Two National Democratic Congress (NDC) political party executive members, who are also Grenada government ministers, have brushed aside suggestions that there was something untoward in Prime Minister Tillman Thomas receiving a cash contribution from a foreign donor in his capacity as leader of the ruling NDC.
Deputy leader and minister of finance, Nazim Burke, and former NDC chairman Glen Noel, have also both reaffirmed their confidence in the honesty and integrity of the prime minister.
“My belief in him and his integrity is unwavering,” information minister Noel told Byron Campbell, host of the CC6 Wednesday evening television program, You Decide.
Earlier in the day, on the Grenada Broadcasting Network’s To the Point radio show, Burke also backed Thomas, saying there are “many people in Grenada and elsewhere” who contribute financially to the NDC and the opposition New National Party (NNP) and do not want to be identified as donors.
“They may fear recrimination,” Burke said.
Revelation of a money transfer was first made public last month by opposition leader and head of the NNP, Dr Keith Mitchell, who claimed that a “top government minister” had received US$150,000 from a Saudi Arabian donor through a local bank.
That charge of a US$150,000 Saudi donation has been denied by the prime minister. According to his press secretary, an individual with “corporate residence” in the British Virgin Islands made a US$50,000 contribution and “at every stage, it was the understanding and belief of Prime Minister Thomas, that these funds were intended to assist the NDC and for no other purpose.”
Some NDC executive members have said publicly that they were unaware of the donation to the party.
Burke said there have been previous occasions when cash or equipment is received by the relevant “custodians” of the party and he never enquired on exactly what is received and how much.
Noel added that it is a “lie” and “simple political mischief” for any executive member to assert ignorance of the money.
He referenced NDC treasurer, Bernard Isaac, who said that he reported to the NDC’s general council in March on money he had collected from Thomas “to pay bills in the name of the party.”
Noel said the prime minister was right in denying receiving or having knowledge of a US$150,000 donation from Saudi Arabia.
The burden of proof that such a sum was received is on the opposition leader, said Noel.
The Information Minister said he believes that “very soon,” Thomas “will speak to it and close the matter” of the money transaction.
Meanwhile, none of the so-called Grenada 17 has the moral authority to get involved in politics, said one of the group convicted for the murder of Revolutionary Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, while appearing on one of Grenada’s leading television news programmes, MTV News.
Christopher Stroud, who spent a little over 25 years in prison, said he was passionate about politics when he joined the New Jewel Movement (NJM) as a young man. However, he said that he has lost interest and does not see himself going back into it. He included most of his colleagues in his assertion that they have no moral authority to be there (politics).
For the majority of his colleagues that seems to be the sentiment, except for one who recently made certain statements on national television putting him in total support of a rebel faction of the ruling NDC headed by recently resigned tourism minister, Peter David, who is thought to be aligned with the hardliners that eclipsed the Grenada Revolution on October 19, 1983, killing Bishop and several other people.
Stroud is confident that this individual concerned – Selwyn Strachan – speaks for himself.
Stroud said he would continue to make his contribution to Grenada by working with young people in and out of prison.
