It is human nature that whenever there is a cause to be championed the majority sits and waits for a hero to come along and do the championing.
Whenever some oppression is taking place or some injustice being done the oppressed looks to the horizon for a savior and is usually impatient for the arrival of that savior to get them out of their miserable state.
There are a few who see it as their duty to attack injustice wherever it raises its ugly head whether it affects them personally or not. They think that they just have to speak out against what they see as wrong and to take up the fight of the oppressed in an effort to halt the wrongs and/or right those already done.
Ms. Sandra Ferguson thinks that she has a right to exercise her rights and obligations as a citizen and this is just what she is doing when she speaks out against things in the society which she sees as wrong or not conducive to national development.
Ms. Ferguson said since we as a people claim to have returned to democracy after October 1983, as citizens we need to exercise those citizens’ rights and responsibilities to ensure that we give meaning to democracy.
In the past few years, readers of local newspapers would have encountered more than a few installments by this lady dealing with a number of issues and pointing out weaknesses, flaws or just neglect in the system of administration or governance executed in Grenada
Ferguson, in explaining what ticked her off and made her start writing said one of the things that really get her annoyed is the act of insulting people’s intelligence, with blatant lies for instance.
She said that working in the social development sector (Ms. Ferguson is the executive Director of the Agency for Rural Transformation, ART), she has a certain perspective on things and also has access to quite a bit of information that maybe the ordinary citizen doesn’t have access to.
She said one can only get away with lies and misinformation when the citizens are not informed and therefore part of her reason for writing is also to create awareness as to what some of the issues are.
The outspoken Ferguson said she sticks to facts in her discourses and always has references, saying that she references the Barnacle very frequently.
One of the issues that Ferguson has been articulating on quite a lot recently is the planned Port Louis development project which is being undertaken by self-declared British billionaire Peter De Savary with the approval and backing of the Government of Grenada.
She is aware that her opposition to the project may be interpreted  some people as her being “anti this or that” and is therefore making herself a public nuisance but she said the whole way in which Grenada has gone about dealing with this issue is objectionable.
She takes particular offence to what she sees as the secrecy with which it was handled.
In her words, we just woke up one morning and heard that De Savary was in the process of executing this project. In fact she said Grenadians started hearing about the project from Mr. De. Savary himself.
To her this meant that there was a lot of secrecy surrounding the issue. She said a lot of people are going to be affected by this project, not only those referred to as squatters but also legitimate homeowners. This shows, she said, an absolute lack of care and respect for people.
Ferguson is of the view that generally we as Grenadians need to pay more attention to what is going on in our country, analyze how it touches and concerns us and protest when things are happening that are not in our best interest.
Quoting Mr. Reynold Benjamin (Political Leader of the Grenada United Labor Party and local attorney) she said we should mind our own business a little more. Not just social issues but generally be interested in the governance of the country whether the issue is social, economic, environmental, cultural, we should say something.
She said “we ought to be an informed citizenry able to assess issues, but unfortunately what we have is a tendency to ignore issues and deal with personality”.
Ferguson thinks that we have sunk to an all time low in this country in that regard, saying that we are seeing a kind of tribalism being encouraged here which reminds her of what happened in Guyana and may be happening still where the division was along ethnic lines.
If you were Indian you supported one political party, if you were African you supported the other and no matter what that would not change this was the focus rather than looking at the issues, how it affected the country and people.
In her opinion when something is right no matter who is responsible, you approve of it and if it wrong even if you love you maximum leader that does not make it right.
Ferguson said her real interest is in the issue of governance more than she is concerned about political parties. She said whichever party is in office, what we ought to be concerned about as a citizenry is governance and accountability which at the end of the day would ensure that the country advances adding that the cost of bad governance is really overwhelming.
Has the type of governance that Grenada has experienced in the last few years encouraged locals to take a keen interest in their affairs?
Without hesitation Ferguson said that this is at the heart of our problem as a people. It is not for the government to push this but for the citizens to push the government but she believes that after the trauma of 1983 we have become a very apathetic society. We just didn’t bother anymore and when we began to take note we had slipped quite a long way.
Government she said is in the service of the people but in our Caribbean region those in government and in power confer on themselves an extraordinary aura of untouchability.
They do not realize that they are just in service to be fired when the people decide they are no longer serving their interest.
The present government she thinks has recognized the apathy and is using it to their political advantage so that now if you are critical of anything the government does you have a political agenda.
As candid as ever Ferguson said there is nothing wrong with having a political agenda, political agendas are not the exclusive right of any politician who happens to be in power but is for every citizen and every citizen needs to ensure that the political agenda of the administration in office is in the best interest of the country.
Hardworking, committed, disciplined, straightforward are all adjectives that can be used to describe this, in the opinion of some, fearless woman. She gives no confirmation that she will be involved in politics in the future but reiterates that her interest lies in good governance.
A former passionate road runner she has accumulated a fair number of victories and titles, trophies and medals in that field here and in the wider region, maybe this accounts for her discipline.
She looks forward to a Grenada where politicians will not insult the intelligence of the people; where we would pay more attention to the development of people. A Grenada where the energies and talents or our people are harnessed, particularly the youth so that they are more positively engaged thereby controlling violence: A Grenada where the leaders are more concerned about our environment and we don’t just continue cutting down trees and “concretizing” everywhere in the name of development.
She would like to see more debate among citizens, more involvement of people, people more concerned about health instead of the junk food culture that pervades and more national pride and patriotism.