A few felt that the resignation was long overdue. They saw PAM as a battalion of soldiers that did not have a general. At least one person would have seen this by probably reading a crystal ball days earlier, and had even gone on radio to advise Mr Grant how things should have been running.
In what was to be Grant’s finest hour on radio, when the People’s Action Movement launched its own radio show “People’s Forum” on WINN FM with him as one of the two guests, on Thursday April 19, a caller from Nevis went ahead and poured very cold water on the programme, and in particular, Mr Grant.
What did the Hon Mark Brantley know that the rest of us did not know? Why did he take it upon himself to call to the brand new radio show and say what he said? Had he read a crystal ball and saw Mr Grant’s fall?
“This Mark Brantley,” he introduced himself on the first Peoples’ Forum radio show. “I am calling from Nevis and I just want to say congratulations to you and to the People’s Action Movement for the show.
“I personally think it is long overdue that you have a voice such as this on the radio where you can speak directly to the people of the country and interact with the people of the country because I have felt that St. Kitts for some time there was an absence of that type of voice for the opposition.
“So I commend the party and I commend you for doing this and I am enjoying the show so far, it is your inaugural show and I trust and hope that it can continue from strength to strength. I do have one little query because I understand it is only a one-hour show. Is that accurate?
“Because I am just about to say one hour is just an appetiser, you know! You need probably to add another one hour so people can get the full flavour. But I feel it is an excellent medium as you know I have had a show of my own for the past six years or so and I feel that it is a great way to interact with the people.
“I think the public needs to understand that all of us who aspire to be public servants are willing to engage them and willing to hear what they have to say and willing to provide answers when they have questions. So I commend you and I want it to go on record on your first show as saying congratulations.”
One does not have to be a student of Literature to fully grasp Brantley message to Grant. He said to him that his party was lagging behind, because he and the CCM had a strong voice on a radio station in the Federation.
He kind of laughed at them for having just a one-hour’s show. He informed Grant that he has had his own two-hour show (On the Mark), and even if he did not say it, who does not know that the CCM have another two-hour radio show weekly on Tuesdays?
That was his way of flogging a lame duck leader — as a result he suggested that they add another hour. Why tell them in public?
They (CCM) lead and PAM follows. That was the message. Listen to Brantley’s words attentively (in this case, read and analyse).
But the devastating blow for the beleaguered Grant came when Brantley said that the public needed to understand that all who aspire to be public servants should be willing to engage them (members of the public) and be willing to hear what they have to say.
In essence, Grant was told that he had no place as a public servant if it had taken him that long to find the away to make access to the public. A crystal ball had been read and interpreted correctly and it did not surprise some when Mr Lindsay Grant bit the dust.
The most important thing every reader should note and fully understand is that the Hon Mark Brantley had absolutely nothing to do with Mr Grant’s exit from the stage. He only saw and presented his findings, which is an accepted practise. It is even Biblical. No one should fault Brantley.
But then sometimes Mr Brantley reads and fails to interpret the crystal ball correctly.
At a time when Nevis’ political mercury had risen to dangerous levels earlier in the year, he misread the old faithful crystal ball. After he realised that not many Nevisians would join him in an uncalled action that he termed as a victory march, he looked to across the Narrow.
He invited Kittitians to come and march with them in Nevis, but Kittitians aren’t ‘choopit’. When they boarded the free boat, majority of the able bodied, who were in real sense meant to bolster CCM numbers during the march, made a beeline to Sunshine’s Bar and Grill on Pinney’s Beach.
These Kittitians are smart people and they know how to support their own, because the joint’s proprietor, Mr Llewellyn ‘Sunshine’ Caines is from St. Paul’s in St. Kitts. He made good business that day thanks to a misread crystal ball.
The CCM were left with a few persons whose walking ability is suspect. Take for example Mr Washington ‘Washie’ Archibald, who rather than appear awkward coming all the way to Nevis and not marching was quick to tell somebody that he had come to write a book.
Mr Carlton Dupont who is alleged to have financed the boat ride is one whose agenda was not compatible with the CCM’s agenda as he was quoted as saying that they were attempting to remove the Rt Hon Dr Denzil Douglas from office.
That was not the reason the CCM had asked them to come ‘ower’.
The seasoned businessman he is, Mr Dupont is unfortunately one who doesn’t seem to differentiate his back from his front. Even the People’s Action Movement (PAM), which has more clout than the come lately Concerned Citizens Movement, will not touch Dupont with a ten-foot pole.
Long before anyone (other than the crystal ball probably) knew that Mr Lindsay Grant’s would shortly bite the dust, Mr Dupont had already called for his resignation publicly. Even St. Kitts has a crystal ball reader, and one who is more brunt in his pronouncements. Brantley was diplomatic.
And then there is the opaque reading of the crystal ball or is it reading selectively and choosing not to make the interpretations public?
If the Hon Mark Brantley could have called on WINN FM to tell the leader of PAM what he told him publicly in the guise of congratulating him, why is he not able to interpret things that are happening (or not happening) in his own CCM backyard? Is the crystal ball opaque?
When his leader the Hon Vance Amory crossed the shark infested waters on Saturday June 16 to be a panellist on the popular Inside the News show of WINN FM, this is what he said (no misquoting): “I was hoping that it would be somebody else, but as the person couldn’t come I thought that as I was in St. Kitts I could just fit myself in.
“I have come, as I said this morning, to be part of this discussion because we have been trying to get a consistent representative of the CCM to come and be part of the discussion and I had hoped that we would have had someone this morning.”
He still made an appearance on the Inside the News show last Saturday. We do not know about this coming Saturday.
If PAM is a battalion without a general, then the CCM has a general with no soldiers if its leader still crosses the shark infested waters every Saturday to appear on a radio show in St. Kitts after he would have said that the party had someone else who was supposed to be appearing on that show.
Mr Brantley, please read the crystal and interpret it correctly. Where are the CCM soldiers? The General is lonely — someone please give him company.