By Hamlet Mark

 

In Grenada, an under-performing government is under siege; a leadership has grown increasingly out of touch and quietly more arrogant, and instead of listening to the concerns of its friends, it has instead turned on its own.

Joseph Gilbert, the fired Environment Minister, spoke in parliament on Wednesday of being stabbed in the back by his own leadership – coming under more fire from comrades than the opposition.

(When I spoke 18 months ago that Botanic Gardens had unleashed the goons, I suspect some dismissed it as crying wolf. Ask Roy T Jones or Rawle Titus about their recent experiences; or just now listen to Gilbert).

Michael Church spoke of being marginalized and undermined, while Karl Hood, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoke as man giving a farewell address in his budget presentation on Wednesday.

For Gilbert, Church and Hood – officially at least – they have joined thousands of Grenadians who are suffering from a broken heart.

Church conceded openly in parliament on Monday that this government is in more political trouble that has been acknowledged; Gilbert hinting of a lynching at the polls next year that will be a sorry state.

For Hood, the last few years felt like wasted years.

“Mr Speaker I stand and I close not with a heavy heart, though saddened,” he declared. “I close wishing that the clock could have turned back three years –three and a half years – and I wish we would have taken this country much further than we have taken it.”

What this government has done very well is labeled any criticism no matter how genuine it is, as somehow some orchestrated opposition campaign or of someone who vex about not getting something, ala Scholar, Chester Humphrey, Stanford Simon, Sandra Ferguson and yours truly.

And any minister or MP, so fresh as to question anything pushed out by a dwindling cabal is systematically demonized through orchestrated whisper campaigns and character smearing operations that has at least the tacit blessings of the highest office.

And then – on the other end – there are these ripened bunches of hangers-on, who believe the only way to prove your credential is to somehow pledge unconditional allegiance to a failed leadership.

What about allegiance to the poor people of Munich and Marlmount who have all been forgotten?

I just wonder how the Prime Minister slept last night – and what he really thought about what went down this week (mind you he was good and measured in his parliamentary performance Thursday).

Maybe he just dismissed it all as part of this phony war he has created in his head of good over evil; and that he is the good one who also determines who are the evil ones.

And the encouragers – what kind of brutish beast are they feeding – and to what end?

Glynis Roberts might have cried in parliament yesterday because of her personal situation – but she should have equally shed a tear for all of us called Grenadians.

But as Grenada stumbles into uncertainty – we still can’t answer that million dollar question – how do you mend a broken heart?

Hood, Gilbert, and Church – it’s not only the figures that don’t add up; the love also doesn’t from a leadership which has ungratefulness built into its DNA.

“I thought it will be prudent for me, as a national of Grenada and as man who loves this country with all his heart, to speak the voice of conscience and not just of blind allegiance,” Hood said yesterday.

His was the voice of a hurting man – as was Church, who declared: “I am duty bound Mr Speaker to inform the government ….that all is not well with our souls.”