REYNOLD BENJAMIN, NEWLY ELECTED POLITICAL LEADER OF THE GULP

Accepting The Challenge To Rebuild Grenada

We share with you our readers the GULP political leader’s views on what is wrong with the country and how a government led by his party will remedy it.

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The GULP is currently rebuilding, what is driving the party to date?

The party is driven by the state of the politics in the country, the chaotic state of the economy, the general dissatisfaction of the people over the abject failure of the governing party.
In addition the inability of the opposition to inspire confidence and give some objective for the future and a sort of recognition of the folks who have lived through the GULP pre-1979, a recognition of the contribution the GULP has made; the atmosphere and mood of the GULP administration over the years.
People have become conscious of the contribution GULP has made and they are looking back. In that setting we feel that we have the opportunity to provide Grenada with the leadership that it needs at this time.

What are your expectations from the populace?

I expect that they would appreciate the GULP’s drive to present a new vision to the country, the GULP’s efforts to present leadership from a standpoint where we can muster the personnel resources in terms of human resources of the country to generally tackle the difficult problems that we can see ahead for us.

Do you have the manpower, the quality of individuals to take this country where you envision it in the future?

At this point in time an honest answer is no. However the GULP is confident that Grenada has the human resources. We have skilled, well trained Grenadians, people who are motivated in that direction and one of our main drives at this point is to recruit capable people who can sit down and design the policies and programs that would be necessary to restructure Grenada in all its shapes and forms. Restructure from a standpoint of rekindling confidence in the politics, restructure it economically, from the social perspective starting with education. We have to put people to work, to present to the people of Grenada an overall economic plan and we believe that we have to return to economic planning. So we are going back to first base.

Who we have now are people who put things together, who have the capacity to identify and recruit resource persons who have the capacity to put the party on an organizational footing where it can bring together the resources that are needed to put in place the necessary planning.

People are of the view that Grenada has become a two party state. What are some of the weaknesses that are present in the NDC and the NNP that would facilitate the resurgence of the GULP?

That viewpoint was justifiable in the aftermath of the last General Elections and personally speaking I believe that our system works best with two properly organized, effectively and efficiently functional political parties.
So after the last elections’ result showed the parties basically even with a seveneight situation the country felt we had settled down to a regular two-party system and I think they wanted everybody else who were involved in the politics to fit themselves one way or the other into that system.
I wondered about it. I wondered whether there was room for the GULP in the future politics of Grenada but as time went on it became clear that the governing NNP was not delivering, that there were serious problems arising and that there was no sense of direction in government.
No direction whatsoever in any area of government. Then there were all sorts of interference with the institutions leading to what was a visible breakdown of government institutions.

There were a lot of incidents that people were highlighting, of corrupt practices in government, serious dissatisfaction among the populace, the continuing decay of agriculture, the lack of anything positive happening in other areas like tourism.

In a setting like that where you have a two-party state one expects the Parliamentary Opposition to be seen to be effective in presenting alternatives to the people.
It is generally accepted that the Parliamentary Opposition has failed to perform, has failed to give the people any hope, anything to hold on to, any new approach to government.
In that setting to put it in some sort of graphic fashion, one would think that the majority of people have moved from both sides into the middle of the ball park with feelings of dissatisfaction and it is that general dissatisfaction among the populace that has created a climate for the GULP which has always been the third party over the years and it has given the GULP an opportunity to put its business in order and to re-invent itself.

Is the GULP the panacea for the present political situation?

I would say definitely yes but there is a lack of credibility in politics, politicians and in the government. It is therefore easy to say yes but not as easy to convince the populace that the GULP is the answer for the future of the politics in Grenada.

The important job that we have in hand is to convince the people that the GULP is the party that can deliver Grenada from the mess that it is in and outside of old talk, mamaguism and rhetoric we have to be able to come up with policies and programs and be able to present it to the people in a way that we can restore confidence in the system of government we have, in the politics and build confidence in the GULP.

If we can’t do that then it is a waste of time because people are very apprehensive about the situation in the country.

People have moved away from the GULP, the party chased people away with its leadership squabbles. Has that been resolved and are you now united under one banner to take the message of the party forward?

Persons moving away from the GULP is not a recent phenomenon. People have moved away from the GULP for the last 30 years. In fact it was children of the GULP who moved away and joined in the revolution.
With the restoration of democracy the GULP mustered a lot of people and at that time in 1984 there were two parties, the GULP and the GNP (Grenada national Party) with its alliances that formed the NNP (New National Party).

But you would agree that the squabbling in the GULP and the fact that it wasn’t able to present itself as a united front didn’t do it any good.

I am trying not to take it from the recent squabble because there has been a continuing decay in the GULP over the years from 1984 up to the death of Sir Eric.
By the time Sir Eric died the main supporters of the GULP had drifted away. Especially after 1990- a lot of people in the GULP supported the NNP in 1990 as an opposition party and in the 1995 elections supported the NNP in great numbers.
Following the death of Sir Eric, for a number of reasons including claims that Sir Eric had left the party to Dr. Mitchell and that Dr. Mitchell was his political son and what not a lot of people drifted away from GULP.

The squabbling started after the death of Sir Eric but by then what you had was just the remnant hard core of GULP supporters those elements which had remained faithful to the party throughout the years.

But what are the strengths of the GULP and what are you going to do to woo people back to the party?

Let me continue on the squabbling before I deal with this. The internecine quarrels are something that would naturally arise especially in a situation where you had a very dominant leader for so long in a party and especially where provisions were not made by the leader intentionally or not for succession.

You had a period where there were various elements vying for the leadership of the party and that seriously affected the party’s ability to function. As to your follow up question the strength of the party today is based on the loyalty of those who have remained with the party for the past 28 years and that is what I call the remnant base of the party. They are faithful people and people on whom the party could rebuild. That is really the strength of the GULP and if you look at the politics and analyze it carefully you would see how important that remnant is because all parties even the two main political parties today are still courting the remnant base of the GULP.

The NNP recognizes this and is fully aware that their main support, the people who have put them in power and kept them in power are people who are well disposed to the GULP.
It is evidenced from Dr. Mitchell’s statement in Chantimelle two weeks ago where he said to the people of Chantimelle “we know that you are sympathetic to the GULP” and it is that general sympathy for the GULP that will carry us because the roots of the GULP run very deep in the political soil of Grenada and it is that sympathy that is really the continuing strength of the GULP.
You would hear members of the NNP and to be specific, Mr. Bhola in Rose Hill saying that the door of the NNP is open to the GULP people and you must bear in mind that the GULP has not been in office since 1979.
So it means that the roots of the GULP are still embedded deeply in the soil and all it takes is the necessary cultivation to bring it back. I think that is what really matters.
As a matter of fact in the 2003 elections the NDC (National Democratic Congress) went out of its way to court the support of the GULP and because of the weakened state of the party and the connivance of people inside of the party itself they enticed as many as 7000 supporters of the GULP to vote for them.

A well organized GULP will significantly impact on the political landscape of this country. As political leader are you ready for the challenge?

We are preparing. It is a process of preparing ourselves to give the country the leadership it needs. We recognize that the GULP has a core of support out there; it has a lot of sympathy. Our job is to mobilize the remnant support. Utilize the sympathy of those who have drifted away and we can bring them back into the GULP.

So getting back into office is on the basis of sympathy or on the basis of the fact that you have good quality leadership, good quality programs and you are capable of delivering?

No. Good quality leadership and good quality programs are what will attract the people who are sympathetic to the GULP. In other words GULP supporters who have strayed, the prodigal GULP supporters added back to the base support that we have.
We have deal with the internal squabbling that you asked about and I think we are over that, now we need that base support on which to build and it is by showing what you intend to do and how you intend to do it.
The easiest people to attract are the people who are sympathetic to you and the people who have remained faithful.

But they can’t give you the elections, you need to go into the enemy’s camp and bring others and that’s where your programs come in.

Exactly so, of course that is it so our first drive is to stabilize the party. Give the people who have been agonizing over what has been happening to the GULP a level of comfort that they recommit themselves. Attract those who have drifted away because of the problems because they were enticed over. Get them back and then seek to infuse the party with new people who have never supported GULP before by our policies and programs and approach to the politics.

Bring them into the fold especially the young people, the children and grandchildren of the GULP, young people in the society who are frustrated, who cannot see a future for themselves, give them that vision so they will find that the GULP is an attractive proposition for government in this country.

The face of the PRG (People’s Revolutionary Government) was Maurice Bishop, the NNP is Keith Mitchell, the GULP was largely Sir Eric. How do you intend to impose your presence on the landscape, to say that you are the leader? What do you bring to the arrangement, what are your strengths and how do you intend to sell it to the Grenadian people to give them confidence and trust in you?

That is a very difficult question, not easy to answer because the personality you exude depends on people seeing you from the outside. Therefore for me to say this is how people will see me I can’t say that.
I believe that one has to be true to oneself, one has to bare one’s soul and let people see you for the person you are. I do not believe in wearing masks to impress people because in politics you can present a face to the people that you think will make them like you and encourage them to vote for you. I am a very serious person when it comes to politics and the way I deal with things.
I believe that in the politics especially in Grenada’s situation where one has to restructure the society one has to let people understand and see you clearly as the person you are and understand what you stand for and get them to identify with what you stand for whether or not it is something that induces people to vote for you.

What matters is whether it is right for the society and you are convinced that what you have to do is so.
What matters as leader of the GULP is for me to lay down my philosophy as far as the GULP is concerned. The GULP has been a party of conscience a party that is concerned about people, a party that believes in doing the right thing and will satisfy the people that this is where we are going.
We are going to do what is right for everybody, we are not going to victimize people, we are not going to give people privileges simply because they support the party. People must understand these things.

People will have us under the microscope and if we come with a mask they are going to unmask us sooner or later.

The failure of past government had a lot to do with the quality of persons they recruited. Some people help you get into office but cannot deliver on the needs of the people from an intellectual point of view. Do you want to get into office with people who can deliver in the area of competence?

I think in struggling to answer your last question I indicated to you the answer for this question. You have to do what is right. What is right for Grenada may not be what people think they want to vote for so you have to lay down the direction in which you are satisfied as a party of conscience is right not only for some of the people but for all of the people.

If your objective is to get into office at all costs as we have been seeing, because someone might be a popular person and might encourage people to vote for them you should have that person as your candidate, no, no, no.

You are saying that your candidates will be well educated, well informed persons who can deliver.

That is what we are saying but again we have to be careful with the concept of well educated. Not because you have been to university and have a doctorate that you’re well educated. In this context we are talking about being able to deliver, being able to relate to the people, being a person of conscience with a sense of propriety, fairness and love for people.

A GULP government if it gets there will have to take some very serious steps to deal with things. We have to talk to the people seriously about attitudes; you cannot have a government which will do things simply because you want people to vote for you, that is not the sort of GULP I want to lead.

There have been reports and accusations of corruption. What is the GULP’s take on corruption especially among politicians and public officials?

That is something that no political party should accommodate. Zero tolerance, you can’t get by otherwise. If you compromise on that issue you are compromising on integrity and if you compromise on integrity you will have all the sorts of things that are happening- undermining our institutions, putting people in position that they are unfit for, putting people in position so that you can manipulate them and that sort of thing.
So we have to adopt an attitude of zero tolerance when it comes to corruption especially interfering with public finances.

High inflation, low wages, how do you intend to deal with the economic insofar as the poor is concerned?

We have to understand the new approach that labour is taking. The whole idea of recruiting resource persons is so that we can go back to serious economic planning. The bottom line of any good government or economy is the availability of revenue.
With the situation in which we find ourselves in Grenada with the economy in shambles we have to look at an immediate or short term rescue plan to rescue the economy and put people back to work.

Then we have to look at a medium term plan for the economy and go on to look at the long term perspective because you cannot go along from day to day making do as you go along, you have to have an overall economic plan.

We have ideas but we have to hone those ideas and you must have people with the relevant skills and training to do so.

The centerpiece of our thinking and planning for the economy is the development of our offshore resources of oil and gas. This is crucial to our planning especially on a medium and long term basis. What that gives you is a revenue flow. With that revenue flow you can rationalize everything. You can start with serious educational reform because you have the money to do things. You can go on to do serious agricultural restructuring again on a medium and long term basis because you will have the money with which to finance or subsidize your farmers as far as labour is concerned. As far as the agricultural sector is concerned we want to give farmers assistance with labour. The way we see this is to immediately resurrect the Ministry of Works.

In the Ministry of Works there can be a program for young people of employment, training, continuing education.

With the finance available those young people whom we employ in the restructured Ministry of Works can be formed into agricultural corps, young people who will be paid to work with the farmers enabling them to bring their lands under cultivation with government assistance.

As I said before money, revenue flow is what counts. The immediate situation as far as the economy is concerned will have to be a plan for the creation of jobs. Again we have to get our young people employed utilizing the Ministry of Works for public works projects, community development projects. We would have to find the finance by way of grants and loans to get the economy stimulated.

We believe the present Imani program could be restructured and reformed so that it becomes a program where young people don’t just go and sit down doing nothing and basically getting paid to it.

It must be a program where they are getting practical experience and can go to school at the same time and this is where restructuring of the TAMCC (T.A. Marryshow Community College) comes in.

There are a lot of things on paper but when you look at tourism for example and the direction that it is going we are very dissatisfied with that. This is where also with a revenue flow coming from our natural resources in oil and gas we can prop up the tourism sector so that we won’t depend on foreign investors coming into Grenada buying up our lands, creating a re-colonisation system. If the government has the revenue it can do the things that are supposedly being done by foreign investors by giving our local entrepreneurs in the industry the necessary financial backing to take on the development of the infrastructure in tourism. We feel very strongly about the way out tourism sector is going. We disapprove of the mistakes that were made such as the Levera project, the Mt. Hartman and Lagoon Road situations.

The GULP’s position is not favorable to this type of development and we believe that we here should do our development ourselves so that the jobs will go to our people and the revenue coming in will stay in Grenada to stimulate the economy and encourage further development.