COMMISSION    OMISSION   CONSEQUENCE

The Captains and the Kings (self made that is), have now departed, and we are left with a parade of commentators, advisers, and home-grown political experts, hosted by radio and television, airing their views on the way forward for Grenada,  Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

Several of those talking heads who previously worshipped at the altar of Bacchus and became inebriated with the largess received therefrom, have suddenly discovered, what we all knew long ago, that we are all Grenadians. They are now passionate advocates of the avoidance of   witch-hunting, victimization or even creating political tribalism. Some even waxed poetic or spiritual in arguing that none of us should be subjected to any litmus test of our political affiliation in order to obtain employment, receive food baskets, or any kind of public assistance in times of need, as in the aftermath of natural disasters This new found advocacy coming from that group, is nauseating, given the fact that their previous silence on these issues was thunderously deafening.

In their discourse on the way forward many of them purposely avoided the truism that every act committed, every omission of performing what ought to have been done,(what The Church has dubbed sins of commission or omission), has a consequence. When we investigate a crime and prosecute and punish the perpetrator, have we conducted a witch hunt or was the guilty party victimized? Why then should those who allegedly committed crimes against the State through their misdeeds and or impropriety not be investigated? Why should those who aided and abetted wrong-doing be allowed to go without even a reprimand? If the new Government fails to investigate all the perceived wrong- doings of its immediate predecessor in office, it shall forever be deemed the Government of “cover ups.”

Any government that fails to investigate allegations of fraud, corruption and bribery cannot honestly claim that it will abide by the principle of “justice for all” The new PM has repeatedly emphasized that his would be a government that respects the law and the Constitution. If he is true to his word he would allow the law to take its course and let the chips fall where they may.

By all means we must stretch every nerve and sinew, and go the limit to unite our people. Let justice prevail, even tempered with mercy, but in the process, never forget that all must be treated alike. No one, absolutely no one, should be favoured above another because of his/her status. The watchword must be “no one is above the law”.

McGuire’s article - “Are you a crook” - catalogues a litany of issues that surfaced over the past years. The more recent of those certainly deserve to be investigated. Surely, even those accused should welcome such an inquiry, if only to clear their names. The public would also want to have all lingering doubts removed. There is need to have the air cleared once and for all and remove the stigma of Grenada being the corrupt capital of the Caribbean.                                                

There is no denying that we in Grenada need a heavy dose of reality regarding what change must be the most important in the current situation. The recent change in the political leadership would mean nothing except there is a change of attitude in each and every one of us.   Unless we recover the values of hard work, self reliance, truth, honesty, love of one’s neighbour and thus respect for his rights and freedoms, his privacy and property, accept that Grenada belongs to all of us, and above all genuinely acknowledge again the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man, then the wind of change would have been useless.
It may be unpalatable to many but the way forward depends primarily on each and every one of   us and less on what the government can do. If one may borrow the words of past US President, John Kennedy, “Ask what you can do for your country and not what your country can do for you” It is now time for us to seriously consider what we can do to assist in making this our dear, beautiful island, set in the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean, recapture its former glory, and sometimes enviable position    of peace, harmony, intellectual thought, and   social and economic responsible behaviour.