CATEGORY:COMMENTARY
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By Lloyd Noel (Attorney-at-law)


I can very well remember those heated and exciting days in 1973/74, when masses of Grenadians took to the Streets in every parish - in protest against the “backdoor” granting of Independence to the late Eric Gairy and his GULP Government, purportedly on behalf of the people of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

One of the grounds of our protest and objection, was that the people were not consulted on the matter, and to cut the strings of supervision and
financial and security control between Grenada and England - would be to leave the people at the mercy of a fastly blossoming Dictator, and a whole
bunch of stooges around him and supporting him, for no other reason but to fill their pockets by mis-using and abusing their authority.

If anyone was brave enough to tell us then, that “Uncle Gairy,” as ruthless as he then was, and he was, would turn out to be like a Sunday School
Teacher - in comparison with one or two of the leaders who would succeed him thereafter - we would have been laughing at that joke, and singing louder on our way to the next massive demonstration in St. George’s.

But, as it has come to pass, so many of us are still alive and very conscious of the truth and revelation of the above statement. And to make bad matters even worse, not only are things far more chaotic now than then - but nothing of substance is being done to try and bring about an end to the chaos and confusion.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the powers-that-be disregard and disrespect for the constitutional provisions that are in place to ensure the stability, accountability, and responsibility of the Government of the
day - in relation to the citizens and their rights and freedoms under the said Constitution - is the present Government’s attitude towards the
Judiciary and the Legal system as a whole.

It is now widely publicized that our newest addition to the Local Bench, Justice Davidson Baptiste, would soon be leaving Grenada - for less stressful and more tolerable surroundings elsewhere in the OECS.
This Judge has not yet completed a year on the Bench in Grenada, and because of one judgment that went against the Government’s Legal Advisor, Mr. Hugh Wildman, and his malicious and contemptuous outburst against the said Judge - the relationship with Government has become so sour that he has to pack up and move on.

And even before he has left - when the Judgment in the just-decided Peter David Citizenship fiasco proceedings was handed down last week, by Justice
Kenneth Benjamin, the said Legal Advisor, who had appeared for the Attorney General in that matter, was heard to say that he was not surprised, because that was the pattern of decisions from the Bench against him, so he has to go to the Court of Appeal for relief.

I further understand, that even the Attorney General, Hon. Elvin Nimrod, who Wildman is supposedly advising in Legal Affairs, was heard to be making similar derogatory remarks about the Benjamin decision.

Those two jokers have not even bothered to read the written Judgment, delivered by Justice Benjamin in the absence of both of them - because Attorney General Nimrod never appeared in Court, although the case was brought in his name, and on the day the Judgment was read in Court Wildman did not appear - I understand he was hoarse and could not even speak to the press.

Yet Wildman was boasting that he would have the decision reversed by the Court of Appeal. And in that Judgment, after referring to cases that Wildman
himself had put forward - but which assisted Peter David rather than Attorney General Nimrod - the Judge said, at page Thirteen (13) of a Fifteen
(15) page Judgment... “It is not open to the Attorney General to sidestep the Legislative Scheme as devised by Sections 97-100 of the RPA which emanates from the Constitution itself. To do so would be to deprive the proceedings of the statutory safeguards deliberately provided for by the
Legislature. In endeavoring to circumvent the scheme, the Attorney General has embarked upon an abuse of the process of the Court.”

Of course they can Appeal, that is their right in Law. But from the four corners of the Judgment, as delivered by the Learned Judge, and the many Authorities produced in support of Peter David’s case - and the quite embarrassing absence, of not even a single case to support Mr. Wildman’s novel submissions on behalf of the Attorney General - the trip to the Court of Appeal could very well be another expensive abuse of process, that the poor taxpayers have to shoulder.

And talking about shouldering expenses - many persons have been wondering why the Attorney General and his Legal Adviser are not paying those costs.

Ministers of Government have been ordered to pay costs and damages (compensation), along with the Government in cases before - so that is not
new. But because the Tax-payers are always saddled with paying - to the obvious detriment of all the other major services that are neglected in the
process - this has become a very serious political issue that needs a political solution.

Just as the Cement scandal involving Dream Builders Limited. Cabinet gave approval on the 18th August 2006, for the Government of Grenada to purchase 2209 slings of Cement from that Company, and further
directed that all statutory bodies and other Government Projects should purchase from the Government stock until all was sold out. So where did the money come from to pay DBL for the Cement? And what is more disturbing, who are the Directors and Owners of DBL, that they can get such favorable treatment from Taxpayers money?

And in the same context of spending the people’s money and not bothering to even inform them - never mind Account to Parliament or anyone else for that matter - until someone finds out from under the counter, as it were.Thousands upon Thousands of scarce dollars, were spent on the so-called
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) - under the guise of discovering the facts and making recommendations, so as to bring about final closure to that dark and dismal period in our turbulent political history.Years went by, and at long last a report was submitted with some recommendations to Government. Ministers, and their advisers no doubt duly studied those.

After another Six months or so, of waiting on those wise men/women to favour us with their wisdom - we have now been informed that another Committee (Commission) has been put in place, to go to the people and discover what it is those same people want the Government to do - about those already-paid-for expensive recommendations.

And needless for me to say, or dare ask those power Barons, those latest Committee members must have an expense Account - to cover their time, and travel, and entertainment, and whatever else otherwise - again to be paid by the people.

I mean to say, or ask for what it is worth - how much more must Grenadians take lying on their backs, or sitting on their behinds, before they wake up
and try to set our people free - so that a start can be made, at picking up the few pieces that are left, to try and bring back some semblance of sanity
to what was once upon a time a thriving people?

We can see that the youths are on the boil, albeit for the wrong reasons I dare say. But somewhere in their madness there must be some correlation to
what is taking place in the grown-up Community, as it were, yet their parents and guardians are doing nothing to help make amends.

It is difficult for me to believe, that all those who carry the tag of Cabinet Ministers - are in agreement with the happenings taking place in
their names, under the doctrine of collective responsibility from the oath they took. But it seems that once that tag was pinned on them, the former standards of integrity and dignity and ethics simply moved away to the altar of political expediency.

I keep on hoping, that one or two may still come around to seeing the light and move out of the darkness - but it is a slow process and time is running out. The sadness is that it is not running out for them alone, but for all of us who inhabit these Spice Isles.

Therefore, the many others who represent the people in one way or another, or who have responsibilities because of the positions they occupy in the
Society and Community, or who have their life-long belongings and families tied up in these Isles - they have a duty to themselves, and to those who
rely or look up to them for help and guidance.

The people are under pressure and crying out for release, so while those directly responsible are excusing themselves for one reason or another - the
other Social partners that make up the systems and the structures, that generate the lifestyle we live and the patterns of behavior we should be
tolerating - they owe it to themselves and to those they should be caring for, to stand up and be counted.

It is not possible to meet an individual from the many opposition parties, or the Trade Unions, or the Business Community, or the many Church
organizations from the biggest or highest to the lowest or smallest, or any other NGO of whatever calling - at any gathering now-a-days, in any part of Grenada, and not get a whole belly-full of complaints, and woes, and stress and trauma of one kind or another.

So how it is, or why it is, those same individuals cannot get their respective groups or organizations - to take up the mantle of defending our
homeland, and the many lifelong attributes and values our fore-parents struggled so hard and so long to leave behind, as a legacy for us to
cherish?

The situation is not getting any better as it is - and if left alone to ferment in its own inequities and injustices, it will steadily and drastically get very much worse - and the decline will not be choosing victims, or selecting households and areas, to pour out its venom and viruses of disaster.

We are all as vulnerable and liable to be affected. It therefore behooves every sector and the individuals therein, to play its and his/her
part to help bring about a turn around, whether it is the Judiciary, the Economy, National Security, reconciliation of the distant issues and problems, or of those that are suffocating us to-date in various aspects of our daily lives. We are facing a difficult road map ahead, and it cannot go on indefinitely or un-endingly.