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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Portia's crucial decision</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline>Analysis</SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Rickey Singh
Sunday, October 15, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>THE stunning leak to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) of a bank account with money from a foreign corporation for the ruling People's National Party has created a major problem for three sources currently commanding wide attention at home and abroad in this Caribbean Community partner state.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=70 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Rickey Singh</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>They are: Jamaica's banking sector, specifically FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB) - from where the leak occured; the seven-month-old administration of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller; and the Dutch oil and commodities trading enterprise, Trafigura Beheer, donor of the exposed fund for the governing PNP, some $31 million (US$467,000).<P class=StoryText align=justify>In this troubling scenario, a question of immediate relevance is whether the populist Simpson Miller, a political tactician not to be underestimated, will proceed with plans for a snap pre-Christmas general election, as was widely expected before the so-called "Trafigura bombshell".<P class=StoryText align=justify>From my own distance, I am persuaded that she could well rethink her strategy and move to gain some needed space for clearing up, as best she can, the messy "Trafigura affair" in time for a post-Cricket World Cup election in 2007.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It may be political bravado, but the tough "road-runner" of Jamaican politics has already warned, as of last week, that while the JLP feels it has a "good thing" going in its cry of "corruption" in the Trafigura funding exposure, its "go-get-them" campaign could come to haunt that party, while her PNP stays the course for a fifth consecutive term in government. The coming weeks may provide better signals on the issue of a new election.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In contrast, Bruce Golding is boasting of "victory at hand", urging his followers not to "drop the ball" now that the Trafigura scandal has placed the JLP, he feels, in a firm position to win the next election. Bravado on his part as well?<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=360 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>PNP chairman Robert Pickersgill (left) and then general-secretary Colin Campbell at a news conference called by the party to address the Trafigura affair. </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>What is already known is that since Golding merrily went public with his disclosure on October 3 of the leaked information - a violation of the provisions of the country's Banking Act - damage control has been the name of the game for both Trafigura and the PNP.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Already suffering from more than a tarnished reputation in the United Nations "oil-for-food" scandal, Trafigura, a major business partner of the state-owned Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), hurriedly went on the defensive, explaining that its $31 million was not a "donation" to the PNP's election campaign.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Rather, it was payment for "a commercial agreement". An "agreement" with a party, government or individual? Questions that remain unanswered include those raised by the watchdog group Jamaicans For Justice.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Under existing regulations of
<SPAN class=Subheadline>Analysis</SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Rickey Singh
Sunday, October 15, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>THE stunning leak to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) of a bank account with money from a foreign corporation for the ruling People's National Party has created a major problem for three sources currently commanding wide attention at home and abroad in this Caribbean Community partner state.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=70 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Rickey Singh</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>They are: Jamaica's banking sector, specifically FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB) - from where the leak occured; the seven-month-old administration of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller; and the Dutch oil and commodities trading enterprise, Trafigura Beheer, donor of the exposed fund for the governing PNP, some $31 million (US$467,000).<P class=StoryText align=justify>In this troubling scenario, a question of immediate relevance is whether the populist Simpson Miller, a political tactician not to be underestimated, will proceed with plans for a snap pre-Christmas general election, as was widely expected before the so-called "Trafigura bombshell".<P class=StoryText align=justify>From my own distance, I am persuaded that she could well rethink her strategy and move to gain some needed space for clearing up, as best she can, the messy "Trafigura affair" in time for a post-Cricket World Cup election in 2007.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It may be political bravado, but the tough "road-runner" of Jamaican politics has already warned, as of last week, that while the JLP feels it has a "good thing" going in its cry of "corruption" in the Trafigura funding exposure, its "go-get-them" campaign could come to haunt that party, while her PNP stays the course for a fifth consecutive term in government. The coming weeks may provide better signals on the issue of a new election.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In contrast, Bruce Golding is boasting of "victory at hand", urging his followers not to "drop the ball" now that the Trafigura scandal has placed the JLP, he feels, in a firm position to win the next election. Bravado on his part as well?<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=360 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>PNP chairman Robert Pickersgill (left) and then general-secretary Colin Campbell at a news conference called by the party to address the Trafigura affair. </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>What is already known is that since Golding merrily went public with his disclosure on October 3 of the leaked information - a violation of the provisions of the country's Banking Act - damage control has been the name of the game for both Trafigura and the PNP.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Already suffering from more than a tarnished reputation in the United Nations "oil-for-food" scandal, Trafigura, a major business partner of the state-owned Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), hurriedly went on the defensive, explaining that its $31 million was not a "donation" to the PNP's election campaign.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Rather, it was payment for "a commercial agreement". An "agreement" with a party, government or individual? Questions that remain unanswered include those raised by the watchdog group Jamaicans For Justice.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Under existing regulations of