GRENADA TODAY -
Week ending Oct 10th, 2009
Minister of Finance and Leader of Government Business in the Lower House, Nazim Burke, has come out in defense of his Prime Minister against another set of “disrespectful” remarks cast at him by former Grenadian leader and now holder of the post of Opposition Leader, Dr. Keith Mitchell.
During a sitting of the house last week Tuesday, Dr. Mitchell in his latest barrage of verbal assault on Prime Minister, Tillman Thomas made several comments especially about his intellectual level. Mitchell’s comments came during debate on a Motion he presented to remove Speaker of the House, George McGuire from the Chair for his alleged “bias and hostility” towards the Opposition New National Party (NNP).
The former Prime Minister in trying to castigate his predecessor for his contribution to the motion, said it is clear him that PM Thomas does not understand the arrangement of government up to this time of taking over the reigns of power. “...It shows the level of IQ that’s there”, said Dr. Mitchell who holds a doctorate from an american university. Over the years, the current Leader of the Opposition has often taken pot shots at the intellect at PM Thomas who is an attorney-at-law by profession.
However, Finance Minister Burke got up from his seat to come to the defense of his political leader in what appears to be a pattern being set by Dr. Mitchell to make disparaging remarks against the Prime Minister. He described the utterings of the NNP leader as deeply offensive and sought to remind the House that the debate was about the conduct of Dr. Mitchell himself and whether he acted properly on the occasion when the Speaker had to seek his removal from Parliament.
Dr. Mitchell brought the motion in retaliation to the decision taken by Speaker George Mc Guire to suspend him from the rest of the Sitting of the House on July 14 for displaying “poor” leadership. The Finance Minister took strong objection to Dr. Mitchell’s statement on the IQ of PM Thomas. He said: “Here is the Opposition leader making reference to the PM’s IQ... at another meeting he accused the PM of being retarded. I don’’t want to get personal or attack anyone but it is not for Mitchell to come to the House and attack the intelligence portion of the PM.
“It is deeply offensive and he (has) to be restrained with that kind of conduct. That is not the kind of language to be used in parliament. And every time it is heard I will object and challenge it, it is wrong, it is inconsistent with parliamentary behaviour”, he said. Dr. Mitchell attempted to justify his statement saying that his remarks regarding IQ intelligence was to show that the Prime Minister’s statement lacks logic. He said that he was not implying that Prime Minister Thomas has a very low IQ.
Week ending Oct 10th, 2009 
