By Hudson George
Grenada celebrated 50 years of independence and the newly elected NDC government recognized a former dictator a hero, even though Grenada present government was elected by voters in a free and fair general elections on June 23, 2023. A large section of the Grenadian people are shocked to see their country most dangerous and ruthless ruler photo face on the 50 Dollars bill.
It appears as though a small group of left wing urban intellectuals from the southern most parish of St. George, have hijacked the government. The talk on the ground is that most Grenadians who lived under the rulership of the Maurice Bishop PRG regime from 1979 to 1983 are surprised to see their government recognized a dictator.
They are surprised because they still remember the years of “Heavy Manners” they experienced under Dictator Maurice Bishop, when they couldn’t speak freely. They couldn’t form political parties of their choice and they couldn’t criticized the PRG regime. Citizens who tried to organize political parties were picked up by security forces and thrown in prison indefinitely without trial.
From 1979 t0 1983 the prisons were filled with a majority of political prisoners from the rural parts of the country, while very few people from St. George parish were jailed by the PRG regime. The PRG regime was led by urban educated people from St. George parish.
Historically, most of the people in the southern parts of Grenada think that they are superior to the outer parishes citizens. They even wanted to erase Grenada’s first Prime Minister, Eric Gairy from the celebrations. They tried to create a false narrative to brainwashed the youths by telling them that the period of revolution was real independence.
Grenada is geographically situated very close to Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela. During the period of the Grenada revolution the leaders of the regime had involved the country in cold war politics, and due to the fact that Grenada was a former British colony with a majority black African diaspora population, the United States was not happy with Bishop regime political policies close ties with countries that were anti western capitalists, and mostly one party state ruled governments.
Some Grenadians are saying that if the Maurice Bishop led PRG regime was still in power, the country would have been targeted by those wealthy capitalist countries and most likely they will be living in a similar political situation like Cuba and Venezuela, whereby Grenada will be targeted and sanctioned for its political policies.
Unfortunately, the two main political parties formed after the demised of the Grenada revolution have sold out their party’s principle and accommodated some of the most undesirable former members of the Grenada PRG regime with their fold.
If the two many political parties continue to shelter those former revolutionary operatives within their political organization, the only solution to end the betrayal of Grenada and its majority of citizens is a new political party that is not infected with former PRG regime cadres.
