Former Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell has called on those claiming that he sought a political colony with the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to bring the proof.
He was responding to a question posed to him in connection with an article published in a recent edition of the Trinidad and Tobago newspaper, the Daily Express, about a letter he is alleged to have written to Prime Minister Patrick Manning on unity between the two neighbouring States.
The ex-Prime Minister denied claims that he sought to make Grenada become a colony of Trinidad and Tobago stating that he had asked for enhanced technical support as was done with Barbados and other countries such as Cuba.
"Anyone who said we wanted to be part of Trinidad and Tobago, this is foolish - totally false, totally false and this is extremely unfortunate that it's being repeated", he said.
"Tell them to produce the letter which Keith Mitchell wrote asking for association with Trinidad in terms of political relations - there can be no such letter", he added.
The Express newspaper reported that the Trinidad Cabinet rejected the request, which if accepted, would have made Grenada "a virtual colony" of the republic.
The newspaper claimed that the letter, signed by Mitchell, was submitted by Manning to his Cabinet about a year ago and that Grenada wanted free access to Trinidad and Tobago's education, health and transportation systems, among other things.
The island's new Opposition leader admitted that Trinidad has resources and had called on several occasions on his colleague in Port-of-Spain to assist distressed Grenadians.
"...But to say that I ask ... to bring Grenada .... into a political union, I can't do that", he said.
According to Dr. Mitchell, he had sought technical support from Manning in health care specially in the area of dialysis treatment, scholarship for university education and transportation help in the area of airline services.
Mitchell described himself as an integrationist and said that he will never oppose serious integration but integration cannot be integration among leaders but rather among the people.
He also passed passing remarks on the recent Memorandum of Understanding signed last month by Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, along with the leaders of St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago in Port of Spain to form an economic and political union by 2013.
Dr. Mitchell said charged that something is wrong with the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) government for having signed such an agreement only a few days after getting into office since it was not on the agenda of the party and it did not discuss the idea with the people of Grenada.
"I don't know who told them (NDC) this is acceptable. You may wish to get some money from some county but you can't behave in a manner that the money is so important that you'll do anything for it. You just have to have respect for the country", he remarked.
In recent weeks, Mitchell has been accused of bad-spending a multi-million dollar package donated from funds given by the Manning government to help Grenada purchase among others a Coast Guard vessel for the island.
