There is new information circulating in the country that can shed some very important light on the issue of the status of the Member of Parliament for the Town of St. George, Peter David and the attempt to remove him from the House of Representatives.

And ironically it comes from the Father of Independence, our first Prime Minister, Sir Eric Matthew Gairy who led the delegation from the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) government in late 1973 to Marlborough House in London for talks with the British government on independence.

The opposition delegation to the talks was headed by the late Herbert Blaize of the Grenada National Party (GNP) and included Bernard Coard, the imprisoned former deputy prime minister of the ill-fated 1979-83 Grenada Revolution of the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG).

Six years later the same Coard and the leader of the marxist New Jewel Movement (NJM), Maurice Bishop by the use of force of arms overthrew Gairy and his GULP to stage the very first coup d’etat in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Although Peter David did not take part in the coup against Gairy, he came back back into the country from overseas where he was studying to play an active part in the revolutionary process.

The very words issued by Eric Gairy back in 1973 in London might turn out to be very crucial to the outcome of the case brought by Prime Minister Mitchell and his New National Party (NNP) government to try and evict the St. George’s M.P from parliament.

GRENADA TODAY urges our readers to return to last week’s issue of the paper and read page 36 under the headline banner:

The then Premier Gairy in his opening statement at the Marlborough House talks which led to Grenada's independence and in front of the British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Blaize and Bernard Coard and company, uttered the following words:

“Mr. Minister, we wish to make it known that we propose to entrench within the new constitution, that Grenadians who have acquired citizenship of the United Kingdom or any other independent Commonwealth country will on their return to Grenada, the land of their birth enjoy a citizenship equal in status to that of the country in which they have acquired citizenship.

In other words, Mr. Minister, the proposed constitution shall make provision for dual citizenship; the independent constitution will give to Grenadians living in the United Kingdom or any other independent Commonwealth country a Grenadian citizenship equal in status to that they have acquired”.

As the Father of our Independence, Sir Eric was informing the British government about the thinking of his government on the question of citizenship of Grenadians and their qualification for membership to parliament.

A number of persons who served in the Gairy government of the 1970’s indicated that the move was aimed at creating the avenue for the likes of George Hosten (the then Minister of Finance) who had Canadian citizenship, like Peter David to be qualified to contest general elections.

This newspaper would like to impress upon the current holder of the office of Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Claudius Mitchell to get ahold of the 1973 speech of Gairy as delivered at Marlborough House in London and read it for himself.

Sir, do the right and decent thing after reading the entire speech - withdraw the court case against the M.P for the Town of St. George’s and save the taxpayers the burden of financing a long drawn out legal battle.
It is clear that Special Prosecutor and Legal Advisor to Cabinet, Hugh Wildman had it wrong again.

Mr. Wildman should re-read Section 31 (a) of the constitution in light of the statement made by the Father of Independence at Marlborough House. The section states: “No person shall be qualified as a Member of the House of Representatives if he -

(a) is, by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state”.

It should be noted that when Sir Eric was addressing the British. he was creating the conditions for Grenadians who “acquired citizenship of the United Kingdom or any other independent Commonwealth country” to take part in the affairs of the country of their birth on their return home.

While, we do not claim to have any legal expertise, any school child reading that portion of Gairy’s speech on citizenship can come to only one conclusion that any Grenadian who returned home would enjoy the same status as that of the country in which they have acquired citizenship.

The Prime Minister is fully aware that his own cousin, Jean Augustine from Happy Hill was a Grenadian, took out Canadian citizenship and ran successfully to become a member of parliament in her adopted homeland. It is clear to us that the same Jean Augustine can return to Grenada and contest general elections on any party ticket she so chooses.

Dr. Mitchell should also be mindful of his own speech on Independence Day, February 7, 2006 when he attempted to extend the olive branch to all sections of the country to work for nation-building.

How can he expect David and the members of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to take him seriously when he seems hell bent on trying to remove their M.P who did not hide the fact that he had taken out Canadian citizenship to try and install another Canadian in the person of Brenda Hood, the Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation?

The current holder of the Office of Prime Minister has built up a reputation over the years of speaking with forked tongue and he needs to prove his detractors wrong by dropping the court case against Peter David in light of Gairy’s speech at Marlborough House in London.

The country needs all the money it can in the rebuilding process and stop wasting it on lengthy and expensive court cases that are vexatious to many persons in Grenada.