JAL 20 April 2013 Nice Radio’s Callaloo presents, Just Another Look. Just Another Look is an innovative, exciting, albeit decidedly provocative and controversial, socio-political analysis of issues of a local, regional and international nature. Just Another Look is heard only on Nice Radio on Saturdays at 6.00pm, with repeat broadcasts at 9.00pm on Sundays. Remember too that you can also catch us on the worldwide web, niceradio.info. You can check our JAL blog - vincyview I am, of course, Keith Joseph Introduction Today is Saturday 20 April 2013. Welcome, welcome, welcome to another edition of Just Another Look. The case of Tyrone James Douglas de Freitas, the Managing Director of Nice Radio, has been very consistent over the years in respect of his insistence that there is much that is evil that takes place under the cover of politics here in St Vincent and the Grenadines. There are times when, in his utter frustration about the extent of political evil, Duggie gets particularly emotional, and engages in a major drumbeat for change; change in the way things are done, or not done. Listeners to Just Another Look may recall that almost five and a half years ago, there was a major and most surprising change in the Police Force in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Three individuals were summarily transferred from their positions in the Police service to different places. Over the years we have kept their names in the forefront of our programming. We are of course speaking of Hackshaw, Tyrone James and Ronald Christopher. Tyrone James was Commander of the St Vincent Coast Guard, a position that was the equivalent of Assistant Commissioners of Police in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the same position held by Ronald Christopher. Hackshaw was sent to the Ministry of Education. Christopher and James were supposed to have both gone over to the Regional Security System (RSS) in neighbouring Barbados. Christopher indicated that for several reasons he was not prepared to go to the RSS. He was not prepared to leave St Vincent and the Grenadines and he was located at the Port Authority here. James, who had served on secondment with the RSS, opted to go back to the organisation. The political leadership of this country did not at the time offer the nation an explanation for the summary transfer. Indeed, it was perhaps only Just Another Look that called for an explanation and continues to do so even at the present time. No one bothers to ask any explanation of the Commissioner of Police. The least said of that source the better. Let us just leave it at that. Cecil Blazer Williams who chairs the Police Services Commission will forever be among those held responsible for the summary transfer of two high ranking officers at a time when this country seemed most in need. On whose recommendation were the three transfers made? Who gave the instructions for these men to be transferred and what were the reasons for doing so? Were the transfers political? Were the transfers evidence of political victimisation? Ever since taking office as government the ruling ULP has vehemently and consistently denied any involvement in political victimisation. However, it also appears that during that same period the ULP has been redefining a number of concepts once familiar to us to such an extent that it is virtually impossible to know at any given point in time whether we are all speaking the same language. Certainly the ULP’s definition of political victimisation is significantly at variance with what reasonable, right thinking Vincentians know to be political victimisation. Just Another Look has repeatedly asked whether the transfer of Hackshaw, James and Christopher were in any way acts of political victimisation. Were the transfers intended as a form of embarrassment and punishment all at the same time? Prior to being summarily transferred James had systematically transformed the Vincentian Coast Guard. It was Tyrone James, as Commander of the local Coast Guard, who insisted that the organisation live up to its mandate. The Coast Guard is not the same as Police and this is the case everywhere. Nowhere in the world is there a sergeant and corporal in the Coast Guard. These are Police designations. He therefore transformed the Coast Guard into what it was supposed to be, with the appropriate designation being given to the different positions in the organisation. James it was who, in order to bring the Vincentian Coast Guard in line with its regional and international counterparts, systematically engaged in the identification of personnel within the organisation to access training at institutions around the world. The result was a sudden surge in appropriately qualified personnel in the St Vincent and the Grenadines Coast Guard. Suddenly the Coast Guard of this country attained a level of respectability in the Caribbean that was most admirable. Our Coast Guard officers felt that they were of the same stature of their regional and international counterparts and this served to lift the organisation. Rather interestingly, as so often happens, the rumour mill got going. Suddenly there were rumours everywhere about the forthrightness of Commander James. There were complaints about his manner of leadership. Suddenly, some political commentators, anxious to appease the minions of the ruling regime found time to create the usual mischief and the entertained callers on the Coast Guard. Since the ULP came to office it is easy to recognise when certain issues are being raised by their minions. The discourse – if one can call it that – often takes place on certain media and nowhere else. This happened in the case of the so-called issues that were being raised by callers to certain media houses about Commander James at the SVG Coast Guard. It was not about the Coast Guard per se but about James. In a sense, if one were to follow the course of events one would have been able to predict that something was in the air. Interestingly, it was not long thereafter that James was one of the three officers at the level of our security forces to have been transferred. The mode of operation of the ruling ULP regime has always been in question. There seems to be a feeling that it is their time now and that whatever decisions are taken should not be challenged. This is the nonsense that has become normative. It remains something of a mystery to many that Cecil Blazer Williams has taken to writing about a range of issues that often seems to avoid confronting the discomforting politics of the ULP. Where once many considered Blazer among the progressives of the 1970s and 1980s he seems like Geddes Granger of Trinidad and Tobago, stuck in an era that has long since gone past us. The Blazer Williams reality may well be symptomatic of what has happened to some people under the ULP. Many former progressives have become Ruminants of the Left or what we here at Just Another Look deem Left Overs. James was therefore transferred along with Hackshaw and Christopher. The impact of the summary transfer of the officers on the Police Service in this country has been felt but the embarrassment has been too much for the ruling regime to analyse. They are too busy outing fires in the system. The Pan Against Crime Initiative is a colossal failure. There is not critical development that has emerged from this programme that reveals any significant impact on the state of crime in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The Police service here lacks credible leadership. We are yet to get an appropriate explanation of why the Commissioner of Police was not severely sanctioned for the tremendous embarrassment that saw him making payments via Western Union to attend a Conference in Africa that never existed in the first place. There has been no national outcry and certainly no government denunciation of the incredulous action on the part of the Commissioner of Police regarding preparations for a Conference that never existed. How is it possible that the head of the security forces in this country could have been duped by one of the oldest scams around; send off money to unknown individuals by Western Union on three successive occasions before finding it all suspicious? How is it possible that the ruling regime could retain as Commissioner of Police of this country an individual who has so embarrassed himself, the police service and indeed the entire country in such a manner? Instead of addressing the embarrassment so caused by the Commissioner’s incredulous action the Ministry of National Security appears to be turning the other way. On 10 May 2008 Just Another Look stated… Just Another Look maintains that the Minister of National Security cannot publicly justify to anyone but himself and his political minions the reason for the transfer of Officers, Tyrone James, Ronald Christopher and Hackshaw. The Comrade may well find that as far as the masses and many members of the local constabulary are concerned the aforementioned transfers may well be deemed political. But if that were the case what were their political crimes or sins? Was it a case of them being professional in their work? Was it a case of them being sure of themselves and being harshly critical of what they may have perceived as political interference in their work? Whatever it was the situation is that they have been transferred and their impact on policing in this country has been lost. The country and the Police Service in particular are the poorer for their absence. Even as we raise the issue here again today, 20 April 2013, we still maintain that our national security services continue to be the poorer for the actions taken back then. So, James was sent to the Regional Security System. Perhaps the intention of sending him there was to see him fail and embarrassed. Instead, James excelled. At the RSS James worked diligently and eventually ended up playing a major role in the development of the regional institution. He has been instrumental in the latest initiative of establishing an Academy at the regional level. It is normal to hear of our local politicians and public officials boasting about the achievements of Vincentians wherever they are in the world. Indeed, it is common to hear our politicians and public officials boast of Vincentians who have climbed the ladder of success in one field of endeavour or another, even when the individuals concerned have attained the citizenship of another country, which also claims the achievements. In the case of the achievements of Tyrone James the Police here have been particularly quiet. Instead of lauding James’ achievements at and with the RSS, they apparently pretended not to notice. This was the case even as the rest of the RSS member countries showered commendations on this Vincentian security official. Perhaps it was an unkind cut that the RSS often had James come to his native St Vincent and the Grenadines to coordinate and conduct training sessions that would at times have included the Commissioner of Police. Perhaps it was an even more painful unkind cut that the RSS often had James come to his native St Vincent and the Grenadines to deliver addresses pitched at a level where some of our leading politicians were in attendance. While in Barbados, James distinguished himself in the service at the regional and international levels. He also developed himself academically, proving himself capable of standing alongside the very best in security around the world. Why has this not been lauded by our Ministry of National Security? Better yet, why has the Minister of National Security not lauded his achievements and his work in developing the security forces across the Caribbean? It has often been an old adage that a prophet is not accepted in his own country. That may well have been the case in respect of the way Tyrone James has been treated by the very Police service to which he has given more than three decades of service. With a mere few years left before retirement James found that he was wanted back home. He was not allowed any further extensions of his time at the RSS. Why? If he has been summarily transferred to the RSS without cause and without explanation, why then was he being recalled? Was it that before he retired from the Service there was another opportunity to further embarrass and humiliate him? Was it that he had embarrassed his superiors at the local level by being an outstanding Vincentian law officer representative at the service of the Caribbean region? Was it because at the RSS he was not subjected to the political myopia that characterises almost everything we do here at home in St Vincent and the Grenadines? Why was it that he was asked to return to St Vincent and the Grenadines? What were the plans that the leadership of the security services here had put in place that warranted him to spend his last year or so here at home? Of course even as we ask these questions now the authorities may begin to busy themselves creating possible options that they could market to the unsuspecting Vincentian public. Do not be surprised if over the next week you get a new round of rumours about James. That is the way of the minions. Once they hear anything good about someone they have already deemed too critical of them or not exactly paying homage to their leadership, the preferred course of action is to denigrate, calumniate and engage in the worst possible form of character assassination. As he moved towards the end of his career in the Service, James was offered an opportunity to serve with the RSS at another level. There was an opening for someone of his calibre. James opted for retirement so he could access the new opportunity, which would have allowed him to work at the RSS and continue the work he has started. James was given the nod for the job. All systems were put in place and James even took his belongings back to Barbados to assume the new appointment. On arrival in Barbados, James got the news! He was made aware that there were objections to his appointment and that it came from his own country. Did you hear that? We objected? St Vincent and the Grenadines objected to James’ appointment to the job on offer and this after he had cleared all hurdles, or so it seemed. The first question is what is the truth? Is it true that St Vincent and the Grenadines objected to a Vincentian – Tyrone James – being appointed to the RSS? If it is true then what does it tell us about how we operate here? The second question is, if it is true that St Vincent and the Grenadines objected to the appointment of James to the RSS in this latest job offer, then who did it? Who in St Vincent and the Grenadines would be so heartless as to engage in such a dastardly act? Who in St Vincent and the Grenadines would be so petty as to intervene in a decision already made by the authorities at the RSS in respect of the appointment of Tyrone James? Why would a Vincentian seek to deprive a fellow Vincentian this opportunity to continue what has already been deemed highly commendable work by Tyrone James at the RSS? Who could be so cruel? The third important question is, at what level did the decision to object to Tyrone James’ appointment at the RSS come? Was it at the level of the Commissioner of Police? Was it at the level of the Ministry of National Security? Just Another Look raises the issue of Tyrone James because of what it tells us about the way in which this country is governed. We are told that we practise good governance here. Is what has happened to Tyrone James an example of good governance Vincentian style? Is this all a dream or is it a nightmare for those who have an interest in developing the Caribbean but who are not prepared to sell their souls to the political dictates in the process? Just Another Look asks whether what has happened to Tyrone James is new? Did we have a similar situation in respect of possible job offers to Vincentians at the OECS Secretariat in St Lucia? We live in a St Vincent and the Grenadines that has been undergoing rapid change, not all of it at the hands of our politicians of the day but certainly, for the most part, in one way or another impacted by them. Yet, even as we admit to the political involvement in the machinations of what obtains in our beautiful country today, we are confronted with stout defence by the minions who have leeched themselves onto the ruling regime for the crumbs that fall from Papa’s table. What a society that we have before us today! Yet our ruling regime would wish only to take credit for what passes as good and admirable and leave that which has gone radically wrong as a vestige of a past political era. Never before in the history of St Vincent and the Grenadines has a ruling regime been so hesitant to take the blame for anything that even remotely appears to have gone wrong. In the first few years it was all about being on a political honeymoon. They only just got in and what do people expect. Of course, to have heard this kind of thinking from the likes of an experienced Burns Bonadie, of all people, only served to make things much worse. The ULP has been led by a politician who so often appears to present himself as so imbued with political wisdom across the board that nothing should ever have gone wrong. For the ULP the honeymoon is never over. There is always a situation where the failings that should appropriately be placed atop the crown of their heads are taken instead and held before us as having been caused by the former regime. Today, amazingly and yet most shamefully, after 12 years in office as this country’s government, the ruling ULP still dares to shirk responsibility for evident failure in several quarters. Today, Saturday 20 April 2013, we say just what we found it necessary to pronounce in our programme, Just Another Look, first aired on Saturday 10 May 2008… Just Another Look remains adamant that the Gonsalves style of politics does not and perhaps cannot ever be far removed from the old style of socialism that he and his minions may have once supported in their formation of the MNU and which was consistently rejected at the polls by the electorate that the organisation never really mustered more than 4% of the voting population at any given time. The Politics of Fear is such that the masses are cowed into being fearful of speaking their minds, as it were. It is such that it leaves people critical of the administration having to watch to see who is within earshot before voicing an opinion on anything that the government says or does. It is such that the masses begin to fear speaking on the phone.. …It is the Politics of Fear that has the masses steering clear of asking questions regarding the Cross Country Road; a road that began at two ends without anyone, including the designers and construction companies knowing where the two shall meet. It is the Politics of Fear that has the masses no longer asking questions of the Prime Minister in respect of the absence of the Integrity Legislation almost eight years (now 12 years) after boasting about it. Yes, it is the Politics of Fear that has left the masses not challenging the ruling regime in respect of the performances of the arrowroot production plan and the cassava project. It is the Politics of Fear that leaves the masses steering clear of questions in relation to the government’s seeming inability to make a significant dent into the ever-increasing murder rate in this country and its inability to explain how it was possible for new murder records to be set in 2004 and again in 2007, under the watch of the ULP, the so-called model of good governance. It may well be the Politics of Fear that allowed for the shoddy explanation offered by the Ministry of Health and the Environment for the failure of the most outstanding student at the Nursing School for her entire training period (Bassy Alexander’s granddaughter) not to have been included in the initial nurses who were appointed by the Ministry. It is the Politics of Fear that has so many people literally walking a tightrope clearly scared that they may lose their jobs for merely appearing to be critical of the ruling regime. That is the state we are in. Sad, isn’t it? Very sad. J8 VAX Today the 20th day of April 2013, marks 2,367 days since the disappearance of SVG Air J8 VAX, if we are actually checking the day the plane disappeared on Sunday 19 November 2006 with pilot Dominic Gonsalves and one passenger, Rasheed Ibrahim. J8 SXY Today 20th day of April 2013 marks 1,048 days since the disappearance of another SVG Air aircraft, J8 SXY, a Cessna 402. Just so you would remember, this aircraft left St Vincent in the evening of Thursday 5 August 2010 bound for Canouan. Like J8 VAX, the aircraft never reached its destination. It never completed its mercy mission. The plane disappeared and as yet no word has been received in respect of the lone occupant, the pilot, Suresh Lakram. The sad case of Patricia Bowman Just Another Look wishes to leave our listeners with the sad reminder that on 19 September 2012, the husband of Patricia Bowman, Alban Bowman, will sit in sad, quite reflection on the fourth anniversary of the cruel death of his wife. She died a cruel death on 19 September 2008. Who cares? Where is justice in this matter? Nuff said!!! You have been listening to another edition of Nice Radio’s Callaloo presentation, Just Another Look. Just Another Look is an innovative, exciting, albeit decidedly provocative and controversial, socio-political analysis of issues of a local, regional and international nature. Just Another Look is heard only on Nice Radio on Saturdays at 6.00pm, with repeat broadcasts at 9.00pm on Sundays. Remember too that you can also catch us on the worldwide web, niceradio.info. You can check our JAL blog - vincyview I am, of course, Keith Joseph
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 11:01:13 +0000
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