COMMENTARY

Enmity between the thin-skinned politician and democracy

by Marcia Braveboy

Tuesday, June 8, 2004

Grenada’s Prime Minister is undermining the democratic structures.

I seek not to grab or hold your attention, but rather to say outright that there is absolutely no difference between Grenada’s Prime Minister and a thin-skinned politician. They are one in the same.

Hence the results being the accumulation of libel cases, threats and attacks against its citizens. The Government of Grenada led by Dr Keith Mitchell sees fit to give top priority to situations that are of no benefit to the development of the country. One is then left to question the functionability of the main organs of Government under those hard-pressed circumstances that it seems to create against good governance.

The attention placed on these matters does not produce good thoughts for a people to consume and is thus considered a waste.

Authoritative figures on health warn that waste matter must not be retained in the body, lest death be the result. Cleary one must get rid of waste matter before they get wasted.

Now let me set the record straight; I’m not asking that every Grenadian should take a suppository or consume diuretics for the needed purging of their system; now that the NNP administration of Dr. Keith Mitchell has been constantly feeding them with waste matter such as libel accusations, threats, and attacks, not forgetting the court orders and possible jailing that some are likely to fall victim to, simply because they sought to exercise their inalienable right of free speech.

All I’m asking is that the people of Grenada, and Grenadians all over, develop a harmony of thought that is able to break lose the chains that threaten to break down the democratic structures in the land.

To achieve this, I will leave out the theories of mortal creatures like Karl Marx, Lenin, Einstein and all others alike that were considered to be great men, and resort to the truth of the greatest and most humble Master and Father alive Who said in His word: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. (Romans 12:2) Jesus calls His people to think thoughts in harmony with divine wisdom.

While we seek to exercise the will of God as a people, it appears that in the midst of this political storm, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is enjoying the rapidly fading popularity of the Grenadian Prime Minister and seeks only to attack on the basis of the revelations of corruption charged against him by American journalist David Marchant.

But should the opposition forces remain laid back for the most part and only become aggressive when allegations of corruption are brought against the Grenadian leader?

Personally I expect the Grenadian leader to do wrong, but the question is whether or not the opposition NDC has the skills needed to gather evidence of corruption against Prime Minister Mitchell and unseat the NNP Government on those grounds.

It is not my place to say that the opposition NDC is not mobilizing efforts and oiling the machinery that will enable them to genuinely seek the interests of all Grenadians. Suffice it to say, their approach towards the NNP administration seems not one of national interest; but rather serves the need to obtain power and to fulfill selfish desires mostly is what surfaces.

The opposition is yet to prove to the people that they have their interests at heart, and their slogan of “Change” is not just a platform slogan… there is still the need to zero in on the management style of Dr Keith Mitchell and report to the people what is not being done in their interest; rather than comfort themselves with the reality that the Grenadian people are angry at the Mitchell administration and long for a change from the oppressive rule meted out to them by the Government of the day.

The ‘tone’ of democracy ‘expresses’ that inalienable rights include freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion and conscience, freedom of assembly, and the right to equal protection before the law. This is by no means an exhaustive list of rights, citizens enjoy in a democracy. But the Keith Mitchell administration seeks to assert such civil rights by challenging the rights of the people in a democratic state through the judiciary. Surely the right of a fair trial constitutes the core rights that any democratic Government must uphold.

Politicians must remember that their lives are likely to become an open book, in their pursuit of partisan politics. Therefore, being hypersensitive and thin-skinned about concerns raised by a people will disqualify any effort whatsoever, to being a good and effective politician or people’s person.

The increasing attacks on members of the media, oppositions members and other citizens of the land by the Prime Minister of Grenada in no uncertain terms proves him to be a thin-skinned politician.

Historian, Leonard Levy said, “individuals may be free when their Government is not”. Now even though the practice of democracy is precarious, the idea is durable, and so in accordance with the constitution in any democratic society one might ask: what should the Government do in cases where the news media or other organizations abuse freedom of speech with information that, in the opinion of the majority is false, repugnant, irresponsible or simply in bad taste? The answer by and large is nothing.

It is simply not the business of the Government to judge such matters. In general the cure for free speech is more free speech. This may seem a paradox, in the minds of Keith Mitchell and possibly those who will succeed him. But in the name of free speech, a democracy must sometimes defend the rights of individuals and groups who themselves advocate such non-democratic policies as repressing free speech.(The last time the Grenadian people bonded with free speech was during the reign of what is considered to be the ‘old’ NDC party lead by Nicholas Brathwait back in 1990 – 1995).

Citizens in a democratic society defend this right out of the conviction, that in the end, open debate will lead to greater truth and wiser public actions than if speech and dissent are stifled.

Can one imagine Keith Mitchell re-educating himself about the democratic process and starts reflecting the change that the people seek? Oh, what a fresh thought, but probably being the change will be more sufficient than just reflecting it. Unfortunately, no leopard changes its spots, so change is still the goal that the Grenadian people seek.

Keith Mitchell and his team would do well to study the needs of the Grenadian people rather than apply oppressive rules on their families and friends through the media, opposition parties and through other indigenous mediums in this small nit society.

John Stuart Mill argued in his 1859 essay “On Liberty” that all people are harmed when speech is repressed, if the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth, if wrong, they lose…the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error”.

Inalienable Rights: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”.

So as we say it in the Jamaican vernacular, Mr. Prime Minister, behave ‘yuh’ self ‘nah’ ‘mon’, before de people ‘dem tro yuh outta deh yad yuh’ here.

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