A grim lesson

THE Caribbean island of Grenada recently observed a significant milestone – 30 years since the murder of the then Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, some of his Cabinet colleagues and scores of other Grenadians; and a US-led invasion that was to place the Spice Isle back on the road to democracy and stability.

Reports from the island indicated that there was a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day in remembrance of what had taken place in the island in October 1983.

The Grenada story remains a sad tale in the lives of Caribbean people. It demonstrated what can happen in a small country where a dictatorship was allowed to fester, then was overthrown, and when its replacement turns its back on calls to restore democracy by holding general elections.

Grenada lies 90 miles north of Trinidad and Tobago and 153 miles south west of Barbados. Flying time there from Barbados is about 30 minutes. The Grenada experience was therefore not just an issue for that island alone, as many of its citizens live, work, and study not only in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados but in many of the other islands as well. In other words, it belonged to the family of islands.

Grenada had erupted into political upheaval following the overthrow of the then Prime Minister, Sir Eric Gairy. He had ruled the island with an iron fist and when that ruthlessness reached a point of no return, Gairy was replaced by Bishop and his New Jewel Movement government. Despite repeated calls from other Caribbean leaders and commentators for the Bishop adminstration to hold elections, it refused to do so. With many people supporting the new Prime Minister, all that was requested was for him to legitimise his administration by way of the ballot box.

This did not take place and after four years (1979-1983), infighting started to surface among the government members over leadership sharing. It came down to a choice as to whether there should be shared leadership between Bishop and his Deputy, Bernard Coard. The issues could not be resolved and therefore resulted in Bishop being placed under house arrest. This led to many Grenadians taking matters into their hands by freeing him.

That lit the fuse and on that bloody afternoon Bishop and several of his government colleagues were executed, leading to a Revolutionary Military Council taking charge of the country and the imposition of a dusk til’ dawn curfew. However, peace returned to the island following an invasion by American forces supported by most other Caribbean governments, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago not being part of it.

Fractured relationship

Even prior to those events, relations between Grenada under Bishop and Barbados under Tom Adams had soured. Adams himself was also involved in a disagreement with his Trinidad and Tobago counterpart over matters relating to the invasion and that too eventually led to the Trinidad Ambassador to Barbados being recalled.

The events which had surfaced in Grenada must never be allowed to happen again in the Caribbean. They were very divisive, created disunity in the region and set the integration movement back since there were some who wanted to have no part of the Bishop regime.

Those who are old enough and familiar with the events that took place in Grenada around that time, have pointed to the refusal of Caribbean leaders to speak out against the abuses by Gairy. Let’s hope that history never repeats itself.