SWINGING WILD AT GRYNBERG AND THE CONSEQUENCES

The “Grynberg” mastermind has now fallen from grace! He has fallen with the force of a meteor hitting the island.

When Richard resumed his “not out” innings in the House of Assembly Budget Debate earlier this year, he must have thought that he was a batsman in fine form. He came out swinging wildly outside the off stump at Grynberg. A relevant question therefore is: Did Richard sacrifice his own wicket by his injudicious stroke play? Or did the Uncle Sam’s Umpires do what PM King and the House Speaker didn't do, that is, "raise the finger"?

JACK GRYNBERG: no deal with him if you are corrupt

Should someone have warned Richard about his masturbatory maligning of Jack Grynberg, linking the Denver-based oil and gas developer to corruption and malfeasance in the oil industry? Apparently, nobody -  not even the speaker - dared to incur the wrath of the Pit Bull who thought at the time that he was in fine form and was in the mood to hit any delivery for six.

Those of us who watched Richard’s orchestrations in the House - and who knew better about the Grynberg matter - saw the asymmetry between the two major tenets of Richard’s bogus argument. On the one hand, Richard postulated that Jack Grynberg was a corrupt Denver-based oil and gas developer who duped Dr Anthony into selling St. Lucia’s seabed to him for “royalties”. On the other hand, he argued that Grynberg was an extremely litigious figure and by virtue of that he had tied our hands in the reclaim of our marine patrimony.

AUSBERT D'AUVERGNE

Let us put Richard's argument in logical perspective: The truth of the matter is: corrupt persons are generally not litigious and vice versa. Whereas corrupt persons may have a propensity to break the law for their personal gain, litigious persons tend to be honest and they generally seek conflict resolution through litigation or judicial review which is exactly what Jack Grynberg is known for. In fact, most of Grynberg cases have to do with bribery and tax evasion by several oil companies he once partnered with.

JANINE COMPTON

The Grynberg matter which apparently formed the central plank for the UWP election campaign strategy (fortunately or unfortunately) never got off the ground - not even the tenacious Rick or incredible Darnley “the Hulk” La Bourne could move that plank.  It went through a chain of calamities and seemed to have died a natural death.

They say it never rains; but it pours. And that seems to be the case with Richard who seemed to have bitten too much for him to chew. Since his Grynberg fabrications, Richard has gone through a labyrinth of misfortunes including altercations; confrontations with the police, Wikileaks allegations of narco-trafficking, and lately the revocation of his visitor and diplomatic US visas. According to Wikileaks, Richard (like his friend Rufus) has even been linked to a murder in Scotland.

The question is: Are the above misfortunes a function of chance or design? Are they a function of anathema from his God for his wrongdoings against humanity or are they the function of the FBI and CIA at work?

For the time being, we can only ask “What’s next”. Suffice it to say that King holds the handle and he has a number of options at his disposal. If he were a courageous and decisive Prime Minister, he would quickly get rid of Rufus and Richard; if he does so, then there is a strong likelihood that he will not only win back some grace from the Americans, but equally he may also win the support of the true UWP’s who have been pushed to the "outer periphery" of the party.

With six more months to go, the PM still has time for action, time to rid the party of the "dirty elements". He has the option to push elections to March next year and in the interim embark on new initiatives to reintegrate d’Auvergne and Janine back into the party.

Secondly, King has the option to fire his current crop of campaign consultants. He needs a body of consultants with verified, demonstrated and value-added competencies and who are also objective, open-minded and honest.

King must understand that the more indecisive he becomes, the worse it will be for him. I suspect that if he continues in his current sate of inertia, the chain reaction of anathema will accelerate and he will self-destruct.

King must act now and save the image of St. Lucia before it's too late!