The liberation from hypocrisy

The morning after the election George Grant said he was scratching his head; wondering what just happened.

  He was one of quite a few people of that ilk who have been living for a while now in a land of denial.

  To fully understand the shellacking that the National Democratic Congress got on February 19, you can easily track the timelines of my blogs available online from 2010 forward. (So I am not just Monday morning quarter-backing here).

  I was reviewing them overnight -- and it refreshed my memories, blow by blow of how the seeds of this demise were being sown.

  When I warned them back them, I was summarily dismissed as "a threat to the nation" or as a badass bitter man, angry about some crumbs that I was supposedly so cheap to be needing to gather from the foot of their rotten tables.

  The economy was bad, and the leadership was never inspiring -- and on those two counts alone the NDC was always facing a one term.

  But even so, they were - supposedly -- always with a chance of getting a few seats here and there.

  What pushed it over the edged was what I called the R factor  - the rebels and the rebellion.

  The lavalass that washed away the NDC came because in the end there was a massive national rebellion against the leadership of Tillman Thomas and Nazim Burke.

  If their egos do not get in the way, they should now make way for a brand of new leadership. If not -- and here is another bold prediction -- the NDC will soon be buried alongside George Brizan in St Pauls.

  The dipping of the fingers in ink after voting was a poignant signal of "giving them the finger" by the large majority of people in Grenada.

  There have been countless people I met who said they voted not so much for NNP, but against the reconstituted NDC because either "them fellas too dam bad" or "them fellas too ungrateful" or "them fellas aint care about anybody."

   A week ago, in the pages of the Today newspaper -- not known for any astute serious political analysis but childish meanderings -- they were predicting that the election would have meant the end of the so-called rebels -- those expelled last year from the party.

  They even said "the myth" that the party needed their organizing excellence and their messaging nous and fundraising power would be proven to be just hype.

  Oh, how they were wrong.

  And oh, how I always knew they were wrong.

  Other than the fact that NNP won massively, and that returning Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell has a unique opportunity to finally shape his final legacy, the other big winners this past week were "the rebels".

  In the end of the day they were the effective leaders of the on-the-ground insurgency that swept away NDC for good.

  NNP would have won without their efforts, but NDC would have not been obliterated.

  Once they hit the ground, NDC was always toast.

  Which brings me to one of the most poignant comments I heard during the campaign -- when one former activist of the NDC in Tivoli said -- what the party did last September was not just expel ten key members -- but effectively expelled the people.

  And so there was that other factor -- revenge.

  A whole lot of people voted to get their revenge. They voted because they came to hate what both Thomas and Burke came to represent.

  And until now, I thought revenge was a bad thing. No more. It is an act to exorcise the demons of insensitivity and inaction; of ungratefulness and unfeeling. It helped a lot of people to liberate themselves from the suffocating spirit of political hypocrisy and contradictions.

  As much as this was a vote for betterment; this was also a vote for political fairness and reasonableness.

  The same people who gave political advice to Tillman Thomas and Nazim Burke -- those who write the five year Stonecrusher syndicate -- got it wrong -- again!

  After the vote, "the rebels" now have more political relevance than the choir.

  People ask if I am not worried that there is no opposition. No I am not.

   The people decided that is what they wanted. NDC acted in  a way to make the scenario palatable and possible.

     In that bitter, vicious, restless heartbreaking summer of 2010, I had pleaded and cautioned Glen Noel and Willie Joseph -- that they  will have no path to a national victory unless they make peace and reason.

  Back then I could see the golden dreams of July 2008 slipping away. I predicted that unless there is a change of course and attitude, annihilation will come.

  The NDC's biggest achilles heel was their arrogance -- borne out of action such as the suspension of parliament, and the declaration that "nobody will cheat me of my time."

  The architects of that disconnect are the ones who would have woken up seriously and genuinely surprised on Wednesday morning.

  For me, it was no breaking news. It was simply, a long time coming!

PS: Comrades Chris, Glen, Faye, Vincent et cet -- for yet another election cycle; I was right again.

PS2: For the same comrades, just a reminder. Political strategy is not about dealing with the best case scenario, but building a worst case scenario and working to change it as if your life depended on it.

PS3: When you are an incumbent, it's not enough to peddle fear.

It's been a long time coming!

So what's new eh?

Parliament dissolved!

   Not sure what was all the excitement about, because that was as predictable as anything this century.

   Having cast his lot by suspending parliament six months ago to avoid a total collapse of his government -- in his "nobody can cheat me of my time" mode -- time effectively ran out on the Tillman Thomas administration on Wednesday.

  The brief TV appearance on Wednesday night was not just an acknowledgment of that, but a sad requiem on four and a half wasted years that started with so much potential.

  And though the government has technically 90 days to hold a general elections -- expect one in less than a third of that time.

  The financial and political realities -- and the legal budgetary requirements -- have further boxed in this administration.

  Traditionally, politicians under the Westminster system use the non-fixed date approach to spring surprises to their advantage.

  In this case though, there are no surprises to be sprung.

  In the end, it is not any parliamentary maneuver, nor any protest in the streets (surprisingly there was not any) -- but it is time, that will eventually "cheat" the Prime Minister of his time.

  As he tried to figure his next move, there was always one thing this administration feared more than anything the likes of Keith Mitchell, Peter David or Glynis Roberts could have thrown at them -- the clock!

  And for all its flaws, this is what makes this democracy so amazing. Time eventually gets you.

  And as time creeps up on this government, you run the range of emotion -- you want to scream and cry; and jump for joy all at the same time.

  Last night I was watching the Karl Hood clip from that 2008 classic campaign at La Borie where he said: ""They can go as long as they want and do what they want, but election must call. This corruption in the land must end."

  It is canny how history and events repeat themselves.

  Far removed from all of this -- 20 to 30 years from now -- when we take out all the emotion of this time, we will come to solemnly reconcile about what a waste of opportunity and potential the last four and a half years had been.

  If we never knew, we now know though -- leadership matters.

  When people ask me what went wrong, I have a one-word answer: Leadership.

  I was told a story this week by a (former) NDC activist who said that a party campaign team had come to visit him recently, trying to "reactivate" his community role of the last campaign.

  His retort to them was -- "why are you coming to me now?  At the convention in September, you did not just expel Peter David and Glynis Roberts and them. You expelled the people."

  Which brought me back to a commercial, that I had personally got up after midnight one night over five years ago and coined - that said in part -- "we had a government that has been choosing wrongly for us, but now the people have a chance to choose for themselves."

  Indeed it is canny how history and events repeat themselves.

  There is a song that goes something like this... "it's been a long, a long time coming..."

  I tried singing it last night, and it tore me up.

  So can somebody help me sing along?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbO2_077ixs

Of mass deception and paranoia

GRENADA’S Finance Minister Nazim Burke was on one of his tours of mass deception on Wednesday, while avoiding the issue of his dealings with the National Insurance Scheme.

He won’t subject himself to any interview with the Associated Press, the Caribbean Media Corporation or CARIBUDPATE News – but he went on very friendly territory Wednesday, including of course – naturally – the Government Information Service.

He was all over the place declaring that government did not “request” any money from the NIS, while in the same breath stating that government has “business with the NIS” – business that he says is “not wise” to speak about.

He told GBN that the report (I guess supposedly the CARIBUPDATE and/or CC6 one) “is totally false”, yet he told MTV that “this may be so, but..”

Mr Burke went on a well thought-out and orchestrated campaign on Wednesday to try to confuse people and deliberately mislead.

Also disingenuous was his assertion that businesses and institutions do business all the time, but they don’t speak about it.

The government is –well just that – the government who supposedly is beholden to the people. The National Insurance Scheme is not a private credit union or some commercial bank – it belongs to the workers of Grenada technically.

Whatever transactions that go on between the government of Grenada and the NIS are of national interest – and it is fair for people like us to ask questions.

This “none of-your-business” attitude that repeatedly comes from Burke does little credit to his own government.

Burke must stop hiding behind semantics, and state whether what we ascertain as the facts are true or not – no beating around the bush.

Has not government sought 10 million dollars from NIS, offering the organization land and government bonds in return?

Isn’t this the third time for the year the government has gone to the NIS with some “business proposal” so that it can get money to “meet its current bills” – well in our interpretation – to pay salaries?

This writer is absolutely confident that these are the basic facts of the most recent developments – and Burke can look to dance around it how he wants to his own declining credibility.

Most of us who have seen his sleek operations have always known that he is stingy with the truth – no wonder he avoids as the plague any invitation to sit down for an interview, at any time, at any place and under any general conditions of his comfort.

Here is a gentle reminder, my learned friend: The truth needs no avoidance to tough questions.

“We are in business with the NIS. The NIS is in business with us,” Burke told GBN on Wednesday.

Since the Minister has an inability to piss straight – let me break it down for him.

What you are saying, sir, is that you went to the NIS (again) for more money, in exchange for lands and bonds, and it is considering the application

So fair enough – you are in business with the NIS, and the NIS is in business with you.

And what is so sinister about this, that you cannot give a simple acknowledgement?

I suspect the problem with the Minister is that it reminds people of the government’s fiscal crisis, and how he has so badly mismanaged the economy, in yes sure – an otherwise very, very difficult economic environment.

On another note, I caught tonight Burke’s “despicable” responses to comment on the management of the economy by members of the business community.

As true to form, without dealing item by item with the concerns raised, he went on a broadside to question their motive, to suggest that as if they are political motivated and have axe to grind with this government.

Burke even accused members of the Chamber of “conspiring” with the previous government to economically mismanage the country.

Is this Minister of Finance for real?

Or are we seeing a new standard of paranoia that is off the charts by his own consistent sweating state of nervous discomfort anytime he is seriously questioned?

But it should not surprise those of us who have studied this government closely.

From the Prime Minister on down, its standard response to anybody or any group that has been “fresh enough” to ask tough questions – is to use state and other resources to systematically try to smear them.

There is an orchestrated one in full gear against Chester Humphrey for example – the man who was their hero when he was lambasting the previous government – but all of a sudden is the worse human being in town.

They had tried it with Scholar when he sang a critical calypso a few years ago.

The same man interestingly they were running down recently to contest a seat for them in St Patrick’s West. (Good for Scholar he is not as “suicidal” and he is smart enough to stay away from this “burning deck”)

Speaking about Burke’s paranoia – as Lew Smith asked him about the CARIBUPDATE report on the economy – he dismissed it with this retort: “This person has taken a very strong dedicated commitment to try to bring the government down.”

Is that me Sir?

Not guilty!

It wasn’t me that has spent four years fighting for power, bad talking colleagues and undermining leaders. (I have just been commenting on it).

You’ve done a very good job at that – and you needed no help.