Property of talk show host spray painted with the word ‘snake’

Controversial talk show host and political activist Frank DaSilva says in no way is he intimidated by graffiti which was recently painted on to a column at the gate to his home.

“The more they try to intimidate me, the more I’m energized. Election hasn’t started yet, I am just tuning up and this is how they are already {{more}}behaving, but I’m not scared,” the outspoken Queen’s Drive resident told SEARCHLIGHT during an interview on Sunday.

DaSilva said on Saturday, August 8, while cutting the grass in front of his property, he looked up and noticed that the word ‘SNAKE’ had been spray painted in blue and silver on the concrete column. He said he is not sure when the act was committed, but it could not have been done very long ago, as he has to pass the column every day.

The word ‘SNAKE’, painted vertically, measured over six feet in height, with the letter ‘S’ being 17 inches in size.

DaSilva, who is the co-host of the popular ‘Revelation Thursday’ programme on We FM, told SEARCHLIGHT that he suspects the act was carried out by someone who has shouted the word ‘snake’ at him previously.

He is confident that the act was politically motivated.

“There’s no if, ands or buts about it. It is partially generated by stuff they [are] hearing on radio and a particular newspaper story,” the pro-Unity Labour Party (ULP) talk show host said.

DaSilva, however, stated that while the word ‘snake’ was written on his wall, it could not have been referring to him.

“I don’t understand because the message couldn’t apply to me really, because if I have to tell you something, I tell you. I am not a hypocrite, “ he added.

DaSilva, once an activist for the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), switched allegiance to the governing ULP in 2011. He said the switch has nothing to do with him being untrustworthy.

“This has nothing to do with trust. We live in a democracy where circumstances allow you to change your mind. You make evaluations and you change your mind.”

He said he cannot be a supporter of any organization and stay quiet when he sees things that are wrong.

“….If I stayed quiet, but underneath were to say something about it, they will say, publicly I said nothing, but underneath — then you could call me a snake. But I would not have kept quiet,” he asserted.

He referred to an affidavit filed in the High Court on June 16, 2011 by NDP Senator Vynnette Frederick, who had alleged that Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves defamed her while speaking at two different political meetings in the run-up to the general elections of December 13, 2010.

DaSilva, who was a supporter of the NDP at the time, said he was the person who supplied Frederick with the audio tapes used to file the affidavit and what was sworn to in the affidavit was completely different to what was contained on the audio tapes he provided.

He said he did what was right and went public with what he knew and as a result, a lawyer who was representing him in a case he brought against the Prime Minister dropped it.

“So, if Ralph is right, I am going to say he’s right. I don’t care!

“…So what you supposed to do? Stay quiet when people do stuff or some of them would stay underneath, which is the real snake, criticize Arnhim or whoever and then they go away and grin. I couldn’t stand that. I saw that so many times that they would come to me and say one thing an hour before and the next minute go in a meeting and grinning with Eustace as though they didn’t just tell what they told me. Now that’s snakery,” he stated.

DaSilva, who is best known for making audio recordings of persons and later using those persons’ own words against them, said he does not make recordings clandestinely.

SEARCHLIGHT, however, challenged him on this, reminding him of two audio clips he has played in the past, one in which opposition leader Arnhim Eustace is heard saying that he has no “overwhelming desire to become prime minister,” and the other in which prime minister Ralph Gonsalves discusses some senior public servants.

DaSilva defended himself saying in the case of the tape with Eustace, he was not the one who made the July, 2005 recording. He said the recording was made clandestinely by a young man who wanted to run for the NDP, with whom Eustace had a meeting.

As regards the conversation with the prime minister, which he taped in August 2005 while he was still a supporter of the NDP, DaSilva said he did it because he suspected the prime minister was trying to “set him up.”

“Now, what people don’t know and why the PM don’t think too much about it is because I figure out he was trying to set me up. Something was wrong about the way it went,” he stated.

DaSilva said he received three missed telephone calls from the office of the prime minister one morning and when he returned the call to the number, he introduced himself and asked who had called.

“I said I am Frank DaSilva; somebody called me from this office….Glen (Jackson) was still alive. They asked Glen, he said no. They get to the prime minister and then he said to me ‘you don’t have to make it sound like an accident,’ what would you do? It is he who called me!” DaSilva asserted.

According to the talk show host, suspecting the prime minister’s motives, he recorded their conversation.

“I got that machine that could tape you immediately. I said no, no, no, my partner was up to no good here. So I taped him,” DaSilva disclosed.

DaSilva said three days after their conversation, at an event at the Peace Memorial Hall, the prime minister told the audience that he had spoken to DaSilva.

“He said ‘Ah talk to me partner Frank.’ What if I didn’t have the tape? That’s why it happened.”

DaSilva, who confirmed that he is now a ULP supporter, opined that the NDP president Arnhim Eustace only has one motivation for winning the general elections, which is “to prove he could become prime minister without James Mitchell. Period. End of story.”

He claims his fallout with the NDP was for several reasons.

“The record will show that Mr Eustace acts on rumours, commess. Everything is based on rumours… Check this out, anybody who has a doubt about how Ralph goes about things, you have a disaster in this country and the best thing Eustace could come up with, having been saying that we have no money is that he going to give concessions. Nonsense!

“You have to applaud Ralph for going out there and coming up with this idea of free stove, free fridge; you think that would happen under Eustace?”

Expanding, DaSilva said, “Anesia Baptiste, fired on rumours; my cousin, Rishatha Nichols, fired on rumours and then [Sir] James Mitchell….What people don’t know, I sent a letter right after 2010, somewhere about June [2011] to Leacock and Cummings and tell them that as long as Eustace is there, I will not support them in the next elections. I ain’t about to do that again. I have no doubt in my mind that I did the right thing.

“If anybody had any doubts, look what Mr Eustace do now. He brings in a man to take back grave dirt to a place. Grave dirt. Come on, we have to get serious in this country,” DaSilva declared.

DaSilva has reported the defacement of his property to the Criminal Investigations Department of the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force. When we checked with police yesterday, they said investigations were ongoing.