The people of Grenada on July 8th 2008 rejected the pattern of lies and half truths that the Keith Mitchell administration perpetuated during its years in Office. It is clear from his utterances that the current Leader of the Opposition has not learnt from or accepted that rejection.

His very nervous performance on Business Files recently, pointed to a man who knows the facts but is intent on playing his brand of phony politics by giving his own rendition of those facts.

It is clear that Dr. Mitchell continues to suffer from self delusion that made him so sure that he will win the last general election, as he continues to blame the current administration for the fiasco his government left with the attempted sale of Grenada Grand Beach. The fact is, the deal negotiated between the Government and the Hamilton group was not in the best interest of Grenada. All of Grenada, including the NNP accept this. Further, the deal eventually failed, because the Hamilton group and Issa Nicholas failed to agree on the terms and conditions of the deal.

For the record, even Mitchell must know that the parties, Hamilton and Nicholas did not agree on the final price.

Additionally, all the noise Mitchell made prior to the election about his Governments investment in youth, you would have thought that his first choice for the vacant Senate seat would have gone to Emmalin Pierre or Sheldon Scott or maybe even his former Carriacou Senator Nigel Stewart.

The fact that the Opposition Leader had to go back to Anthony Boastwain, his failed Finance Minister, to appoint as Senator, replacing Kennedy Roberts, suggest that his trust in the youths around him is minimal to say the least.

Imagine Mitchell claiming that he “wants the Government to succeed”, a classic case of speaking out of both sides of the mouth. Only months ago when his party faithful, Ronald Straker said publicly that the Government had performed well following its first year in Office, Mitchell distanced himself from the statement and disposed of Straker.


He continues to claim that “thousands” of names were taken off the list of persons receiving EC $200 per month as Government assistance.

What he did not say was that of the 4800 persons the Government met on the list when the administration changed in 2008, there is now 4127 remaining on the list after former Finance Minister Boatswain called a local a radio station urging Finance Minister Nazim Burke to clean the list. “There are some names that are on the list that should not be there,” Boastwain told the media just over one year ago. In fact, there were 4982 persons on the list in January 2009. That number fell to 4127by December of the same year, a difference of 855 persons.

Of the difference, 221 did not register when asked to do so as part of the legal requirement, 148 had died, 11 had migrated, and 13 were placed in homes for the aged. In addition, 70 persons did not collect their checks, although the ministry held them for six months, which is outside the three months requirement. In fact, the facts of the programme showed there was significant room for hanky panky and siphoning of Government funds.

Of the 295 persons left, many did not qualify for the programme for various reasons. Some were self employed or owned a small business, others were collecting an income from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), others were receiving a Government pension while still others were receiving direct assistance from family abroad.

The programme that was not designed as a pension scheme, was used by Mitchell and his Government as apolitical tool designed to purchase votes for his party. So of the 1hr and 15 minutes time spent on television, Mitchell simply tried to take credit for the efforts of this Government while brushing aside his own short comings that have caused us as a country to be where we are now.


Public Relations NDC




(The views expressed in the above article represents those of the writer and not necessarily those of GC)