COMMENTARY

Law and Politics: Have we moved - in thirty years?

by Lloyd L. Noel

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

I was looking at GBN News one night last week, and the main item to me was the passage in our Parliament, through all its stages, of a Bill to do with the water supply as it will be used in ice making - for the preservation of fish for the export market to Europe.

While the Opposition in the Lower House was quite prepared to support the Bill to become law, they were complaining about the tardiness of the Government in bringing the Bill to Parliament. Apparently the European Union (EU) had submitted their requirements since 1998, and given us six years, up to August 31 this year, to put our fishing house in order as far as the ice for preserving fish is concerned.

And not only was the Bill six years late in coming, but from the report published it had well over two dozen errors in it that had to be corrected before its passage. And to realise that this Bill concerns the very bread and butter, of the daily livelihood of thousands of fisher folk in our entire tri-island State - it made me ponder deeply whether we had moved, and how much since the historic 1974 - the year we gained or attained our Independence.

Then a couple days after that news item, I heard the Prime Minister, in his national address on Thursday night about the Olympians and the Commission of Inquiry, making the point about creating history in the Caribbean, by submitting himself to the upcoming public Inquiry into his dealings with Resteiner four years ago.

And by pure co-incidence, I was driving to a meeting on the Friday morning, and on my car radio I heard a caller on the “Joe-Joe” programme asking about the correctness of the history-making claim by the Prime Minister.

The caller was concerned about the factual history for our generations to come - regardless of who had made it, and he felt the matter should be put right.

To begin with, the Duffus Commission of Inquiry of 1973/74 was not a one-man Commission. There were three Commissioners - Sir Herbert Duffus, ex-Chief Justice of Jamaica, Sir Aubrey Frazer, ex-Justice of the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Director of the Faculty of Law of the West Indies in Jamaica at the time, and Archbishop Samuel Carter of the R. C. Church of Kingston in Jamaica. Mr. Austin Davis of the Law School in Trinidad (Sir Hugh Wooding Law School) was Counsel to the Commission, and Mr. Maudsley James was Secretary of the Commission.

The Inquiry was centered around the actions, omissions, and political behaviour of the Prime Minister of the day - Sir Eric Gairy, and his main henchman, Inspector of Police the late Innocent Belmar. And while the terms of reference covered about three years, the main topics were the “Bloody Sunday - NJM Six” brutal beatings at Bhola’s Junction in Grenville, and the killing of Rupert Bishop at Otway House on the Carenage in St. George’s - on the last day (21st January 1974) of three weeks of daily national demonstrations up and down the country.

Prime Minister Eric Gairy, under intense pressure, agreed to the Inquiry, and so advised the Governor of the day - Dame Hilda Bynoe.

And Gairy came before the Commission in two sessions - one in the Parliament Building at York House, and the other at the Holiday Inn hotel in Grand Anse.

The change of venue was for security reasons at the time - because the crowd was huge and very boisterous.

Representing the NJM before the Commissioners, I had the privilege of cross-examining the Prime Minister for hours, pertaining to those years, and the Commissioners’ Report is now history.

May I add here, that while the Inquiry started during the term of Dame Hilda Bynoe as Governor, it was continued and concluded during the period in office of Sir Leo De Gale as Governor General. He having succeeded Dame Bynoe, who had demitted office during the height of the daily demonstrations, and he became Governor General after Grenada attained Independent Statehood on the 7th February 1974.

So, not only is the history of our Prime Minister submitting himself for questioning, before a Commission of Inquiry he had advised the Governor to institute, some thirty years old; but the question begs itself… have we moved, or achieved anything useful, in all those years?

I heard the Prime Minister, in very glowing language, extolling the virtues and stature of the office of Prime Minister, and its significance to the people, the image, and the international standing of our mini-State in the Global Village - and I could not agree with him more.

What concerns and bothers me, however, and I am sure thousands of Grenadians besides me, is the very obvious, and quite straight forward and ever-present stumbling block - which is why the holders of that noble and trust-worthy office (including our present Prime Minister), do not live up to our expectation of them?

Before and even up to Independence in 1974, Eric Gairy was the poor and little people’s hero; but his biggest shortcoming was his failure to accept and tolerate criticism and opposition from any quarter. He was ruthless with his retaliation, and he paid the price for his ruthlessness.

Then came Maurice Bishop and his joint leadership experiment with the NJM, of which I was a participant.

Almost on all fours with the Eric Gairy entrance in the Labour Movement in 1951, Maurice and his vibrant team of progressive thinkers and intellectuals, in the early 1970s, were whole-heartedly accepted by the lower, the middle, and the upper class groupings who had all suffered from Gairy’s excesses from 1967 onwards.

And no matter what the detractors would like to have us believe, even after the chaos and confusion of October, 1983, the overthrow of the Gairy Regime in March, 1979, and the installation of the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) thereafter, was as popular and as welcome as the coming of Eric Gairy in 1951.

But just like Eric Gairy and his GULP before them, Maurice and his joint leaders and NJM, in a much, much, shorter period, totally, deceptively and disgracefully, disappointed the very people on whose backs they rode to power and prominence.

The evil that men do, lives after them, the good is so very often interned with their bones - so let it be.

And then after the respite of the late H. A. Blaize and Sir Nicholas Braithwaite in two very different regimes, we came to the new NNP and the now current Dr. Keith Mitchell - to complete our list of Prime Ministers since Independence. Messrs Ben Jones and George Brizan were merely stopgaps - pending the next stage.

And so thirty years thereafter - we seem to be facing a new era of uncertainty, and again we are beginning that journey, with another Commission of Inquiry into the conduct, and acts or omissions of our esteemed Prime Minister, nearly ten years in that very virtuous and noble office of the State.

So it is clearly not a history-making event, to have our Prime Minister appearing before a public inquiry to answer questions about his stewardship; on the contrary, it is simply history repeating itself after thirty years.

But the more important aspect of that unflattering state of affairs, in my humble opinion, are the lessons to be learnt or derived from the exercise – as well as the effects and repercussions flowing therefrom.

As for the lessons and the learning process, it seems that some of those persons who achieve the highest heights in public office will never learn. I do not know whether it has to do with their background, their upbringing, their outlook of life, or part and parcel of the “I never thought…” syndrome that changes them along the way. But whatever it is, it has an indigenous Caribbean background across the region.

Of more immediate concern, however, are the possible, and very probable, effects and telling repercussions those allegations will have on our standard and quality of life in these parts.

Nearly everything is changing around the world now-a-days. And as the major changes which encompass violence, fear, selfishness, and lack of regard for human life, become more and more prevalent - people are looking for safer havens to invest and spend their last days in relative peace.

We do have a whole lot to offer in those areas - but when our leaders, by their general behaviour and whatever else, go out of their way to attract the same scamps and hoodlums, that the good and genuine elements want to get away from the so-called First World - then as a people we are doomed, and destined to stay in the same cesspit with little hope of extricating ourselves.

The sadness of our current situation is not going to disappear with the sole Commissioner’s report - regardless of what it may contain. We are hearing the term repeated, both by the Prime Minister and more recently by his Trinidadian lawyer, that the Prime Minister will be vindicated by the Commissioner’s report.

They are missing the point in issue for whatever reason. Bringing the office of Prime Minister into disrepute; tainting the image and noble moral standing of leading one’s people in international affairs; acting and behaving in matters of a public nature, with such scant regard for dignity and integrity and morality; and generally portraying a sense and showmanship of bravado and arrogance, rather than penitence and humility - these are the issues that matter, not winning or losing before the Commissioner.

As a people, we have already lost another chunk of whatever credibility we had left, with this latest saga in our scandal-plagued Grenada - as the region sees us.

A lot of people are keeping quiet over this matter, not, I suspect, because they cannot see the depth of the wrongdoings complained of but, as another concerned citizen reminded me last Sunday morning - after Mass in which the Homily was centered around the theme of humility - because they need help with school books and uniforms, or a few days work on the roads, or a six to twelve months hold on in the Imani programme for their kids; among other handouts; they keep their mouths shut.

Even those who were rejected at the polls by the people are tight-lipped; but who can blame them, since they all were rewarded with Ministerial positions or other highly paid jobs in the system.

A vicious circle indeed. And therefore, the political corruption and human degradation, that permeated our society and political system over three decades ago, have only moved from the twentieth into the twenty-first century, because that couldn’t be avoided.

It is sad to say so, but quite true none-the-less.

Then again, the above are just my opinions - you are fully entitled to yours, to deal with as you see fit.

So, thirty years between those two Commissions of Inquiry – have we moved?

Lloyd Noel is a former Attorney General of Grenada, prominent attorney at law and political commentator.

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