grenada: Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell seemed to have made a tactical retreat in a war of words over the conduct of Grenadian professionals, but has not surrendered his basic views that created a stir here in the first place.

Prime Minister Mitchell first criticized some local teachers, doctors and lawyers for what he deemed unethical behavior.

He said if his party is given a third term in upcoming general elections it will push legislation to ensure proper ethical behavior by doctors and lawyers, who are now not regulated.

But what seem to have received the most ire here were his initial comments complaining that some of the island’s top lawyers were defending people charged for drug offences.

“Every time there is a drug case in this country you could know the lawyers who going to court to represent them; and some of them coming and ask you for their votes. When you tie up will all the drug men of the country; when you collect their monies to represent them, how the hell you can go and represent them in the parliament of the country,” the Prime Minister said in his initial outburst on Sunday.

Both Dr Francis Alexis, a lawyer and politician, and officials of the National Democratic Congress, whose top leadership is dominated by lawyers, criticized the comment saying the Grenadian leader was being opposed to due process.

The Grenada Bar Association and the Grenada Medical Association are also reported to be considering issuing statements on the issue this weekend as well.

On Thursday night at a political meeting in Grand Anse Valley, just on the outskirts of the capital, Prime Minister Mitchell repeated his desire to see new legislation on ethics in the profession, while repeating claims of reported unethical behavior.

However he made a subtle variation to the original criticism. While he continued on the same vein about local teachers and doctors, he varied the criticism of the lawyers. Instead of complaining about them being at the forefront in defending people accused of criminal activities, such as drug trafficking, he was instead critical of lawyers he said sometimes take money from people on both sides of the same case.

Observers here noted that change is a retreat from the earlier comments and a quiet acknowledgement that the Prime Minister erred in his original comments which suggested that people accused of crimes are not worthy of a defence.

It was that notion that the opposition latched on.

Earlier on public relations officer of the National Democratic Congress Nazim Burke called the initial outburst of the prime minister reckless, while Dr Alexis called on all lawyers in the ruling New National Party government to resign in protest.

Dr Alexis said that Mitchell’s attack on lawyers generally exposed him as “being happy with the prospect that while NNP is in office any person accused of crime might be imprisoned without being defended by a lawyer.”

That approach, Alexis said, is “repugnant to the sacrosanct command of the constitution of Grenada that every person accused of a crime might is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”

The NDC said in a press statement that “to suggest that lawyers should not defend people accused for a crime, no matter how heinous it is, is to seek to systematically undermine the legal system, and the very fabric of the society as a whole.

“His comments follow previous attempts to undermine the judicial system in Grenada by seeking to influence the selection of judges and appointing an official the Legal Services Commission has said is unfit to practice in Grenada,” the party said.

“His latest behavior is consistent with his repeated attacks on professionals and other workers including public servants and teachers,” NDC added.

In an interview with the BBC, Burke called the Prime Minister’s initial outbursts reckless.

“If the Prime Minister criticizes bad doctors means the Prime Minister is reckless then I love to be reckless,” Prime Minister Mitchell quipped Thursday night at his party’s public meeting.

SOURCE; CARIBUPDATE.COM