The Dickon Mitchell-led Congress government looked very out of touch with its handling of activities planned for October which in historical context is a watershed for the country.
It was one bungle after another and the administration no longer looked to be sure-footed and made mistakes with not only the appointment of persons to head committees to plan for Grenada’s 50th anniversary of independence.
THE NEW TODAY sees Congress as now aiding in the division within the country with its Declaration of October 19 as a public holiday in the name of Heroes Day.
The government started off on the wrong foot as it could not name one single Grenadian as a National Hero to launch Heroes Day.
The events held on the so-called Heroes Day were seemingly focused on one single individual – slain Marxist Leader Maurice Bishop, the man who created history and also treason by leading his New Jewel Movement (NJM) to topple a duly-elected government by force of arms and not through the ballot box.
No Grenadian would have given serious objection if the NDC administration had named T.A Marryshow, the Father of the ill-fated West Indian Federation as a National Hero on a more appropriate day.
October 19, 1983 had no heroes as the events that unfolded involved two warring factions within the NJM who were committed to the use of arms to protect their hold onto power in the Revolution.
THE NEW TODAY is beginning to get the sense that Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell and NDC are moving in the wrong direction with the new influx of persons who are being embraced at the expense of some persons who have been the bedrock of the party since its formation.
The new relationship if not checked and handled properly will cost Congress very heavily whenever the Prime Minister calls the next general election.
These so-called intellectuals and bright boys and girls do not have a history of engaging in political work on the ground to win souls for the NDC on Election Day.
The likes of Eric Gairy and Keith Mitchell understood the kind of relationship to forge and maintain with the ordinary man and woman at the ground level in order to remain politically relevant over a sustained period of time.
And PM Dickon Mitchell and NDC have to be careful of forging any deep relationship with remnants of the Bernard Coard clique of supporters in the country as these people are so full of themselves and have not learnt anything from the manner in which they caused the demise of the 1979-83 Grenada Revolution.
The Coardites still believe that they are intellectually superior than other Grenadians and that no one in Grenada can match them in terms of organisational skills and talent.
One leading Coardite made the comment this week in defending two of “the Comrades” who have been given significant positions by the NDC government of Dickon Mitchell since the change of government.
He said: “I am submitting to you that the two persons that you are referring to are more than competent to successfully manage and deliver the greatest amount of good to the respective institutions they were appointed to. They possess great organisational and leadership experience. Please come up with some names of people within their age range that are more competent than them.”
This is the kind of arrogance that was on showcase in the 1979-83 period by those Marxists/Leninists who were disciples of Bernard Coard and played leading roles in the push for Joint Leadership with Maurice Bishop as part of the OREL plan to take control of the NJM and Grenada Revolution.
THE NEW TODAY is warning PM Dickon Mitchell to be careful with the Coardites given their past history of wanting to run things in Grenada.
The frontline Coardites were the ones responsible for the demise of the Revolution, and the second tier Coardites who were admitted in Congress after its massive defeat in the 1999 general elections also engaged in more bitter infighting and caused the collapse of the Tillman Thomas-led government in the 2008-13 period.
As one leading Coardite stated months after the downfall of the Revolution, they will be back much better and stronger after reforming themselves in order to lay their hands on State power.
Today, those who can be considered as “Sleeping Coardites” over the years or the Third Tier Coardites are slowly warming their way into the NDC.
The Coardites have always tried to massage history in order to blot out the atrocities of the Bloody Massacre on October 19, 1983.
The Prime Minister and his NDC government are wrong by attempting to name October 19 as Heroes Day as most Grenadians will always remember it as Bloody Massacre Day or Remembrance Day in order not to forget the actions of the Coard Clique.
As one Grenadian in the Diaspora commented: “The people of Grenada must never forget October 19. The Jews hunted down every Nazi decades after the holocaust. We can’t allow people with their CANCEL CULTURE to cancel out the haunting memories of October 19. America will never forget 9/11, so why should we forget 10/19. The blood of the innocent shed without cause on October 19, must not be allowed to be shed in vain. The blood of those shed on October 19, cries from the earth.”
The NDC will never win an election in Grenada if it fails to understand the need to engage in a delicate balancing act between the small man and the so-called intellectuals who are not bringing much to the table when it comes to votes on Polling Day.