By Max Sterling
Many Grenadians are anxious to learn of the fate of former Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell. They have to remember that certain things take time and justice is something which must not be rushed for generally, the wheels of justice grind slowly but surely.
Grenada is a place where instant gratification has become an ingrained culture and so while many were enjoying the spoils of the last administration's vituperations against others, they were instantly gratified with the proceeds of unsuspecting tax payers.
A new day has dawned over Grenada for the benefit of all Grenadians and this has put another set of people looking towards instant gratification in context of wanting to see a total political end to Keith Mitchell through prosecution for "misbehaviour in public office". I say to the latter: not so fast!
All "I's" must be dotted and "T's" crossed properly in this situation where Mitchell is concerned so as to bring him to justice for the squandering of the nation's scarce resources in the Call Center which his family members owned and operated at the State's expense; the gross embarrassment he put us through with his Resteiner bribery affair; the serious First Bank debacle which attracted blacklisting of our country from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the U.S. Treasury Department; for all the insider trading which became a culture of operation for the administration; for the mounting regularity with which bribery and corruption were involved in many activities of State under his watch; and of course the list can go on to no endŠ
I totally agree that Mitchell must be made to pay for his several intransigence against the people of Grenada. He is clever enough to be putting together a legal team ahead of time but when the erudite Attorney General James Bristol and our competent Director of Public Prosecutions
(DPP) are ready for him and all his accomplices I hope they can handle the inevitable.
I therefore call on everyone concerned to sit tight and allow the process to mature as all in the fullness of time Mitchell shall be dealt with. He knows what is coming and he knows just how much more discredited he will become among the thinking who have always been his enemy.
The July 08 election results proved just how thinking our people have become again and how battle wary they are. Mitchell's loss at the polls must be considered the first step to his demise and the slower the process to prosecute him is the more jittery he will become as he does not know whether he is going or coming.
Mitchell will like to know the day and the hour his avalanche of charges would be delivered, but that is not to be. Based on his dealings in office, Mitchell probably has enough charges to take him a lifetime to respond to. What a pity with him being over 60 already, he may not have so much time left.
I have always been on record telling readers to this regular column that notwithstanding how long Mitchell appears to be holding on to power, it will not be forever.
In fact I also said that the same "guys" he loved to refer to as "RMC murderers" had the appetite to chip away at his armour and the patience to do so.
It was around the turn of the century that they became involved with the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the elections of 2003 saw how much inroads they made into Mitchell's support and how energised they made so many people become to participate in the democratic process.
I am not surprised that his RMC scare tactics did not work and that the youth of the country who have no clue of what he spoke when he sought to overuse the RMC line saw the same "guys" as representing an energy level they could identify with.
Are your surprised that both Peter David and Nazim Burke were able to pull through victoriously at the polls? I am not! Peter is very charismatic and intelligent and does not know how to behave inferiorly as most, if not all of Mitchell's brigade.
Nazim Burke is a class act in his own right. He may not sport the panache of his colleague, Peter, but his demeanor sells him as a candidate par excellence.
Grenadians have a lot to be excited about. First and foremost Mitchell is not around the halls of power any more. Even his case against George Worme for Criminal Libel he has to face the music on just like if he is on trial instead of George.
His apparatus has crashed and no longer supports the vengeance he used to silence opposition to his inferior style of leadership. To me that is more than reason for us to celebrate on a moment by moment basis. I am positive that with him not ever having been able to gather around him genuine friends and associates he will find himself lonely as he no longer has any power to give to anyone anything anymore.
When he sits as lonely as he is going to be in Happy Hill he will realise that the "Beff Mango" tree in his back yard will be his only friend. Notwithstanding his presumed riches which many believe he garnered in recent years, and could land in his legal hot waters sooner rather than later, Mitchell will find himself in the end very lonely as all the parasites who gathered around him are already no more.
He may have to resort to reproaching them telling them if he did not make them Chairman of this, that and the other boards they would not have been able to sell their goods on an exclusive basis to the corporations whose boards they chaired under his tenure.
I am convinced that his number will soon play and when it does he will be in real trouble. Wearing denim without underpants will become something hard for him to swallow but as tomorrow is sure to come I am equally sure that that day will come for Dr. Mitchell.
I am sure that when the day comes when Mitchell will change his address from Happy Hill to "The Hill" overlooking the city many of you who wished the AG and DPP would hurry up would be happy that they took their time to get it right!
Do you know what it could be like if they hurry up and get it wrong? We don't want that at all! Let us get it right for once - not the Wildman way in which taxpayers had to shoulder all the financial burdens at the end of the day.
