ROSEAU, December, 2011 – I am writing having just finished reading the front page of the Chronicle of December 02, where the Honourable Reginald Austrie, Minister of Housing, has taken Mr. Crispin Gregoire to task for his criticisms of the Economic Citizenship Programme and the questionable method of issuing Diplomatic Passports to aliens who turn out to be persons of ill repute. Mr. Austrie’s response, so it was reported, was that the Programme was transparent and above board, and the criticisms of Mr. Gregoire was a case of “sour grapes”. The response has compelled me to write because, once again, the exchange, far from relieving my disquiet has only aggravated it. The more I hear and read of the responses of Government representatives to these shocking allegations, the more I worry that they have not yet got the message or they are either incapable of setting troubled minds at rest on a matter that is of the highest importance for the future of our country, or worse, perhaps they no longer care.
My problem is that I cannot, for the life of me, see how Mr. Gregoire’s criticism can be interpreted as “sour grapes”, for it seems to me to be far more serious. This is not a joke. Here is a man who, until recently, was our Representative at the United Nations, to whom was entrusted our business in the highest international council of the governments of the world, against whom, as far as I know, there was no complaint about his performance, who served his country honourably and to the best of his ability; but suddenly he is being targeted for derision by a leading spokesman for the same Government that invited him to serve. I am now hearing that this same man is so mean and petty that, because his appointment was not renewed, he is prepared to drag his country into the dirt with lies and innuendos. I am sorry but I have a real problem with that picture. I cannot buy it. I cannot believe that that is the level of statesmanship our political culture has now reached. If all the allegations I am hearing and reading about with respect to the Economic Citizenship Programme are lies, then for me, it cannot be a case of sour grapes. It is treason, and the perpetrators should be made to answer in a court of law and, if they cannot clear themselves, they should be severely punished as dangerous criminals. If, however, they can clear themselves by the evidence they present, then the Cabinet should do the next best thing and resign without delay; and heads should roll. If as Mr. Austrie claims, the Economic Citizenship Programme is transparent and above board, then he should not be calling Mr. Gregoire’s criticisms “sour grapes” and leave it there. Our minds should be set at rest, once for all. The names of all the aliens who have become Economic Citizens by buying Dominican Passports, how much each has paid to be a Dominican, how much of the proceeds from the sale of those Passports has reached the Treasury and what, so far, has been the benefit of the Programme to the Dominican economy should be published in the next issues of the tabloids. Just shouting “It is transparent! It is transparent!” does not make it so, affirming it is above board does not put it there. It is high time that our political Directorates recognize this vital truth. Words alone can neither create matter that does not exist nor change matter that does. We cannot be gods but we can be liars.
Because, you see, if what Mr. Gregoire, Mr. Sinclair and Dr. Fontaine are saying is the truth, then what we have before us is sourer than sour grapes. It is corruption that stinks to high heaven. It means that our country is in deep trouble. It means, (I cringe as I write) that we are being ruled by corrupt leaders who, having entrenched themselves for their enrichment, are making my country an object of universal contempt, and they are laughing at us, all the way to the bank, while they bleed Dominica – black is white. We are trapped in the worst nightmare of deception it is the misfortune of a small, impoverished country to endure; and the sorriest part is that, such is the general apathy and the shortage of alternatives, it is unlikely to change at the Polls come 2014, whatever the result.
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
So I ask the Prime Minister, no, I beg him and his Cabinet colleagues to stop being dismissive and evasive if they can. Come clean. Stop treating your countrymen and women like idiots, even if most of us are. I am asking you to respect us more than we respect ourselves, to take us more seriously than we take ourselves. Let us agree that it is a case of sour grapes. Let us say that Mr. Gregoire is jealous or bitter or both. Is that commendation sufficient answer to his criticisms? Does it make any of us any wiser about the rightness or wrongness, the truth or falsity of his allegations? Bitter or not, sour grapes or not, what is the truth? What are the facts? Where is the evidence? By whom are we being hoodwinked and misled? And don’t tell me that it is they who must produce the evidence. No. It is you, not they, you owe it to us to clear the air and clear yourselves. Demonizing those who demonize you still leaves the rest of us in the dark. Evading the issue all the time only confirms our worst fears that, by accusing the accuser, you hope to escape the accusation. I am not any clearer about who or what to believe, while you have or ought to have all the facts that can answer our questions and dispel our doubts but will not share them. Is this simple request “sour grapes”? I hope to God it is, because “sour grapes”, believe it or not, is fast becoming a compliment.
By the way, I wonder whether anyone can remember where this idea of “sour grapes” came from. I dimly recall hearing a story long, long years ago about sweet grapes that were cornered and enjoyed by a few inside and denied to the many outside, who, to ease the pain of their deprivation, decided to fool themselves by saying that the grapes were sour, anyway. Is that the same story from which Mr Austrie got the idea? I ask because it is Mr. Austrie from inside, where the goodies are, who knows how sour the grapes must be for Mr. Gregoire and the rest of us outside, who have no way of tasting the grapes being enjoyed in there; but Mr Austrie, in there, must know the truth about the grapes – at least for now. Those luscious, succulent grapes in there might feel different, by and by, when stomachs turn, bowels begin to rebel and teeth are set on edge.
