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A fantasy of monumental proportions
Star Commentary
You know, for a while I really thought Bruce Golding was going to change Jamaica for the better. I really did.
After 18 years of ineptitude and corruption from the People's National Party (PNP), I really believed that things could have only got better if Golding was given a chance to back up his statements concerning bringing about meaningful change in a country that was desperately in need.
starving man
I have seen now that this was a fantasy of monumental proportions. It has now become clear that after 18 years of PNP abuse I was willing to accept anyone else as an option. Any meal, no matter how badly cooked, looks great to a starving man.
And Bruce looked good. He promised all the things people wanted to hear and easily out-duelled Portia in a nationally televised debate that pretty much told free-thinking people that it was time for the PNP to go. However, now that we have started to sample this meal that the JLP has on the stove, we are discovering how awful it tastes.
Prime Minister Golding this week basically told all of Jamaica that he misled the people of this country while looking out for the interests of one man. Well, he didn't say exactly that, but that is what it amounts to.
When this situation was first brought up by Dr Peter Phillips in March, the prime minister immediately went on the offensive. With a heavy dose of contrived arrogance, the prime minister accused Dr Phillips of having ulterior motives for asking if he (Golding) knew anything about the law firm Mannatt, Phelps & Phillips being contracted by the Jamaica Labour Party)/Government of Jamaica to lobby the US Government to help bring about a favourable outcome to the US request to have Christopher Coke extradited to that country to face serious drug and weapons charges. I actually believed that he knew nothing and that it was an independent clique within the party that had undertaken this venture without the prime minister's knowledge.
audacity
Golding denied and denied and the party issued lie after lie after lie until earlier this week when the prime minister, under increasing pressure from all sides, admitted that not only was he aware of the dealings with the US law firm, he jolly well sanctioned it. Then to make matters worse, he had the audacity, the gall to suggest that the firm was contracted on behalf of the JLP and not the Govern-ment of Jamaica.
Is a political party allowed to negotiate international treaties between governments? Come on, Bruce, what do you take us for, fools?
Turn back the clock four years and you would have heard this same man argue quite eloquently in the House that the PNP, who were then in the middle of their own scandal - Trafigura - should not be able to argue that Colin Campbell accepted money from the Dutch company as a member of the party and not the Govern-ment of Jamaica.
Does Golding not realise that his words were recorded and documented and people can look back by the click of a button? Does he suffer from some strange Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde syndrome that makes him forget things he says and does in the past?
Campbell back then at least had the dignity to resign as a result of the scandal that significantly pales in comparison to this mess. Golding should take his cue from him and not only step down but also call elections because neither he nor his party can be trusted. The only thing is: who do we vote for?
The PNP is still the same beast we voted out three years ago and God knows we really don't want them back now. The NDM is not an option. Even if they were, they are not ready for this. Not now.
black dog fe monkey
So what do we do? I say new elections even though that would be like 'swapping black dog fe monkey' and then swapping back again.
For years I have said in this space and elsewhere that political parties and the criminal element in this country were in bed together.
It is the worst-kept secret in Jamaica. Bruce Golding and the JLP need to go if only because they brought this secret out in the open about politicians being in bed with alleged criminal elements, as well as the other ugly accompanying truth. The criminal elements are on top.
Shearer39@gmail.com
Star Commentary
You know, for a while I really thought Bruce Golding was going to change Jamaica for the better. I really did.
After 18 years of ineptitude and corruption from the People's National Party (PNP), I really believed that things could have only got better if Golding was given a chance to back up his statements concerning bringing about meaningful change in a country that was desperately in need.
starving man
I have seen now that this was a fantasy of monumental proportions. It has now become clear that after 18 years of PNP abuse I was willing to accept anyone else as an option. Any meal, no matter how badly cooked, looks great to a starving man.
And Bruce looked good. He promised all the things people wanted to hear and easily out-duelled Portia in a nationally televised debate that pretty much told free-thinking people that it was time for the PNP to go. However, now that we have started to sample this meal that the JLP has on the stove, we are discovering how awful it tastes.
Prime Minister Golding this week basically told all of Jamaica that he misled the people of this country while looking out for the interests of one man. Well, he didn't say exactly that, but that is what it amounts to.
When this situation was first brought up by Dr Peter Phillips in March, the prime minister immediately went on the offensive. With a heavy dose of contrived arrogance, the prime minister accused Dr Phillips of having ulterior motives for asking if he (Golding) knew anything about the law firm Mannatt, Phelps & Phillips being contracted by the Jamaica Labour Party)/Government of Jamaica to lobby the US Government to help bring about a favourable outcome to the US request to have Christopher Coke extradited to that country to face serious drug and weapons charges. I actually believed that he knew nothing and that it was an independent clique within the party that had undertaken this venture without the prime minister's knowledge.
audacity
Golding denied and denied and the party issued lie after lie after lie until earlier this week when the prime minister, under increasing pressure from all sides, admitted that not only was he aware of the dealings with the US law firm, he jolly well sanctioned it. Then to make matters worse, he had the audacity, the gall to suggest that the firm was contracted on behalf of the JLP and not the Govern-ment of Jamaica.
Is a political party allowed to negotiate international treaties between governments? Come on, Bruce, what do you take us for, fools?
Turn back the clock four years and you would have heard this same man argue quite eloquently in the House that the PNP, who were then in the middle of their own scandal - Trafigura - should not be able to argue that Colin Campbell accepted money from the Dutch company as a member of the party and not the Govern-ment of Jamaica.
Does Golding not realise that his words were recorded and documented and people can look back by the click of a button? Does he suffer from some strange Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde syndrome that makes him forget things he says and does in the past?
Campbell back then at least had the dignity to resign as a result of the scandal that significantly pales in comparison to this mess. Golding should take his cue from him and not only step down but also call elections because neither he nor his party can be trusted. The only thing is: who do we vote for?
The PNP is still the same beast we voted out three years ago and God knows we really don't want them back now. The NDM is not an option. Even if they were, they are not ready for this. Not now.
black dog fe monkey
So what do we do? I say new elections even though that would be like 'swapping black dog fe monkey' and then swapping back again.
For years I have said in this space and elsewhere that political parties and the criminal element in this country were in bed together.
It is the worst-kept secret in Jamaica. Bruce Golding and the JLP need to go if only because they brought this secret out in the open about politicians being in bed with alleged criminal elements, as well as the other ugly accompanying truth. The criminal elements are on top.
Shearer39@gmail.com
