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EDITORIAL - Trust demands more than fine words
Published: Friday | May 14, 2010
It is unlikely to have escaped the attention of the leadership of the People's National Party (PNP) that, despite the deepening anger and disaffection with the Golding administration, Jamaicans are not flocking to the Opposition.
That has to do, the PNP should know, with the matter of trust. Or, more correctly, the lack thereof.
In other words, Jamaicans feel that there is an absence of credible choice and are being driven to the conclusion that there is a vile pox on both political houses. Which is why the PNP has to go beyond the fine sentiments expressed by the party's general secretary, Peter Bunting, in his parliamentary speech on Wednesday, to demonstrably clear action.
Mr Bunting's party's last stint in government was for 18 years. By the time it was prised out of government in September 2007, the PNP was not only deemed to have grown lazy and ineffectual, but was considered to have grown deeply corrupt. It, for the most part, many people felt, lacked the moral authority to seriously tackle Jamaica's most grievous problems, including criminal violence and its handmaiden, garrison politics.
New, moral approach
Mr Golding and his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) promised a new, moral approach to politics and governance. Unfortunately, the prime minister, up to now, has been a let-down, exemplified by his handling of the Christopher 'Dudus' Coke extradition affair, about which he, in our view, knowingly misled the country.
The Americans accuse Mr Coke, one of Mr Golding's constituents and a strong JLP supporter, of being a drug kingpin who smuggled cocaine into their country and guns from the US to Jamaica. They would like to try Mr Coke for these offences, but our Government refuses to hand him over on the claim that the evidence used by the Americans in their extradition request was illegally obtained. Instead, our Government would like, if it gets its hands on him, to jail the policeman who transferred the information.
Moreover, after weeks of waffling and feigned ignorance on the matter, Mr Golding has now admitted that he sanctioned the hiring of lobbyists to help smooth the dispute with the Government, but says he did so in his role as leader of the JLP and not as prime minister.
Merely talk
Not surprisingly, trust for Mr Golding and his party has plummeted. There is a sense that nothing in Jamaica has changed; that Mr Golding's talk about ending corruption and garrison politics was merely that: talk.
In that regard, Mr Bunting, who is also the PNP shadow security minister, made an important statement in Parliament this week.
He said: "The People's National Party categorically repudiates and disassociates itself from all and any alliance, dependency, or common cause with organised crime and the gang culture, which are together responsible for the vast majority of our murders. This is the cause for which we are prepared to expend political capital."
He reminded, too, of the party's recent formation of an Integrity Commission with the aim of hold(ing) "ourselves to a higher standard than provided by the established laws of the state".
Those are good words that have been heard before. If the PNP really wishes to win people's confidence, it must purge the party of the corrupt and hard men of violence and remove the ramparts, physical and psychological, from the garrisons.
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