By J. K. Roberts, Sound Public Policies Advocate

With the recently Cabinet-appointed National Organising Committee for Grenada’s 50^th Independence celebrations (NOC) having to abort its apparent thrust to “rewrite” Grenada’s history by ‘firstly’ commencing the 7 February 2024 celebrations of the Golden Jubilee on 19 October 2023, brings better focus and provides more space for the role of the longstanding National Celebrations Committee (NCC), for the realization of the Government’s year-old promised week of activities surrounding the military curfew of 19 October 1983 and the rescue mission of 25 October 1983, and for the powers-that-be to ‘gain and value’ the expressions and sentiments of the people on the related events and consequences.

Although the legislative, operational and financial provisions for the NCC are not easily accessible, it may be taken to be responsible for the celebrations which are associated with 7 February Independence, 13 March Revolution, 19 October tragedy and 25 October Thanksgiving; 13 March and 19 October not being held as public holidays.   The NCC has also being playing the responsibility for the presentation of national awards during the Independence Day ceremony.  The granting of such awards is under the set procedures of the 2007 National Honours and Awards Act (Cap. 204A) and the 1995 Grenada National Honours Act (CAP. 130D) which also references and addresses awards to National Heroes; no individual has been yet conferred the Prestige of National Hero by those Act/s.  The NOC now seems to have the mandate to fix its own defining criteria, selection team and legal process for inaugurating awards to National Heroes within the framework of 19 October to be a permanent holiday with its label as National Heroes Day.  

It should be instructive that in the various public fora of the NOC headed by Dr. Wendy Crawford towards promoting the Golden Jubilee, no ‘prominent’ mention was made of the NCC as headed by Ms. Jackie Alexis.  Although the later move might have been about window-dressing and / or damage-control, any institutional relationship between the NCC and the NOC was only perceived when NCC appeared on the Special Press Briefing called by NOC on 04 October 2023 to announce the decision to postpone the launch of Grenada’s 50^th Independence celebrations to 31October 2023; and to not mingle this ‘bright’ occasion with the ‘gloomy’ observance of the 40^th year of Grenada’s unprecedented massacre post-Independence.  Significantly also; the 04 October hurried Special Briefing confirms the seemingly lack of depth of the NOC concerning the polarity and sensitivity and required treatment surrounding the historic events of 7 February and 19 October and about the content and extent and application of CAP. 204A and CAP. 130D.

Whilst seeking to “rewrite” Grenada’s history, ‘close and serious’ care must not only be taken to ensure accuracy, but ‘keen and astute’ sight should not be lost on the history and lessons which are being created presently.  Genuine efforts towards analyzing and documenting present occurrences are most critical in producing accurate history.  History should not be selective and biased, nor should it be disjointed, without contextual relevance or good rationales. Thus most emphatically; the assertions and doings and alliances and consequences of the past by officials of the Government need to be correlated and brought to the table when new offerings and requests are made to encourage credibility of the executors and proponents of policies and events, as well as to enable successes of the policies and events. This credibility factor for engendering and rallying the ‘interest and participation’ of the general public for those events, including any transformative endeavours, also relates to the issue of holding Government’s officials accountable; and this ‘limited in society’ valuable trait is particularly applicable and desirous as ‘controversy and missteps and uneasiness’ seems to stain the spirit and record about the Golden Jubilee.

At the 49^th Independence Day ceremony on 7 February last year, Ms. Alexis ‘excitedly and positively’ declared; “ . . . . the journey to fifty begins tomorrow.  Throughout 2023 we will be hosting events as we journey down the road to a spectacular Golden Jubilee in 2024, and making the journey one that our children, our grandchildren and our great grandchildren, will still be speaking of, when they reach a century . . . . ”.   Was this reasonable ambition of the NCC premature and unauthorized, and thus had to be thwarted and overruled by the Government, with its preference for a presumably $7.50 million ‘funded’ NOC and for the Golden Jubilee events to be concentrated over one year of post 7 February 2024?  In seeking parliamentary approval for its EC$148,990,234.00 Supplementary Budget in August 2023 for the rest of the fiscal year, the Government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) highlighted $7.5million to start the Golden Anniversary, of which $2.0 million to assist with the issuance of a 50^th Anniversary Independence commemorative EC$50 note as part of initiatives for the celebrations.  The NCC has not been in the public domain with any agenda, apart from its “Call For Entries For Grenada’s 50th Anniversary Of Independence Logo Design” in May 2023; as the April 2023 internet-circulated article “Open Call To National Celebrations Committee On Grenada’s 50th Jubilee” poses some salient areas for considerations, and draws attention to some evolving projects and stirring commentaries on the feat.

The NCC, after being apparently ‘kept silent’, got the opportunity to unfold its activities for 19 October 2023 during the press conference by the NOC; as the general public also awaits its position and programme for the activities for 7 February 2024. As reported on the website of Grenada’s TheNewToday, the NCC announces: “We (were) always going to be staging an event and we will now be looking at how we do that to mark the occasion with respect and in remembrance and observance of those that we have lost (their lives) on the 19th of October 1983 . . . . It will also include the laying of wreaths up at the fort (Fort George) . . . .  Our intention is to share this day as a nation, to remember, to reflect and observe and pay homage to those we would have lost on the 19th and to respect the feelings and emotions of those who survive and are still mourning those losses”.  The website article, “October 19 Bloody Events No Longer Part Of 50th Anniversary Celebrations”, further relates that the NCC intents that the October 19 event will commence at 9.00 a.m. with an Ecumenical mass at the national stadium at Queen’s Park to be attended by top Government Officials and will include remarks by family members of the army massacre victims as well as some cultural presentations; that at 1.00 p.m. there will be a tolling of the bells across the country, church bells will ring out and that will be followed by a minute of silence in memory of those killed on the fort; and that at 7.00 p.m., the nation is invited to the Carenage for a candlelight gathering as Grenadians urged to come out with their candles for a remembrance gathering.

Grenada’s history should reveal that there have been intense debates for declaring 13 March and 19 October as public holidays, especially in comparison to or instead of 25 October, with the philosophy that true ‘liberation and patriotism’ was evidenced because of 13 March 1979. This scenario sprang from the ‘influence and credence’ of the revolutionary Marxist–Leninist governance of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) which overthrew the democratically-elected Government and suspended the 1974 Independence Constitution on 13 March, and from the perpetuated disdain for the interference of the American-led forces on 25 October 1983 to restore Democracy.  The People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) of the NJM came to an end on 19 October 1983 with the brutal climax of alleged issues of ‘joint leadership and governance style’ between prime minister Maurice Bishop and Deputy prime minister Bernard Coard, and this further widens the political divide in Grenada.  Now having both 19 October and 25 October this year 2023 as public holidays, there is the anticipation as to when 25 October will be phased-off as a holiday; and moreover, the advocacy and call for the public recognition of 13 March would be intensified. 

Ardent remnants of the NJM hold allegiance to one side or the other of the political divide of 19 October 1983 and have tentacles and stakes in both main parties following the return to democratic rule, the NDC and New National Party (NNP), and thus keeping the NJM’s philosophy and agenda ‘alive and influential’ in one form or another in any opportunity which could be seized.  A new debate may arrive as to why 19 October be used as National Heroes Day; and particularly, there could be a measure of rivalry between the fractions from the demise of the PRG with each side claiming credit for the Day and blaming one another for the demise. Is the ‘foundation and essence’ of heroism in Grenada primarily about the massacre which occurred? Who are the realistic victors and the realistic victims of the massacre, and which outcome-type forms the heroism-list? Would Maurice Bishop or Bernard Coard really wished to be associated and honoured with the massacre on 19 October and its outcome?  The creation or the rewriting of history in this manner of ‘mismatch’ does nothing more than to fuel discontent in society.

There should also be the anticipation about the revelations and transformations of the NDC’s Dickon Mitchell-led Administration, to be delivered during the upcoming days of 19 October to 25October.  According to the NOWGRENADA website on its story “Government To Make 19 October A Public Holiday From 2023”, Culture Minister Ron Redhead in addressing the Flag-raising and Wreath-laying ceremony on 19 October last year 2022 had raised some pertinent innovations for implementation. He promised thus : “ …. We must address the healing of our nation.  To this end, Government will use this opportunity to propose a series of actions geared towards promoting national healing from the demise of the Revolution …. Next year, Grenada will remember and recognise all the days of the tragic ending.  From the 19th to the 25th with a week of activities …. Special consideration will be given to developing our national heroes framework to designate a day entitled ‘Maurice Bishop Day’ among others …. No government, people, or system is so evil that it cannot give a respectable burial (even in ceremony) to our fallen Grenadian men and women leaders …. Grenada will erect a monument for peace next year in recognition of the tragedy of ‘83, in keeping with the guidelines for monuments.  It will incorporate the names of all Grenadians who lost their lives on the 19th.  This monument, we believe, can become a symbol of peace and healing …. A country unaware of the past is undoubtedly doomed to repeat it ….“.

What should be the reasonable and meaningful doings and presentations over the week of 19 – 25 October 2023?  Would the Government’s message by Mr. Redhead be brought to the fore with appraisals, including vital information on the names and statuses of all the victims of the massacre and on the whereabouts of the remains? The schedule for the week would not be substantial and fruitful without at least the conducting of different public fora with the lead political actors during this period in history enlightening about the issues which led to the 19 October massacre; and with political historians and analysts reviewing the findings of the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Grenada” and other pertinent scholarly works. Every Secondary School should allocate a day to feature an aspect of the historic event.  Above all; it must be condemned absolutely as ‘nonsensical and inexcusable’ if 19 October 2023 is inaugurated and designated as National Heroes Day but without having at least someone named as a National Hero on that date, and more so if such awards are done on Independence Day.  Anyways; it must be considered great for Grenada, with the certain activities on 19 October and those on 25 October, taking the form of ‘solemnity and prayers’, and thus the Government should encourage all entities and sectors including the broadcasting-media throughout the nation, to respect those days truly.