Why cry wolf?

We are not sure if the guys who run the opposition New National Party are pushing the panic button too quickly – crying wolf, while there is – at least for now – none in the neighborhood.

If the party’s statement about pending arrests was meant to be some kind of information pre-emptive strike, it just exposes the reeking fear at their headquarters.

My advice to them will be have your lawyers a phone call away, and in the interim, to use a popular local phrase from the 80s, “cease and settle.”

The one good strategic political move from the statement is who read it.

Roland Bhola is one of the genuinely nice guys in Grenadian politics, and one of the few with the credibility to make it.

Dare I say, he is one of those who will also genuinely not worry about the work of any special prosecutor.

However, we can’t seem to find, from any credible independent source, the details of this special prosecutor waiting to take action of which they speak.

From our research, there have been investigations from the office of the DPP into a number of areas, and there has been talk of hiring a special prosecutor and a couple of people have been contacted in that regard.

Based on whom you speak to, the Canadian Bob Lindquist has either been spoken to or has been working on a few matters – but we have no official confirmation.

However the picture that has emerged is that there has been progress on a number of matters – but as with those things, it has been relatively slow.

Whatever our views of this government or the past, it is clear that there are many grounds for concerns about some of the behavior in the former administration.

Whether it has reached the stage where formal charges could be laid, I am not sure based on what we are hearing that they are quite there as yet.

Given the state of play however, we are also not anywhere where anyone can claim, with any serious credibility, that the process that is unfolding is a political witch hunt.

This is far too premature.

We will all have to wait and see the nature of the charges - if any.

There are a few things that however should be clear – and one of those is that there are enough things that happened in the latter stages of the NNP reign to give all of us pause.

Are they criminal? We just don’t know. That’s why any investigation is in order and appropriate.

The NNP claim that the current administration is trying to fulfill an election promise to investigate their conduct might be true. And I am not sure what’s wrong with that.

Having come to power on the argument that the quality of governance left much to be desired, I don’t think the NDC would have any credibility left in not seeking to investigate what had concerned so many in the first place.

And about this investigation being an attempt to take people’s minds from the tough times they are facing?

For once, NNP is giving the rag-tag bunch at Botanic Gardens more credit than they deserve. I don’t think they are politically smart or organized enough to pull that off.

Nor do I think that the opposition is giving ordinary Grenadian people enough credit to be able to separate issues.

It will be a grave political miscalculation – never mind the legal one – to move forward with half-baked charges.

Up to this point, I am comfortable with the credibility of the people involved in this legal process – who for two years have withstood shouts for political blood – and have gone ahead studiously following the spirit and the letter of the law.

The value of any country is its ability to take care of its most vulnerable citizens, and to be able to apply justice to all – cost it what it will.

We must not put off any appropriate investigation merely on the basis of some phony argument about the cost of doing it.

The cost of not seeking justice and of not demanding proper behavior from all of our public officers – in and out of office – is far greater.