A long overdue decision!!!

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Parent Category: Feb 2012

Category: Week end Feb 18th, 2012

Published on Monday, 20 February 2012 20:39

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EDITORIAL

THE NEW TODAY is in full support of the decision taken by Prime Minister Tillman Thomas to take back the lands given to Grand Prix driver, Lewis Hamilton and his outfit as part of the failed deal to purchase the Grand Beach hotel from Trinidad business tycoon, Issa Nicholas.

This was long overdue and should have been done within months of the administration coming into power in the July 2008 general elections when it replaced in office the Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP). It was the NNP administration which took an ill-advised decision to hand over our heritage lands to Hamilton's company known as Time Bourke as a "sweetener" to help it negotiate with Nicholas to take over the hotel and upgrade it into a major 5-star property.

If only the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of PM Thomas had heeded the advise of its own Advisory group set up in the aftermath of the elections to look into some of the questionable deals of the former regime.

This group which included attorneys Lloyd Noel, Carol Bristol, QC and Debra St. Bernard had urged the government from Day One to acquire the lands in light of the many grey areas of the deal between the NNP and Time Bourke including the fact that the transaction was signed off when the people were almost entering the ballot boxes to effect regime change.

The indecision of the Congress government resulted in this Grand Beach salelingering on for much too long. Isn't it ironic that the Bristol-led Advisory Committee had given advice that was contrary to the views held by some in the Cabinet including his own son, Jimmy Bristol, the then Attorney-General and Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister, Peter David?

It can be argued that the deal between NNP and Time Bourke was legal in the sense that no one put a gun at the heads of former Prime Minister Mitchell and his Cabinet of Ministers to coerce them into handing over the lands to Hamilton and Company.

However, the manner in which the deal was arrived at left much to be desired. Even the Pro-NNP operative, Dr. Patrick Antoine, the former Trade Policy Advisor to the Mitchell government admitted in public that there was virtually no negotiations between the former government and Time Bourke for the lands.

Why would a government sign such a deal when the two principal partners in the negotiations - Issa Nicholas and Time Bourke - did not complete the real deal? Certainly, there were millions to be made in commission fees by some of the persons taking part in the negotiations.

And a failed deal would result in some people in this country and outside not being in a position to continue laughing on their way to the bank while the poor people in this country were being kept in the dark on the give-away of their patrimony.

The NNP would be hard-pressed to fool anyone into believing that the deal fell through because persons like Lloyd Noel had written articles accusing Lewis Hamilton of being corrupt resulting in newsmen were hounding him down in Europe.

A prominent member of the Hamilton Camp has now admitted  openly that the price tag of US$40 million being demanded by Issa Nicholas was too much for a property that was considered in hotel circles as very run down. It was a business decision the Hamilton Group had to take to lose their down payment of US$4 million and hold onto the remainder of the US$36 million that was deposited in a local commercial bank to close off the deal.

That is the truth of the failed Grand Beach deal. This newspaper does not expect the NNP to come clean on the issue as it has done also in the case of the Taiwan loan fiasco. The chickens are really coming home to roost and the Grenada Airports Authority and the Grenada Ports Authority are beginning to feel the financial squeeze and pressure from the Export-Import Bank of Taiwan which is seeking to recover its US$28 million from Grenada for non-payment of loans.

THE NEW TODAY stated in the past that NNP made a terrible mistake by not getting Mainland China to take over the entire loan when Prime Minister Mitchell decided to dump Taiwan in favour of a package from Beijing. The issue of the loan was definitely on the negotiating table based on documents seen from the Keppel Foundation, which brokered the deal between Grenada and China.

The Mitchell government might have been in too much of a hurry to get China to rebuild the Cricket Stadium at Queen's Park for the ICC Cricket World Cup and not hold out on China for a better deal including taking over the entire loan that was owed to Taiwan.

Congress as a government will have no choice but to explore all possible avenues to bring an end to the Taiwan loan issue including an approach to Beijing to make the funds available to Grenada as an interest free loan to be repaid over a long period of time.

It might be appropriate for the people of Grenada to petition the local Chinese Embassy in order to send a clear signal to the Chinese who are now widely regarded as the only other super power outside of the United States. The only other escape valve for Grenadians at this point in time is the possibility of tapping into its oil and gas resources suspected to be in the billions on its continental shelves between Trinidad and Venezuela.

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