Kennedy Budhlall says: Prime Minister Tillman Thomas should resign

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Details: Parent Category: Aug 2011; Category: Week ending Aug 27th, 2011; Published on Monday, 29 August 2011 10:39; Hits: 2064

Kennedy-Budhlall Political activist, Kennedy Budhlall who is currently associated with the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) wants Prime Minister Tillman Thomas to demit office and hand over to his Finance Minister, Nazim Burke to lead the party into the next general elections.

Budhlall who has been associated with Grenadian politics for the better part of the last 4 decades submitted the following article to the NEW TODAY newspaper:

I am not on a popularity campaign. I am prepared to stand by myself, alone, boldly and fearlessly for what I consider to be in the best interest of NDC at the present time.

Even at the risk of losing my social acceptability with the people around me. I will be the last man standing in defense of the NDC party. I will also like to assure my NDC friends I will be no Nicodemus crawling into the home of Dr. Mitchell in the dead of night seeking some kind of refuge.

Asking the Honorable Tillman Thomas to resign is no easy task. He is undoubtedly the conscience of the NDC party. He possesses certain qualities envied by every Politician in the country. He is trustworthy; he would defend the country national assets, and his anti- corruption stand is well known.

Yet the PM is capable of destroying the very thing he hopes to achieve and defend. We all know what he will not do, but no one knows what he will do. Not withstanding all those noble attributes, there is still not enough national support for him to win an election by himself.

To be successful he needs a united and competent team around him. A clarion call goes out for all independent minded NDCites to step forward and help protect this present leadership against itself before they self-destruct. The time of great urgency is now. Quite a lot of NDCites admit for the first time in their political career they feel pigged as being in a game of draft.

We are faced with a leadership we cannot go forward with, but yet it is almost impossible to go without them. Amidst every crisis there is a way out but how we get out of crisis will determine the destiny of the NDC and its leadership. It takes extreme boldness to call for the Prime Minister's resignation while he still commands a fair amount of support and respect especially among the religious community.

Very few NDC friends I have discussed this article with are in agreement with my position. Their advice to me is: "KB leave this thing alone and let us concentrate on the bigger picture to stop Dr. Mitchell and the NNP". I am not prepared to take a Pontius Pilate position and go along with what the majority of the NDCites think. I am convinced that if we fail to urgently address the problems of leadership and MPs who hide from their people, we could all be back in the political doghouse for a long time.

Politics is not for Priests and Popes - it is all about power. It is either you're greedy for it or you are prepared to give it up. Peter David too should be given the final warning as General Secretary of the party. He should be prepared to aggressively go throughout the country and put sustainable structures in place to build the party. Failure to do that, means that he would suffer the same rebuke as experienced by the former Chairman Glen Noel.

I am convinced that Mr. Tillman Thomas is not a good political leader. He is just a good human being, full stop. He is neither a visionary nor a strategist. His failure to display a little hypocrisy and diplomacy in his everyday life does not help. The leader simply lacks political savvy. He is undoubtedly a reactionary who reacts after the fact. His number one problem is his inability to cultivate relationship with his Cabinet ministers. His poor communication skills prevent others from understanding or knowing his thoughts.

Grenadians will be stunned to realise that our Prime Minister sees no value in regular dialogue on a one to one basis with his Cabinet ministers. It is for those reasons listed above why I do believe that his political advisors should be more proactive. Their failure to influence him to cultivate that kind of relationship is a big blunder by itself. As to why the political leader surrounds himself with advisors who can only put words like "is and are" in the correct position, is a question that he alone could answer.

To have men with little or no political experience to advise him on political matters, in a politically saturated society, where the Opposition Leader is a political animal, is the most caboosay' decision made by any politician. These people are of no help to the Prime Minster, not even to influence anyone in the party. To save the Prime Minister further embarrassment, they should do the honorable thing and fire themselves. They all are collectively responsible for the Prime Minister becoming as isolated as Colonel Gaddafi in his own party.

That leaves Honourable Tillman with the only embarrassing weapon dictators are left with when their popularity fades and that is the power of the Prime Minister. Tillo himself was very critical of leaders in the past. He was critical of, Sir. Eric Gairy, Herbert Blaize and Dr. Keith Mitchell, when they opted to use the powers of the Prime Minister arbitrarily for selfish or personal reasons. Questions are still being asked as to why the political leader of NDC was allowed to plunge the leadership of the party to such a low level in a fight for the Chairmanship between Fullerton and Glen Noel. Why could he not make his position known in some other forum?

The PM visited constituencies denouncing Fullerton's candidacy on legal grounds, while insinuating that people should vote for Glen Noel who held onto the Prime Minister's coat tail but gave others the impression that the Prime Minister's political survival depended on his Glen Noel acceptance as Chairman. It was a total rebuke and an indictment against his leadership at the convention. Ninety percent of his own Cabinet ministers directing their delegates to vote against the Political Leader's position and his strong man Glen Noel. In a more advanced democracy, such a member with any political decency was going to be called upon to resign. Now the ball is in the Prime Minister's court.

The Australian Prime Minister for e.g., when he lost the majority support in Parliament handed over power to his deputy. He did not go back to the poll seeking new mandate thus risking his party's chances in an election. I am suggesting that the Prime Minister should do the same and hand over power to his deputy, Nazim Burke because NDC should come 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at all times.

Nazim Burke possesses profound intellectual depth, good communication skills and handles the State finances intelligently in the midst of a world financial crisis. He inherited almost two billion dollars national debt and millions of dollars in unpaid claims in the Treasury. Yet he has ensured that everyone received their pay cheques on time at the end of each month and that no one was retrenched. This undoubtedly is a noble and proud achievement in difficult times - and Nazim should now be given time to unite and prepare the party for the next general election.

Tillo, you deserve no sympathy because Herbert Blaize's arrogant autocratic leadership style forced you along with Brizan and Alexis and others away from the NNP party in the 1980's. Remember Blaize's infamous contemptuous remarks: "Who want to go could go". Blaize also said then that he can do without those fringes in his party. Those words had infuriated Dr. Alexis so much that he replied with the following: "Who the hell is fringes with Herbert Blaize?

Now Tillo end up making the same mistake as Blaize in reference to his own Cabinet colleagues when he said in the November crisis, "Who want to go could go", instead of making every effort to reach a middle ground and unite his party, he continues to distance himself from them.

All other Parliamentarians who had distanced themselves from Herbert Blaize implied that he was an okay leader notwithstanding the differences. It is not so with Uncle Tillo because once he formulates a negative opinion on someone that position stays fixed. It is clear that Tillo cannot stand the hypocrisy and dishonesty of his own Parliamentarians even in the presence of his family and the dead H.A Blaize lying in his coffin.

Tillo insisted that H.A. Blaize should not go down in history as a good leader since he started with fourteen parliamentarian and ended with just five members. Tillo, I'm in full agreement with you. Now it is between you, your conscience and God. We know you are an honest and principled person. However, based on my information you can only rely on about one-and-a-half support inside your Cabinet.

Tillo, if it was just two or three members who were having problems with you, then there will be no need for concern but eight member - that is far too many. That's why you should leave in the most dignified way since you have lost your legitimacy to lead the NDC party at the present time.

You have lost control of the Cabinet and the majority of the Chairpersons in the different constituencies. Your last Cabinet reshuffle caused us great panic and embarrassment, not that anyone questioned your reason or right to shuffle as Prime Minister but both you and your advisors had not the slightest clue that your government could have fallen as a result of your action all because of your poor communication skills.

NDC could have lost power, because we were not ready to go back to the polls. Any decision made by the Political Leader is to ensure that NDC remains in power at all times - the PM was not aware of how his Cabinet members were thinking.

How could any Commander lead his troops to battle and do not have the slightest clue as to how they are thinking. Now let us take a page from Dr. Mitchell's book on how he had managed rebellion in his party. Before the last election the NNP had 8 seats in Parliament. He attempted to move Anthony Boatswain from the Ministry of Finance and he refused to accept any other ministry thus holding the party and government to ransom.

Dr. Mitchell sensed that his government could be at risk if Boatswain was being pushed beyond toleration. He was forced to swallow his pride and bow to Boatswain's demand to save his government. It was clear that Dr. Mitchell was experiencing his worst political nightmare when the briefcase saga surfaced. Four of his senior parliamentarians bolted and stabbed him in his back. They went to the Governor General to have him and Gregory Bowen disciplined at the most crucial time when he needed every bit of political support to fight the briefcase allegation.

I did question MP Roland Bhola as to why he did not support the rebels who went to the Governor General. His answer was laughable: "KB, how these people could be so stupid, who is Keith Mitchell and who is Danny Williams? Dr. Mitchell had to use all his political skills to keep his government in power and also for his own political survival. If there is one thing he understands is that in politics, it is all about power, it is a number's game, it is alliances and compromises.

One must operate from a position of strength at all times. Had it been Tillman Thomas that Boatswain had showed such disrespect for, it is clear to me that Tillo was going to dissolve the government and go back to the polls and risk the NDC losing power.

Simply put, Tillo is never greedy for political power. If NDC crash today or tomorrow he will pick up his briefcase and go to his office in Sauteurs and do his little title deed or plan, as well as attend his church service on Sunday and go back home as if nothing ever happened.

Anyone who thinks Tillo will lose sleep over the Prime Ministership better think twice. It is clear to me that NDC is not the only party, which is plagued with internal wrangling. The NNP position is just as bad, but it is how one comes out of it that is most crucial.

The two major contentious issues, which continue to cause uneasiness in the government, are the Zublin project and the PM's refusal to join Alba. On those two areas, he took unilateral decisions, disregarding the opinion of party supporters and Cabinet ministers. Tillo still sees the world as black and white and not brown. His ideological position on Alba is a clear indication that he is not convinced that the Berlin Wall has fallen decades ago and communism is no more. He still put his religious and ideological position above party interest and that is rather unfortunate.

It is time that Tillo is made to understand that religious and ideological purity alone cannot get us elected. The most painful thing for NDCites who want to stop Keith Mitchell at all cost is to witness Dominica, Antigua and St. Vincent receiving 60 million dollars in aid and grants by being members of Alba. We have lost everything all because of the Prime Minister's arrogant and autocratic style of leadership.

Could you imagine what 60 million US, which is equivalent to about 160 million EC, could have done to our economy at this present time? It is indeed sad for the Prime Minister's personal position on Chavez to stand in the way of his government joining Alba and getting money and risking the NDC losing the next election.

This is all the more reason he should resign because the party is bigger than Tillo. It is bigger than all of us. The PM's own position on Zublin is a clear lack of inflexibility. In politics you just cannot have fixed positions. The President of USA, Barack Obama campaigned against the issuing of license for the drilling of oil along the American coast. The republican campaign was 'drill baby, drill' but when Obama became President and faced severe economic difficulties, he was forced to go against his election promises and issued licenses to drill in America's most cherished reserved Alaska.

It is time NDCites wake up! One just cannot have a Political Leader whose view points of the world is diametrically opposite to that of his Cabinet ministers and his party. That is a serious contradiction. That contradiction can become too antagonistic and impossible to resolve in an amicable way. Therefore, Tillo should relinquish power in the most honorable and dignified way.

I agree he should not be pushed or it will be political suicide but leaving him there will also be political suicide anyway. I did engage Nazim Burke as to his noticeable silence over the internal wrangling in the party and his answer was rather interesting. He said that certain leaders rise in certain periods of history. In 1951, it was Uncle Gairy's time, in 1979 was Maurice Bishop time then we had Blaize and Keith Mitchell's time. This time now is not Nazim Burke or Peter David's time, it is Tillman Thomas' time.

There is no doubt that Nazim studied his history well, although being blessed with three degrees if I were Nazim's examiner, I was going to fail him for not revealing the most important part of the history that all who came before The Honourable Tillman Thomas had self destructed. No one had the guts or vision to stand up and protect, Gairy, Bishop, Blaize, and Dr. Mitchell against themselves. Unless some independent minded NDC'ites are prepared to come forward to protect this present leadership against themselves they will inevitably self-destruct.

The myth that God sent Uncle Tillo and that NDC can't do without him must be dispelled. NDC has made Tillman, Peter and Nazim - none of them make NDC. If some kind of divine intervention had to do with Uncle Tillo becoming Prime Minister, how come there is no medicine in the hospital? And how come he lacks the vision and political skills to unite his own party?

For the NDC to go forward and become an effective political force, this culture of ignore and ignore that had been cultivated in the party over the years must be exposed. We must stop sweeping things under the carpet. Peter David's failure to perform with distinction as an effective General Secretary and get away with it, is because of the culture of ignore and ignore by party people

The press has become rather timid by not asking the Prime Minister serious and important questions fearing that this will play into the hands of Keith Mitchell. Again, this is because of the culture of ignore and ignore. I am not prepared to idolise or see any politician as my icon, which could cloud my vision and prevent me from seeing their shortcoming.

I want to tell the Mr. Prime Minister that his legacy would be no different from that of Ben Jones, Brizan, Blaize and Brathwaite - making no major mistake but at the same time doing nothing.

These were all nice honest men who hated corruption and do not know how to thief but history only remember people for what they had done, not for what they did not do. Gairy, Bishop and Mitchell will always be a part of our history. Let me tell NDCites that hope is not lost because there is still some goodwill out there. Remember that two years is a long time in politics and the party can rebound if we do the right thing now.

The rank and file members are still intact but the two and a half thousand independent voters who make the difference in every election are disappointed with our performance in office. Although there is no evidence that they have gone over into the NNP camp, it all depends on our political skills to bring them back to support our party.

To conclude I know my friend Godfrey Augustine will have a good laugh since he accused me on the Watch Dog show of being the most ungrateful person he had ever known. He claimed that I have attacked all my political friends, Bernard Coard, Maurice Bishop , Blaize, Dr. Mitchell, Peter David , Livingston Nelson and himself Godfrey Augustine and now the Honourable Prime Minister, Tillman Thomas.

Godfrey I give you win. I have at last completed the entire circle but never confused ungratefulness with principle because history always places me in the correct position by refusing to be cultivated by the culture of ignore. To all NDCites who are upset with me, permission is granted to respond forcefully in the press or engage me at 534-0364 .