On Monday, Dickon Mitchell spent his first full working day as prime minister of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Of course, as prime minister, every day is a full working day but it must begin somewhere.
The majority of Grenadians are at this point wishing the new prime minister well and hoping he does make a positive difference in the lot of the general population. Unavoidably, there will be some persons steeped in bitterness. And chafing over the defeat of their political party of choice that will be anxious to see Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell fail and hoping fervently that he does.
People like that could certainly not be considered patriotic citizens and it is clear that their desire is not really to see the country prosper but to ensure that a particular political party remains in power. There would be such persons occupying the ranks of every political party in Grenada, especially the dominant two; the New National Party of former prime minister Keith Mitchell and the National Democratic Congress, the party currently in administration led by Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
Every nation-loving citizen wants to see the country improve and grow regardless of which political organization is in power. It is incumbent on all of us to appreciate that the decision of who gets into power and who does not can only be made by the ordinary citizens who are bestowed with the constitutional right to have a say in that with their vote. If we believe in the principles of democracy, we have to respect the winner. If we believe in national development; we have to wish that the administration in office succeeds.
Now, this is not to say that someone should not be disappointed that their team lost, we are all humans and it is normal to dislike being defeated. Nobody likes to lose and the sting of defeat affects all.
Anyway, the election date was determined by the incumbent prime minister, as is the normal thing to do in our system, all the processes in the build-up to the elections were also timed and determined by the incumbent, as is also normal, so the eventual winner cannot be blamed for anything. The task of each participating political party in a general election is to articulate a set of objectives and programmes, (this writer hates to refer to them as promises), that will resonate with the voting population, they must convince the people that the incumbent has not been doing a good enough job at leading the country and that given the chance, they would do better, they must articulate all this in such a way that will convince the people and cause them to trust.
Not every time, these planned objectives are met and then they are labelled as broken promises as has been witnessed in the not-too-distant past. However, we cannot cry foul until we have given the winners a reasonable chance.
No doubt, the political newcomer, Dickon led the NDC to a remarkable victory. To come back from two consecutive clean sweep defeats and win the election is no easy feat. To come into politics as a rank upstart and defeat a seasoned, veteran and savvy politician such as Dr Keith Mitchell perhaps the most successful politician in the history of the Caribbean, is an achievement that cannot be taken lightly, and he did it less than one year after getting involved in frontline politics and taking over the NDC as political leader.
Someone that can do this certainly has come potential and possess the ability to make a difference. However, he cannot do it without the support of his cabinet and more than anything else, the people of Grenada. It will be that much more difficult if opposition parties and supporters of these parties are waiting around every corner to trip up the leadership and commit all their energies to ensure that they fail.
The election is over but we still have a country to build and just as outgoing prime minister Keith Mitchell said, we can only assure development of the country as a team. He pledged to oppose responsibly and to support everything that he thinks will benefit the country in general. Let’s do this. The Grenada Informer congratulates the new prime minister and his team and wishes them God’s blessing and success in taking the country to new levels of development.
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