Editorial

The latest events surrounding convicted former Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Basdeo Panday has surely put a spoke in the wheels of those pushing hard for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to become the final appellate court in this part of the world. The allegations made are there for all and sundry to read on Page 22 of this week's edition of the GRENADA TODAY newspaper.

We have been very consistent in reporting about our fears of leaving justice in the regional courts in the hands of some of those now holding sway. The politics of money will rule and the poor and marginalised might be forced to look elsewhere for true justice.

It is quite easy for a sitting magistrate or high court judge in these parts to succumb to the dictates of some of the persons holding important political positions like Prime Ministers in the Caribbean. It is not far-fetched to hear reports of certain magistrates and judges who are looking for upward mobility on the bench being prepared to play the political game in order to seek promotion.

It is no secret that some of our Prime Ministers play very influential roles in appointing judges to sit on the OECS Supreme Court. Our own Justice Monica Joseph knows too well the kind of political bridges that were put in her way while serving in neighbouring St. Vincent and the Grenadines under a certain Prime Minister.

That's why we are baffled at times to understand some of the decisions taken by the same Justice Joseph on the local scene involving the current New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell. This is an administration that has been very vulgar in its attempts to interfere with the independence of the judiciary.

The latest salvo involved the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Christopher Nelson who the NNP and its Legal hit man were trying to embarrass and remove from his post. If the truth is known, GRENADA TODAY endorses the recent statement made by the embattled Hugh Wildman of Jamaica on the inherent dangers in replacing the British Privy Council with the CCJ as the final arbiter of matters in the Caribbean.

Our problem is that Wildman only choose to make the statement in the open after a sitting judge of the OECS Supreme Court, Davidson Baptiste ruled in a personal matter involving him and his ambition to become the next Attorney-General of Grenada. The same Wildman saw nothing wrong in representing Grenada at the expense of our taxpayers at earlier forums held which were aimed at promoting the ideals of the CCJ.

He did not to the best of our knowledge venture or utter one single word then against the CCJ while he was wining and dining with the promoters of the idea. It was only after the said Wildman was defeated in our local courts that he made his loud outburst against the CCJ.

There are so many double standards and double talk in high places in our small part of the world that the little man in the street must be really confused. The Education Minister will travel to New York with her Prime Minister and tell Grenadians in the Big Apple that "we are all Grenadians" and should unite despite the political divide.

Two weeks earlier, the minister's own colleague, Hon. Roland Bhola would tell a public meeting of the NNP that his government would build houses for its supporters first and then build for the rest of the people. And in the same meeting, the Minister of Youth would be so vulgar in informing the nation that the official colours of her youth programme will be "green and white".

Everyone in Grenada know that green is the colour of the NNP. And the situation is compounded by the hostility shown by NNP political activists to anyone wearing yellow (the colour of the main opposition National Democratic Congress) on any given day and place within the Ministerial Complex at the Botanical Gardens. How can we ever have peace and unite as one Grenadian given the prevailing conditions?

The Prime Minister also gets into the fray as usual by clearly trying to hoodwink the unsuspecting by making them believe that the country will make millions of dollars during the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup from departure tax because of the influx of visitors passing through the Point Salines International Airport (PSIA). It is either the Prime Minister is ignorant of the facts or plainly engaged in his usual politics of deceit.

The position of the ICC is that the Caribbean islands hosting games in the tournament would be treated as one country and visitors would only pay one departure tax on leaving the region after coming into our part of the world for the tournament. No one knows as yet whether Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda or even Guyana will get the lion share of the Departure Tax to be collected at our airports in the region..

Grenada is indeed on the move and moving real fast as usual under NNP but the country really and truly is not going anyway in terms of building a platform for long term growth, stability and prosperity.