I can still remember the ads from the 2007 campaign, “Jamaica needs a change now!”. They were catchy, pointed and relevant; Jamaica was flirting with the Labour Party and it’s promise of change. Many boldly declared that “me and mi neighbour, voting for Labour.” Bruce Golding had been an incredible Opposition Leader, he brought us Trafigura, a motion of no confidence, slammed corruption, poverty, the state of the economy and shredded the record of the PNP administration of the preceding 18 years. All seemed set for a better Jamaica, and then it went horribly wrong.
It is not often in Jamaica’s political dynamic that one sees personal ambition put aside in the interest of party and country. It was therefore a surprise this morning when the parliamentary caucus of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party unanimously declared support for Education Minister, Andrew Holness, to become the 9th Prime Minister of independent Jamaica.
It has been 72 hours since Prime Minister Bruce Golding shocked his party with news that he will be stepping aside as party leader, and subsequently Prime Minister, come November. After a failed attempt to convince Mr. Golding to change his mind, the JLP is now gearing it’s machinery towards a leadership race. The JLP chairman, Mike Henry, has indicated that the nomination process to fill the impending vacancy will remain open until late October. The question now is, who will be Jamaica’s 9th Prime Minister when the dust settles?
Prime Minister of Jamaica and Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, The Hon. Bruce Golding, has made known his intention to step down at the party’s November conference. In a statement to the party, Golding revealed that he will not seek re-election as JLP leader and will step down as PM once a new leader is chosen. Mr. Golding revealed that the challenges of the last four years have taken a toll on him and he considers it prudent to now step aside and pave the way for new leadership. While the news has stunned several sections of the society; one thing is clear, this is a political strategy at it’s best.
“God save our gracious Queen, Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen: Send her victorious, Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us: God save the Queen.” – Verse One of “God Save The Queen” – Jamaica’s Royal Anthem.
Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Supreme Defender of the Faith and Governor of the Church of England, Head of the Commonwealth and Queen of Jamaica.
That is the full title of the Head of State of Jamaica, Elizabeth of the House of Windsor. As I sat and wrote out the entire title, I couldn’t help but smirk. It appeared to me so pompous and convoluted, so far removed from Jamaica’s culture, values or attitudes; yet still this frail 83 year old British woman is Head of the State of Jamaica. Our Government is formed in her name (the executive power is vested in her, our parliament consists of her, a Senate and a House of Representatives), our laws are given assent through her representative and all high officials of our country are appointed by and through her. Wait, it gets better. Up until recently, our Prime Minister’s swore allegiance to her. The Most Hon. P.J. Patterson corrected this, and our PM’s now swear allegiance to the people of Jamaica. Thank you Mr. Patterson.
The Golding Administration last Tuesday tabled in the House of Representatives the report of the Emile George led Commission of Enquiry. Having enquired for some 40 days into the extradition saga which nearly brought down the ruling Labour party, the commissioners presented a report which has been condemned and rejected by the general citizenry. Indeed, the only groups which have accepted the report are the Government and the JLP.
I wish to highlight a few points from the report which I find puzzling.
The first and perhaps the most glaring travesty which jumps from the report presented, is that section which speaks to Prime Minister Golding’s involvement in the matter. The commissioners concede that Golding’s involvement was “inappropriate” and “imprudent”, but there is no comma; there is a full stop. In other words, that is the end of the matter. This cannot be acceptable.
The latest polls commissioned by RJR/TVJ and conducted by veteran pollster, Professor Ian Boxil, show Jamaica’s parliamentary opposition, the PNP, several percentage points ahead of the governing Labour party; and apparently poised to form the next government. As we reflect on the poll numbers we must question how well the PNP has performed in it’s present capacity as opposition and if they have proven themselves incompetent in opposing weak policies, can we trust them to propose strong ones should they form our government again?
From my perspective, the PNP has been an absolute failure at being a credible or even meaningful opposition. The first challenge the PNP has in adequately carrying out it’s present function is the slate of spokespersons. Omar Davies? Robert Pickersgill? Roger Clarke? Can we honestly say this slate of opposition spokespersons have been adequate? No. No, we cannot. With the exception of Lisa Hanna, Fenton Ferguson and Peter Bunting; who else do we know? This is excepting the old faces mentioned above. The PNP should be thankful for Dr. Peter Phillips. Though twice rejected by the delegates, he has been the most effective opposition parliamentarian to date. Is the Opposition Leader even aware of the fact that most of the gentlemen she has appointed to shadow the government are associated with some of the greatest failures of the Patterson administration and then eventually hers?
When Orette Bruce Golding took office as Jamaica’s 7th Prime Minister in September 2007, he declared himself “the chief servant” of the people. Four years into his administration and Mr. Golding has proven to this country that he is anything but a servant. My latest grouse with Mr. Golding comes in the wake of his troubling response to the dual citizenship saga.
Prominent MP’s on the government side have been removed from parliament by rulings of the Supreme Court, their legitimacy having been challenged by the Opposition PNP. As I watched Vaz, Stern, Robinson, Mair renounce their foreign citizenships and simply return to contest the by elections declared by the Prime Minister; I wondered to myself, why were these people allowed to be nominated in the first place? Was their no check to ascertain their compliance with the law? And isn’t it a weakness in the law that these people can violate the constitution and then simply return to parliament as if nothing happened? And further, isn’t it a disrespect to the people of Jamaica that their parties re-nominated them?
The recent resignation of Mr. Everald Warmington and the Prime Minister’s subsequent response is what has disturbed me the most. Mr. Golding, when pressed as to why it took so long for Warmington to resign declared that “They all couldn’t have resigned at the same time.” Now I understood this to mean that if all the “Strangers in the House” had resigned because they were in violation of the law, the government would have lost it’s majority in the House of Representatives and consequently the JLP Government would have collapsed.
Now while that is terribly unfortunate for Mr. Golding and his party, it cannot be acceptable that the Prime Minister of Jamaica, who took an oath to defend the constitution, basically said he ignored the supreme law of Jamaica to defend his party’s interests. This is unacceptable! Mr. Golding is in contempt of the people of Jamaica and indeed the constitution of this country! I cannot understand why there isn’t more agitation over Golding’s comments. Why do we in this country allow things to go away? Why doesn’t the media hold his feet to the fire? Why are Jamaicans so apathetic to our democracy and it’s processes?
The Prime Minister must be made to account for his comments! If it was found that these people were in violation of the law, the parliament should have been dissolved and fresh elections called. The law is the law. I don’t even know why I’m surprised. Mr. Golding demonstrated his willingness to ignore and override the constitution early on in his administration when he dismissed the Public Services Commission because they insisted on appointing Professor Vassianne as Solicitor General of Jamaica, as opposed to Douglas Leys (who ultimately brought that office into disrepute over his involement in the Manatt scandal). Utter and complete contempt! I will remain that voice in the wilderness crying out for change. This crop of parliamentarians must go! This government must go! They mean Jamaica little to no good! This cannot be the way they conduct the business of government. It cannot.
Finally, PNP MP Ronnie Thwaites has been seeking to have all parliamentarians declare their status as it relates to their citizenship status. Needless to say, less than half of them did so. One argument being that the objective shouldn’t be to name and shame those not in compliance with the law. This is a profound wrong! I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but the people of this country must hold Mr. Golding accountable for his contempt. He must subject himself and his party’s interests to the Constitution of Jamaica.
“If I have to pay a political price for it, I will.” – The Hon. Orette Bruce Golding, MP.
These words were spoken in the House of Representatives of Jamaica in response to questions posed by Opposition MP, Dr. Peter Phillips last year. They would prove themselves to be the most honest words spoken by the Jamaican Prime Minister to date in relation to the request for the extradition of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.
In the height of the extradition controversy, it was revealed by Dr. Phillips, bless his heart, that a certain U.S. law firm had been contacted to lobby the U.S. Government in relation to the extradition request. This would become a bitter scandal which would engulf the Government of Jamaica for some three months. There were mounting calls for the PM to resign and not long afterwards, calls could be heard for a Commission of Enquiry to be launched into the handling of the extradition request and to determine who contracted the U.S. law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.
True to his words and willing to pay the political price for Jamaica’s first and only President aka “Prezzi”, Mr. Golding named a Commission of Enquiry. The Commissioners were to be Emil George, (as chairman) Anthony Irons and Donald Scharschmidt.
The PNP’s chief legal counsel at the commission, KD Knight has been turning up the heat at the Jamaica Conference Centre and no doubt giving the PM and indeed the Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne ‘knight’mares. Mr. Knight has embarked on a ruthless quest to unearth the truth and so far has been a practical pittbull, tearing away at the web of lies and deception spun by senior members of the Golding administration.
The Justice Minister in particular must be nervous as hell, since all her supposed co-conspirators have directly contradicted her on some key points in relation to the extradition saga. Even more important and amusing even, is the fact that no one seems concerned with protecting anyone anymore, they are all trying to save themselves.
The Solicitor General, Douglas Leys; who owes his job to the Golding administration, has flat out rejected the Justice Minister’s comments in the Senate that she had first learnt of the law firm when Dr. Phillips brought the issue to parliament. Mr. Leys has argued that he told the Minister some three or four months before about some meetings he had in Washington with representatives of the law firm.
Ha. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when at first we set out to deceive.
It is wholly unacceptable that public officials in this country are allowed to lie to the Parliament with no consequence. KD Knight was censured in the Senate for calling the Justice Minister “stupid”, but I would echo his sentiments as she allowed her political affiliation to cloud her greater constitutional responsibility as the Attorney General of Jamaica. She allowed herself to be controlled and manipulated by the PM into protecting the ‘Prezzi’ of Tivoli Gardens. That, Honourable Minister, was indeed stupid and as K.D. rightly said “if it quacks like a duck, then it is a duck.” (Resist the urge to say the Minister is shaped like a duck, please.) The JLP supports have tried to throw cold water on the proceedings and to downplay the enormity of the damage done to the Labour party. They have even argued that KD Knight will be his usual “sexist” self when cross examining Ms. Lightbourne, but I submit that her being a woman has nothing to do with it. She ought to subject to the same level of scrutiny that the other witnessess have. She has been dishonest and proven herself wholly incompetent. I repeat, if it quacks like a duck, it is a duck.
Finally, I’d like to touch very briefly on these MOU’s which have been the subject of intense attention from the JLP’s lawyer Frank Phipps and others. Oh, and by the way, Frank Phipps, the attorney representing the JLP, is pure evil and a serious threat to the national security of Jamaica. His insistence that classified intelligence information be publicized is nothing short of treason.
But I digress.
As far as I understand, the MOU’s simply allow communication intercepted in Jamaica to be shared with foreign states. How is that a problem? The authority to tap the person’s phone would have been given by a judge of the Jamaican Supreme Court. We can safely assume that the judge would ensure that the tapping was justified and ensure it would be lawful. That is, it would not breach any inherent rights. So what really is the problem? The police would not need to request a wiretap if you are a lawful citizen, and if they did we must trust that the judge would not grant that request. I say the state need not consider the rights of criminals or even alleged criminals. Their rights must be trampled in the interest of the greater good. Yeah, I said it.
*shrugs*
The Enquiry will come to a climax when PM Golding & Justice Minister Lightbourne meet KD Knight. It promises to be a battle royale. We anxiously await that day. So many labourites must be having ‘knight’mares.
As Jamaica struggles with the lashing from rains associated with Tropical Storm Nicole, I cannot help but reflect on the colossal failure of successive governments to invest adequately in planning and development for this country. Natural disasters always seem to highlight the sad state of this country’s infrastructure. From collapsed bridges to houses being swept away by flood waters; the story across the length and breadth of this country is that the rain reigns.
PM Golding and his excuse for a Transport & Works Minister, Mike Henry, are reported to have done an aerial tour of the island to access the damage, but I have a serious problem with the fact that 48 years after independence Jamaica still has reactive governments, instead of governments that are proactive. Why do we wait until the shit hits the fan before we try to solve our problems? Why did it take two, yes two, years for construction to begin on that bridge in Harbour View? Why were people allowed to re mount houses along the banks of the notorious Hope River? Where were the Ministries of Planning? Works? Housing? Where were the authorities charged with regulating the proper use of our lands? NEPA? And why is it that every time it rains in Jamaica, it pours? Where is the drainage systems? Why are whole roads being ripped apart? When will our leaders realise that development has to be sustainable? When and where? What will it take?
The Minister of Works is quoted as saying it will take an estimated 100 million dollars to repair the damage done to sections of the corporate area, will this money be spent wisely? Will the materials be used adequate and sufficient to withstand, say another lashing by rains? Or God forbid, hurricane? While the earthquake which happened in Haiti in January is nothing short of a tragedy, has Jamaica learned nothing from this? Development must be sustainable, it must be able to shake and still stand, water must be able to run and our lives not be eroded. Will we learn this time around or will the rains continue to reign?
As Jamaica struggles with the lashing from rains associated with Tropical Storm Nicole, I cannot help but reflect on the colossal failure of successive governments to invest adequately in planning and development for this country. Natural disasters always seem to highlight the sad state of this country’s infrastructure. From collapsed bridges to houses being swept away by flood waters; the story across the length and breadth of this country is that the rain reigns.
