Editorial:
The fact that the electors chose The National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the New National Party (NNP) to form the next government is proof that the average voter did not buy into the last minute pre-election heightened vote-catching activities of the Keith Mitchell-led former administration. However, the large amount of votes secured by the NNP gives the indication that the lessons taught by the late Maurice Bishop about the rum-and-corned beef type of politics have never been learnt or are altogether forgotten.
Some of the remarks that have been picked up on the street from a few supporters of the defeated Party are extremely nonsensical, disheartening and very disturbing indeed. (Female candidate) used all her money to buy things for the people and they never vote for her; (another female candidate) give them house and road and they don’t support her; as soon as the NDC come in power they take the vehicles from Keith.
These aforementioned statements and others such like from some disappointed voters are clear pointers to the level of ignorance and blindness under which too many still live. They are not to be blamed though because that was the kind of belief and understanding that were conveyed to them over the last thirteen years. Parliamentarians are elected to office and before long they behave as if they own the country, or literally so, in total disregard for the care and concerns for the very people who elected them.
For those who would prefer not to forget conveniently, it would be remembered that when former Prime Minister was accepting the PM’s car from the Germans, he said quite clearly that it was not his personal car; it was for anyone who would become Prime Minister.
The song requests that “you present the WILL you got from your grandfather to show that you own Grenada”. The appropriate response is that the Will is in the hands of the very ignorant and opportunistic supporters who “prop” up the system and give the powers-that-be the free hand to wield authority almost mercilessly.
Just for anyone to think that the Prime Minister’s car was belonging to Keith Mitchell or that candidates used their own money to campaign or that it is right to bribe voters with short-term employment and hand-outs should be embarrassing news for any and all good citizens and political Parties. That practice was more evident with the NNP.
A pro-NNP columnist in one of the nation’s weeklies always associated the NDC with the RMC. That has at least one positive dimension in that this present Government will initiate and support a process to educate the electors and the Grenadian people generally about the proper reasons for voting and how to vote.
The NNP too should consider itself as having quite a lot of work to do in that same regard if it has some level of decency and if it would consider releasing its supporters from that kind of mental oppression with which they were enslaved over the last thirteen years. The NNP millionaires and billionaires – politicians, who have become so over the last thirteen years or so, must tell the poor NNP grass-root props that Grenada belongs to all Grenadians and not just to the few who were elected to serve.
The time is right for both the NDC and the NNP to give the Grenadian people an insight into their budgeting for the elections. Give them the source of the funding and the amount of funding that each candidate received such that no one would entertain the thought that the candidates spent from their own pockets. It might be a good idea too that the Ministers of the new government disclose their assets now as they embark on serving the people with integrity, sincerity, transparency and honesty.
