The flow of plenty money from the secretive Government-managed and operated Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme has provided politicians and their selected cronies with vast and unreachable wealth to influence the loyalty of citizens, and many have fallen prey to the point of even ignoring their moral and religious convictions and the destruction to our nation’s democracy.
The CBI has given the Grenadian political directorate the money-power to provide special favours, and construct a mafia style community in which key personalities in our major civic organisations have all become silent. They see wrong but they choose to ignore it.
Government has conquered and today controls just about every Grenada institution that ought to be playing an independent role in ensuring our democracy is alive and kicking.
Nothing hurts more than the NNP government’s relentless ambition of enslavement of the media. It is just unbelievable that not a single electronic media, including the Trinidad and Tobago-owned GBN carried a story on the incident involving the Minister of State for Information, Senator Winston Garraway and freelance journalist Calistra Farrier.
The photo posted on Facebook highlighting the incident shows the minister pointing his fingers at Calistra who collapsed on the floor in the Ministry of Works’ conference room while recording on tape the Minister making derogatory remarks to her.
I am told that a high-ranking employee at MTV publicly stated that this was not news and would not be carried in their newscast. GBN interviewed George Worme of THE NEW TODAY newspaper where Calistra freelances but didn’t broadcast the interview.
The great tragedy of this unfortunate media drama is that the Media Workers Association of Grenada (MWAG) ignored the incident, and the government itself, seems unrepentant about the incident. Their operatives used WhatsApps and Facebook, endeavoring to create another version.
The fact that a government minister could publicly abuse and disrespect a female journalist at a government-organised press conference, and the government itself refused to issue a statement clarifying the incident, speaks volumes about the state of Grenada’s democracy under the Keith Mitchell-led administration.
Sen. Garraway, as a Minister and Pastor, ought not to have reduced himself to a tormentor of a journalist, and in fact he had absolutely no right to be engaging the media worker because he was not the government official hosting the press conference.
The government’s message is loud and clear — get in line and follow instructions, or you shall be humiliated and abused.
Only a leader obsessed with amassing and dominating political power, as we see in China and North Korea, would tolerate such guttered behaviour from a cabinet minister.
The Facebook pictures clearly demonstrate an irate Minister Garraway. Shame on you Pastor, and all those who are defending you. Undoubtedly, they all lack the pride and respect for decency.
In neighboring Trinidad and Tobago, a union leader was charged with sedition for a statement he made to workers; and within 48 hours, lawyers and civic organisations called on the government to rethink its response.
Almost a week has gone by, and not a single organisation has said a word on the Farrier/Garraway issue — and that includes the Grenada National Organisation of Women.
The relentless drive by the NNP to control media content is visible. The radio frequency used by Kem Jones to broadcast his popular morning and evening talk shows is now controlled by a popular Soca artist.
I have absolutely no doubt that it is a well-orchestrated initiative to silence opposition perspectives. The state is using its vast resources behind the scenes to score a slam dunk on democracy.
Interesting is that selling or leasing of the frequency used by Jones to another person came four weeks after Kem Jones exposed the government for allowing its former Minister and radio talk show host Sheldon Scott to use taxpayers money to pay his very expensive cell phone bills in excess of a quarter million dollars over a period of time.
Jones also broke another big story in which the Prime Minister himself broke the law, paying his 14 security officers in excess of three hundred thousand dollars in what the P.M said was holiday pay.
The most vivid demonstration of the Mitchell Government burning desire to control the media was the decision to have a government senator host the Grenada Broadcasting Network major talk show, Beyond the Headlines. The young attorney who is also an ambassador to the OECS saw absolutely nothing wrong in hosting the program and making it pro-government.
I expected the Grenada Bar Association to politely call on the government and GBN to rethink their decision to have a government Senator host this programme, which had a long, rich, tradition of being non-partisan.
I expected the Trade Union Council and the Grenada Chamber of Industry & Commerce and the Organisations that represent Churches on the Social Partners Grouping to again politely tell Dr. Mitchell that this was inappropriate, but they all turned a blind eye.
When I served in the Senate from 2013 to 2017; some FM stations were paid large sums of money ($80,000) to broadcast sittings of the parliament. However, Chime FM which was owned by George Grant and carried the same sittings of Parliament years before any of them never received a penny.
The government is bent on controlling the news flow in Grenada and is prepared to pay the asking price of journalists and broadcasters. And I have no doubt that they will continue with maximum vigour in our silent nation.
Dirty money is plentiful, and surely there are plenty citizens willing to treat with the devil. The cost will be much of the freedom we have enjoyed over the years.
The Government is always quick to identify the GBN Tuesday program hosted by Brenda Baptise on which the NDC is featured as an example of a free press in Grenada. On paper it’s a good argument, but in reality the host uses the program to torment the respective spokespersons.
(Rae Roberts is a former President of MWAG and a current member of the main opposition National Democratic Congress)