NNP Perspective week ending April 6th, 2012
Grenadians have now become accustomed to the fact that the NDC Government continues to fail to live up to its promises, continues to neglect the cries of the people; and after almost four years in office, still continues the practice of hiding the truth and telling half-truths that began when the party was in opposition.
Most people say they are surprised; they expect a Government to behave differently. However, after seeing almost four years of stagnation, backwardness and deceit, the people are saying that they have seen enough: they want the Government to go.
They want the Government to go because they realize that they were not honest in the election campaign, not telling the truth about the state of the economy, trying to make things look so bad; just so they are trying to hide from the people the true state of the country after years of NDC mismanagement. Instead of solving problems, they are trying to blame everybody else, including the Opposition, international organizations, the international business climate, local businessmen and women, public sector workers and workers in general.
In response to this dismal situation, we are hearing them say that workers are not productive enough, local business must invest more and outside organizations are not helping enough.
But while the Government is blaming all and sundry, there are a lot of things it not saying to the people. It is deliberately trying to prevent the people from knowing certain things. The following are a few:
- The Government is not telling the people in general, and public servants in particular, that it has increased the public sector wage bill by millions of dollars on highly-paid contracts while freezing the salaries of public servants and teachers and reducing the pay of road workers.
- The Government is not telling the people that some of that money could have helped to pay under-paid Government workers, while helping to service the foreign debt and reducing the need of the Government to borrow to meet day to day expenses.
- The Government is not telling the people that while it criticized Government borrowing while in opposition, it is now borrowing a lot, but people cannot see where the money is going,
- The Government is not telling the people that even today, people can see where the money that was borrowed under the NNP went-new roads, bridges, schools, ministerial complex buildings and so on. These projects improved the infrastructure and created thousands of jobs for the Grenadian people. The money did not just disappear.
- The Government is not telling the people that the money for some of the projects it implemented, or is implementing, were secured by the NNP, for example, the Brizan Landslip project and the Grenville Market project. It is not telling the people that these projects were delayed by interference and inefficiency.
- The Government is not telling the people that the first part of the Taiwanese loan was taken before 1995. It is also not saying that the funds taken after 1995 was for important projects such as water treatment and distribution systems, which were in the interest of the people of the country.
- The Government is not telling the people that it is neglecting the country’s roads and bridges etc. and that the country will not be able to attract business with poor infrastructure. It is not telling the people that the improvement in infrastructure is part of the business promotion strategy of all countries, including Caribbean countries, which are now attracting businesses that are leaving Grenada.
- The Government is not telling the people that the current increases in nutmeg and cocoa production is due to actions taken by the NNP and the natural recovery process after Ivan and Emily.
- The Government is not telling the people that it is only giving lip service to the causes of our young people, while it is abandoning good programmes on the basis of politics and bringing in programmes which cannot work.
- The Government is not telling the people that it continues the practice of spying on people, trying to see what people do, who they talk to, and so on. It behaves as if we are still in the days of the Revolution.
Yes, because of these and more, the people are saying that they do not trust the Government and they have lost all confidence in them.
YES, THEY WANT A REAL CHANGE; NOT THE POCKET CHANGE THEY GOT IN 2008. THEY WANT TO CHANGE BACK TO WHAT WORKS FOR THEM.