Is Manning making Grenada a T&T colony?

A report in the Trinidad Express says former Grenadian Prime Minister Keith Mitchell offered Prime Minister Patrick Manning a proposal about a year ago to make his island a "virtual colony" of Trinidad and Tobago, with Grenada getting free access to the country's education, health and transportation systems among other benefits.

The offer was in a letter signed by Mitchell.

"The only thing that the letter didn't speak of having access to was the Trinidad and Tobago treasury. But, of course that was an unspoken word. But clearly we would have been in effect minding Grenada," the Express quoted one former minister as saying.

The report said certain cabinet ministers were of the opinion that Mitchell was trying to cut a deal for Trinidad and Tobago to pay its bills.

Now the same issue is on the table again.

Two weeks ago, Manning initialled a memorandum of understanding with the new Grenadian Prime Minister, Tillman Thomas, and the prime ministers of St Lucia and St Vincent for an economic union by 2011 and a political union two years later.

And Manning has been flying around the region, knocking on the doors of his regional counterparts to tell them about a deal that is still a big secret in Trinidad and Tobago.

At least two prime ministers - Bruce Golding of Jamaica and Dean Barrow of Belize - have told Manning they don't like the union idea.

But outside of that MOU involving Trinidad and Tobago and the three OECS states, Manning signed bilateral deals with Thomas during the Grenadian leader's recent two-day visit to Port of Spain.

Manning went out of his way to be cozy with Thomas, the man who had dethroned Manning's friend, Keith Mitchell, in a general election in July. Manning had openly supported Mitchell and went as far as suggesting that Thomas had planned a coup against Mitchell.

Manning sent a private jet for Thomas, who was more than eager to say there was no bad blood between him and his host. The $400,000 plane fare was not the only thing Thomas got during his 48 hours in Trinidad.

In two separate MOU's with Thomas Manning agreed to many of the things Mitchell wanted. Scholarships for Grenadians and access to Trinidad and Tobago's health care system to Grenadians, to name two.

Shortly after Thomas went home Manning flew to Grenada, picked up Thomas and made a lightning one-day visit to three OECS states to sell the union matter. The trip also gave the two leaders an opportunity to discuss other matters of "mutual concern."

Then Grenada's finance minister announced that the country was broke. Nazim Burke said there was no money to pay civil servants and finance government operations. The treasury was bare like mother Hubbard's cupboard and the island would have to go cap in hand for overdraft facilities to pay its way.

Neither Burke nor Thomas has said who will provide the funds for a bail out and under what terms. Which leaves the question about whether Manning and the Trinidad and Tobago taxpayers would be the benefactors.

Burke did say he has been talking with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is an international agency with very strict and binding rules. Few governments that want to stay in office court the IMF.

So are Manning and Thomas are now singing from the same song sheet that Mitchell wrote, offering to pawn Grenada and the future of all Grenadians to Manning for "a few pieces of silver"?

And it raises questions too about what really is in that larger MOU with T&T, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent that Manning is hastily trying to ram through the Parliament.

Government has an obligation to make sure the people of Trinidad and Tobago see that document in its entirety so there can be a public debate, not just the rushed limited exposure in the legislature where it will pass with Manning's majority regardless of what the opposition says or thinks. And it will pass in the senate too because of the government's majority there as well.

The opposition has an obligation to demand that there is full disclosure and that the people of Trinidad and Tobago get a clear picture about what we are getting into and why.

What is it that these countries have to offer than others don't have? And why the great rush?

Manning is on record as saying that the majority of people in T&T are behind him on this, but that comment within days of signing the MOU and without the public seeing the document raises the question about the basis on which Manning is making such a judgment.

Now he is embarking on a public information exercise, which is essentially a marketing drive to sell a product that people have not seen, hoping that the fancy public relations would trap the citizens into buying "cat in bag".

Trinidad and Tobago is still a democracy. And the politicians and the media have an obligation to the citizens to do everything they can to preserve and protect it.

Political and economic union might be a good thing. But it could also bad for Trinidad and Tobago. The people have a right to know the facts so they could weight them and decide.