By: Staff Writer
June 27, 2023
A former Prime Minister of Grenada said that the current Dickon Mitchell led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government is “green” “inexperienced” and finding a proper grade for them at this point and time just one year into their term would be “difficult,” because they are doing a “terrible job.”
Dr Keith Mitchell, said on the Lime Vibe podcast that the Dickon Mitchell government has no one in the cabinet with governmental experience when they won office in June, 2022 and it is clearly showing by the amount of mistakes they are making.
Dr Mitchell said: “It’s clearly green (NDC government) and inexperienced. I suppose that based on the history of the members, one would know that no one in there had any history of governmental leadership and positions before and therefore, one expected to see some difficulties and some issues in the initial stages, but I must say that we are a bit surprised at the extent of what appears to be the incompetence or the lack of knowledge.”
Watch the full interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG-x9r-r22M&t=538s
Dr Mitchell, who first became Prime Minister in 1995, is serving as Leader of the Opposition (LOO) for a third time in his political tenure, having first served between 1989 to 1995 when he first won office as Prime Minister and Leader of the New National Party (NNP) and held on until 2008 where he lost to the Tilman Thomas led NDC. He then served as LOO during 2008 to 2013 when he came back and won elections in Grenada in a landslide and then a second landslide in 2018 having won all of the 15 seats up for contest in both elections.
With his wealth of experience he has warned the current Dickon Mitchell administration to be careful of the “victimisation” and “getting back at people,” because it will serve them no good in the long run as well as it will not serve Grenada any good in the long term.
Dr Mitchell also said: “I’m not saying that in some cases, you may make mistakes and that’s expected. But to take official position and be seen consistently, as going after people removing people from jobs and harassing people, and bringing them before Public Service Commission that is defined almost like partisan and for nothing at all, just because they’re perceive to be supporting the opposition party. In addition, the destruction inside the public service, I mean, I don’t think they clearly understand the serious damage that they’re doing to themselves and the country. Because system they will put in place to ensure that you have proper management.”
He further warned that this demotion and promotion of people based on political affiliation will end up destroying the system.
Dr Mitchell also said: “I think and I could feel the temperature on the ground wherever we go. You hear nonsense about they are popular, I would like to see anyone doing any serious scientific results (to) tell me about this government popularity. It is a small society, you just walk the street and you’ll know when things are looking good for you politically and you know when it’s bad politically, because after 40 years in politics, I have a good idea of political temperature in the country.
He continued, “How they are dealing with the Police Force is even far more serious, it is very serious in the public service, because you’re talking about services to the people and when you undermine that you’re undermining your ability to provide service properly, which will of course affect you politically one way or the other.
“But when you when you undermine the Police Force and demoralize the Police Force, you are affecting the security of the country, which is a far more significant impact on the country’s stability and order. So they are doing a terrible job.
“I honestly heard people talking about scoring this government, I don’t know how you score something that is so damaging. I used to be a professor and I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never seen a student perform so badly. Looking for grades going to be very difficult.”
Dr Mitchell, while admitting he would have stepped down if he had won re-election in 2022, said that it will be left up to the NNP to decide the way forward and will provide guidance and leadership until such time as the party determines who they wish to lead them moving forward.