All of us have made our contributions, Sir James, says Eustace

The tribute delivered by former Prime Minister Sir James Mitchell at the funeral of Elwardo G Lynch last Saturday, focused more on highlighting achievements made by the New Democratic Party (NDP) under his leadership than about the life of the deceased.{{more}}

This opinion was expressed by president of the NDP Arnhim Eustace on the New Times programme on Nice Radio yesterday.

“All of us have done things, Sir James,” said Eustace. “All of us have made our contributions; not you alone!”

Among other things, Mitchell had highlighted the fact that when he led the NDP to power, he moved to “…free up the media, and create an opportunity for our democratic expression of opinions.”

The former Prime Minister had said that this move created the opportunity for many radio hosts to be able to freely express their opinion on issues affecting St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Among the radio hosts who had been named by Mitchell were: E G Lynch, Glen Jackson, Ernesto Cooke, Prince, Bert Francois, Chester Connell, Chris ‘2 Kool’ Jones, Frank Da Silva, Jerry George, Hans King, Kingsley De Freitas, Burns Bonadie, Margaret London, Randy Dopwell, Elson Crick, Junior Bacchus and Matthew Thomas.

Some of these radio hosts, on their programmes yesterday, criticised Eustace for not attempting to calm those members of the congregation who had been booing and ringing a bell to protest the presence, at the funeral, of Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves.

A caller to the New Times radio programme accused Mitchell of being part of a “well orchestrated plan” to get certain radio hosts (both pro and critical of the Government) to “attack” the leadership of the NDP.

The Opposition leader agreed with the caller, and said that he has heard about Mitchell making many negative comments about himself and the party but has so far tended not to respond. (JSV)