THE NEW TODAY has seen a few worrying signs with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of new Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
The administration is composed of persons with no prior experience in the running of a government and should be brave enough to reach out to those persons who have the interest of Grenada at heart for assistance in some areas.
The first major blunder came in what was billed as “a national address” by Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell to mark the first 100 days in office of the new government and then another announcement had to be put out referring to the speech as simple “an address” to mark the occasion.
The Prime Minister is in dire need of competent and qualified persons around him whom he can tap into to avoid those kinds of silly mistakes.
There is no way an address can be labelled as “National” and the broad masses of the people are not informed a few days in advance that the leader of the country is about to speak to them on issues of importance.
It is an affront to the people to hear that their Prime Minister is addressing them and the method used to convey a message is on Facebook and not the traditional means of communication to the nation.
The vast majority of NDC supporters were not even aware that PM Dickon Mitchell had done something to mark the first 100 days of the new administration.
The Congress supporters through the internal organs of the party should be privy even before the rest of the nation of any national impending address of the Prime Minister who is their own Political Leader.
The “new breed” of politicians within the NDC would be making a grave error in not carrying along the supporters with them in the governance of the country and especially keeping them informed at every stage of the process.
The Prime Minister is a very highly intelligent individual and demonstrated it during the campaign leading up to the June 23 general election in the manner in which he plotted the defeat and downfall of the incumbent Dr. Keith Mitchell and his New National Party (NNP) which was seen as unbeatable at the polls given the back to back 15-0 hammering of Congress in the 2013 and 2018 general elections.
As a total newcomer in politics and with only eight months experience as a Political Leader, Mr. Dickon Mitchell was able to put together a team that wounded the legacy of Keith Mitchell whom the NNP often portrayed as “the Grand Master” of politics in Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique given his years at the helm in office at the national level.
However, this feat does not mean that Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell is infallible and does not need the assistance of others who can make a meaningful contribution to the success of Congress in office.
As a government, the NDC is definitely under utilising the services and expertise that Mr. Terry Forrester can bring to the government especially in the area of Information and Public Relations.
The “error in judgment” of the new kids on the block with the bungling of the so-called national address would never have surfaced if Mr. Forrester was involved in the planning and execution of the process given his years of experience with another party in government.
Previous governments of NDC made the cardinal error and mistake of paying attention more to the government and leaving the party behind and in the dark on many issues of national importance and paid a heavy price in the past on Election Day.
The new leadership would be foolhardy to believe that they pulled off the June 23 victory at the polls on their own against Keith Mitchell and NNP.
This was a coalition of forces at work among Grenadians who were tired and fed-up with the governance of their country by the incumbent and took the bold decision to give a try to the previous unknown and untested Dickon Mitchell who captivated the nation which his simplicity and cool-headedness to entrust their affairs into his hand.
There were candidates on the winning Congress team who were elected to go and sit in Parliament without their own constituents ever seeing, meeting and much less knowing anything about them as the movement for change swept aside Keith Mitchell and NNP.
The next election will be contested under much different circumstances and on a vastly different playing field.
The NDC can learn something from the politics of the NNP in always maintaining the support base and to keep the party constantly in a state of readiness for a general election.
THE NEW TODAY is not advocating or suggesting that Congress leaders should cause distress to the nation’s purse to feed its supporters.
The party must put systems in place to ensure that its supporters, especially those who can be classified as vulnerable, are never left out of the process to empower and uplift them and make them even better citizens.
The $30, 000.00 assistance programme that has just been rolled out by the government has seen the NDC party machinery badly lacking in terms of mobilising the support base to truly benefit from the package.
Several of the constituencies have not put proper structures in place to assist their own support base in benefitting from the programme.
As Prime Minister and Political Leader, Mr. Dickon Mitchell needs to take a hard look at the structural deficiencies within Congress and along with his executive make the necessary changes.
There are known persons in the country and also outside in the Diaspora who can be classified as supporters and sympathisers of the Congress government and are willing and able to stretch out a helping hand to prevent a lot of the senseless pitfalls that can result in cracks and a re-opening of the door to allow “the enemy” to stage a political comeback in short order.