EDITORIAL
GRENADA TODAY is strongly suggesting to the new government at home that it should concentrate on its domestic priorities before giving an serious thought to entering into any regional arrangement with Trinidad and Tobago and other neighbouring States.
As a matter of fact, this newspaper fully endorses the comments made by Social activist, Sandra Ferguson in an Open Letter sent this past week to Prime Minister Tillman Thomas.
Ms. Ferguson was straight to the point in that the issue of political or economic union was not an issue ventilated by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the electorate in the just-ended July 8 general elections.
We are extremely concerned that our leaders did not even open up Parliament for its first sitting but was in Port-of-spain signing some kind of Memorandum of Understanding with three other Prime Ministers - Patrick Manning of Trinidad and tobago, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent & The Grenadines and Stephenson King of St. Lucia.
In that agreement, the four leaders committed themselves to economic union by 2011 and political union by 2013. We wish our readers can get a copy of an article which appeared in the Express newspaper of Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday that dealt with the unity talks.
It is an eye-opener as to how we in these small islands are seen by those Trinidadians even some who hold prominent positions in the ruling People's National Movement (PNM) of Prime Minister Manning.
That article stated that about one year ago, Prime Minister Manning brought to his Cabinet a letter, signed by former Grenada prime minister Dr Keith Mitchell, seeking an association between the Spice Isle and Trinidad and Tobago, which, if accepted, would have made Grenada "a virtual colony" of Trinidad and Tobago.
It said that Mitchell and his New National Party (NNP) administration wanted Grenada to have free access to Trinidad and Tobago's education system, health system, transportation system among other things.
The article quoted a former PNM Minister as saying the following: "The only thing that the (Keith Mitchell) letter didn't speak of having access to was the Trinidad and Tobago treasury. But, of course that was an unspoken word. But clearly we would have been in effect minding Grenada".
It reported another ex-minister in the Manning Cabinet as saying that several of his colleagues felt that Dr. Mitchell was at the time looking for someone "to pay his (Grenada's) bills" and was "mamaguying" Trinidad and Tobago and the Cabinet totally rejected the idea.
And to crown it off and add salt to our already burning wound, the same Express newspaper article made reference to a statement made by new Finance Minister in Grenada, Nazim Burke about the treasury in Grenada being empty and that the Tillman Thomas Government might not be able to pay its public servants.
The thinking of those Trinidadians is that Grenada is desperate to get into a political and economic arrangement with them because as they put it "Trinidad and Tobago's revenues are high and Grenada's treasury (is) empty".
GRENADA TODAY recognises that there is already free trade existing between the two state, albeit that it is heavily one-sided and weighed more or less in favour of our brothers to the south.
Our leaders should concentrate on any talks being held with Manning on helping them to get Grenada moving once again as an independent State and not as any "colony" in light of the serious debt situation created by 13 years of unregulated massive spending by the Mitchell government.
Prime Minister Thomas should approach his Trinidad counterpart on helping us to be able to one day cast our own net in the sea and be able to hold our own fish.
This newspaper sincerely hopes that our new leaders in the Botanical Gardens would open their eyes as wide as possible to the thinking of those folks in Trinidad and Tobago to the Manning initiative. If the ordinary man on the street is not buying into the idea then it matters not what the leaders thinketh.
Our immediate priority at the moment should be focused on getting the government in St. George's up and running and making the residents know loud and clear that Congress is in charge.
The electorate voted for change and not merely an exchange of ministers in the various ministries.
Too many frontline political activists of the New National Party (NNP) are still in charge at the management level of state-run bodies like Gravel & Concrete, National Lottery authority, National Insurance Scheme, and Grenada Housing Authority among others.
It is seven weeks since the people voted for change and the NNP operatives are still in charge and in a position to get rid of all evidence of possible wrong-doing.
This state of affairs makes it extremely difficult for the forensic experts who are expected to come in to do the work that is needed to get at the bottom of some of the suspected wrong-doing that took place in the system.
GRENADA TODAY would advise the new drivers of the ship-of-state to deal with all the burning local issues before venturing into any new regional initiative.
And it is wiser and far better to first fix those regional integration movement bodies that are not functioning at present before thinking of inventing new ones.
The ideals of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) still remains a dream, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is still struggling to get off the ground, the free movement of skilled workers is still a nice-sounding phrase, and air transportation among the various islands is not only too high but a nightmare with LIAT returning once more to its monopoly status.
