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PUBLIC AFFAIRS - Bruce astride two galloping horses
Published: Sunday | May 16, 2010 0 Comments and 3 Reactions
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A.J. Nicholson, Contributor
It was an unflattering display on the part of Jamaica's leader of government in Gordon House last Tuesday evening. Of course, he had resolutely placed himself in a thoroughly awkward position - certainly in matters of extradition - astride two horses at the same time, that of party leader and that of prime minister. The ultimate challenge in such a misguided adventure is attempting to dismount from either horse, particularly if they are galloping in opposite directions.
It must surely be enormously heart-rending for the prime minister to hear the most stinging of the multitude of calls for him to relinquish his position come from the National Democratic Movement (NDM), the political party that he founded, and which he later moved to decimate. According to the NDM, the recent posture of the prime minister has "compromised the integrity of the Government and (he has) deceived the people of Jamaica". These are cutting and crushing words, directed at any leader of government, in any place, at any time, and it is a statement which might have been referred to by the celebrated William Shakespeare, as he did in his Julius Caesar, as "the most unkindest cut of all".
In 1995, when Mr Golding embarked upon his Damascus-road journey from 'his political home', the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), where he was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, to build a new and different house, the NDM, several persons were of the view that the move was laced with opportunism. Ten years later, the prodigal returned to his home and, now, the shout comes from the house that he had built: He has deceived the people of Jamaica!
Lest we forget, it was also deep differences between him and an erstwhile colleague in the new and different house, Professor Stephen Vasciannie, which, very early in the life of the present administration, laid bare the new prime minister's selective approach to the application of the rule of law and adherence to the dictates of the Constitution. The prime minister of an already politically polarised Jamaica was prepared to take his peeve even beyond the hallowed portals of King's House in his attempt to circumvent the constitutional role of the Public Service Commission.
Lurking dangers
The people of Jamaica and Mr Golding were warned of the lurking dangers of such a course of action, but the prime minister continued headlong to use the awesome powers conferred on him by the Constitu-tion to serve the ends of satisfying a personal political vexation. Between that action and "I sanctioned it" - speaking last Tuesday in the House named for a National hero - there has been a free fall into the quagmire of mixing up the roles of political party leader and head of government.
I continue to assert that there is confusion in the present government surrounding those two roles, a confusion that has sprung from the view espoused by Golding in his Paulean sojourn in the NDM: that Jamaica would be best served by the executive presidential system, such as exists in the United States. In that kind of governance arrangement, the lines between the political party and the executive allow for the placement of officials within the public service who are known as 'the president's men'. That was the idea that apologists for the prime minister, who supported his manoeuvrings in the Vasciannie episode, wished him to import into filling positions in the public service with individuals "with whom the political executive could work comfortably".
The straddling of the political party horse and that of leader of goverment urged the leader of the Opposition, and several other persons with significant experience in the field of governance, including former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, to warn Golding of the imprudence of embarking on that course of action. The leader of the Opposition has now been led to issue a statement: "The prime minister's admission that he sanctioned a scheme to circumvent the role of the Government of Jamaica to resolve a treaty dispute with the Government of the United States of America and normal diplomatic channels has brought the Government into disrepute."
Wounded leader
"From any perspective," the Opposition leader continued, "the prime minister's behaviour is out of step with the norms of prime ministerial behaviour and decorum in general, and the Westminster system, in particular." The mechanisms embedded in the Westminster system of government do not, and cannot, accommodate the rules that the present prime minister has sought to engraft upon it. And, if that is attempted, the foundations will be disturbed, leading to the situation in which we now find ourselves: with a wounded leader, a wounded government, a wounded country.
Speaker Delroy Chuck, we appreciate, is a high-ranking member of the governing JLP, and would, of course be embarrassed by the happenings of the recent past, and continuing. We commiserate with him; but he, too, must come to understand the difference that ought to be apparent in the attitude and principles that he brings to bear on his twin roles. It is not going to be easy for the people of Jamaica to forget his performance in Gordon House on Tuesday last, when he sought to 'protect' his party leader and prime minister from answering questions posed to him - answers which would help to ease the burden that rests on the public conscience concerning a matter that has brought such severe discomfort to the lives of all Jamaicans at home and abroad.
The Speaker must understand and internalise on the indisputable fact that what was sanctioned by Golding, in whatever capacity, has brought real hurt to the people of Jamaica and has deeply sullied Jamaica's name within the community of nations. Finally, confessing that "I sanctioned it" is by no means the end of the matter; it is what it has caused that has created the greater damage.
The Speaker of Jamaica's House of Representatives must come to appreciate that what will rest on the mind of the potential investor in Sydney, Madrid or Montreal, upon reading or being told about this sordid affair, is that the call for the resignation of Jamaica's leader of [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]government[/COLOR][/COLOR] had its genesis in a request made under an extradition treaty for the surrender of an influential party member accused of being involved in the trans-national narcotics trade and gunrunning.
Speaker Chuck is also a seasoned attorney and student of the law. The prime minister's say-so that the scheme involved only persons within the JLP and that this was purely a party political initiative has to be tested, in light of his performance to date. So, I invite the Speaker to consider the following 'facts' as stated by the JLP and the Government. The solicitor general, Douglas Leys, states that he was approached by Brady to engage the services of the law firm in Washington, DC, months before the now fortuitous, now planned December plane ride.
There is email interchange between the solicitor general and others at an address that he says was given to him by Brady. Those others turned out to be the law firm itself. The incisive question asked by Dr Omar Davies as to whether the contents of those emails will be made public goes to the core of whether "that is the end of the matter", concerning Golding's veracity. A contract is entered into with the law firm and signed by Brady as being authorised by the Government of Jamaica as consultant to the Government of Jamaica.
Rationalise the role
The initiative had been sanctioned by Golding, albeit, as he now says, riding the party horse. If so, it surely must take a giant leap to rationalise the role and involvement of the solicitor general, to the extent that he is meeting with members of the law firm and inviting them to meetings which they could not have attended if they had not been contracted to represent the Government of Jamaica, as indicated in documents already filed by the law firm.
Significantly, the matter of the Government entering into contracts of this nature falls within the duties of the solicitor general.
It is surely an uncanny quirk of fate that the filling of the position of solicitor general for which the prime minister sought first to flex his political muscles, has now become the very position that provides the strongest link between party concerns and Government activity. So, the Speaker would now appreciate that there is still a mountain to climb to convince the public that these are purely party matters; they also touch the well-being and peace of mind of members of the public, in all strata of the society.
There is an abundance of lessons that are eternal, and we should remind ourselves. In sticking to the rules, which we must, the human experience dictates that mistakes will be made. When an error is discovered, own up post-haste and, if an apology is required, tender it forthwith. Any other route leads to disaster, certainly where that route is sought to be taken over time in the face of warnings and advice coming from persons who should know.
The prime minister chose to abandon those lessons and chose to proceed along that other route, astride those two galloping horses: the party horse and the leader of government horse. The trick is: how does he dismount?
This, surely, is 'Bruce-on-the-loose'.
A.J. Nicholson is opposition spokesman on justice. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.
Published: Sunday | May 16, 2010 0 Comments and 3 Reactions
Leys
1 2 >
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A.J. Nicholson, Contributor
It was an unflattering display on the part of Jamaica's leader of government in Gordon House last Tuesday evening. Of course, he had resolutely placed himself in a thoroughly awkward position - certainly in matters of extradition - astride two horses at the same time, that of party leader and that of prime minister. The ultimate challenge in such a misguided adventure is attempting to dismount from either horse, particularly if they are galloping in opposite directions.
It must surely be enormously heart-rending for the prime minister to hear the most stinging of the multitude of calls for him to relinquish his position come from the National Democratic Movement (NDM), the political party that he founded, and which he later moved to decimate. According to the NDM, the recent posture of the prime minister has "compromised the integrity of the Government and (he has) deceived the people of Jamaica". These are cutting and crushing words, directed at any leader of government, in any place, at any time, and it is a statement which might have been referred to by the celebrated William Shakespeare, as he did in his Julius Caesar, as "the most unkindest cut of all".
In 1995, when Mr Golding embarked upon his Damascus-road journey from 'his political home', the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), where he was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, to build a new and different house, the NDM, several persons were of the view that the move was laced with opportunism. Ten years later, the prodigal returned to his home and, now, the shout comes from the house that he had built: He has deceived the people of Jamaica!
Lest we forget, it was also deep differences between him and an erstwhile colleague in the new and different house, Professor Stephen Vasciannie, which, very early in the life of the present administration, laid bare the new prime minister's selective approach to the application of the rule of law and adherence to the dictates of the Constitution. The prime minister of an already politically polarised Jamaica was prepared to take his peeve even beyond the hallowed portals of King's House in his attempt to circumvent the constitutional role of the Public Service Commission.
Lurking dangers
The people of Jamaica and Mr Golding were warned of the lurking dangers of such a course of action, but the prime minister continued headlong to use the awesome powers conferred on him by the Constitu-tion to serve the ends of satisfying a personal political vexation. Between that action and "I sanctioned it" - speaking last Tuesday in the House named for a National hero - there has been a free fall into the quagmire of mixing up the roles of political party leader and head of government.
I continue to assert that there is confusion in the present government surrounding those two roles, a confusion that has sprung from the view espoused by Golding in his Paulean sojourn in the NDM: that Jamaica would be best served by the executive presidential system, such as exists in the United States. In that kind of governance arrangement, the lines between the political party and the executive allow for the placement of officials within the public service who are known as 'the president's men'. That was the idea that apologists for the prime minister, who supported his manoeuvrings in the Vasciannie episode, wished him to import into filling positions in the public service with individuals "with whom the political executive could work comfortably".
The straddling of the political party horse and that of leader of goverment urged the leader of the Opposition, and several other persons with significant experience in the field of governance, including former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, to warn Golding of the imprudence of embarking on that course of action. The leader of the Opposition has now been led to issue a statement: "The prime minister's admission that he sanctioned a scheme to circumvent the role of the Government of Jamaica to resolve a treaty dispute with the Government of the United States of America and normal diplomatic channels has brought the Government into disrepute."
Wounded leader
"From any perspective," the Opposition leader continued, "the prime minister's behaviour is out of step with the norms of prime ministerial behaviour and decorum in general, and the Westminster system, in particular." The mechanisms embedded in the Westminster system of government do not, and cannot, accommodate the rules that the present prime minister has sought to engraft upon it. And, if that is attempted, the foundations will be disturbed, leading to the situation in which we now find ourselves: with a wounded leader, a wounded government, a wounded country.
Speaker Delroy Chuck, we appreciate, is a high-ranking member of the governing JLP, and would, of course be embarrassed by the happenings of the recent past, and continuing. We commiserate with him; but he, too, must come to understand the difference that ought to be apparent in the attitude and principles that he brings to bear on his twin roles. It is not going to be easy for the people of Jamaica to forget his performance in Gordon House on Tuesday last, when he sought to 'protect' his party leader and prime minister from answering questions posed to him - answers which would help to ease the burden that rests on the public conscience concerning a matter that has brought such severe discomfort to the lives of all Jamaicans at home and abroad.
The Speaker must understand and internalise on the indisputable fact that what was sanctioned by Golding, in whatever capacity, has brought real hurt to the people of Jamaica and has deeply sullied Jamaica's name within the community of nations. Finally, confessing that "I sanctioned it" is by no means the end of the matter; it is what it has caused that has created the greater damage.
The Speaker of Jamaica's House of Representatives must come to appreciate that what will rest on the mind of the potential investor in Sydney, Madrid or Montreal, upon reading or being told about this sordid affair, is that the call for the resignation of Jamaica's leader of [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]government[/COLOR][/COLOR] had its genesis in a request made under an extradition treaty for the surrender of an influential party member accused of being involved in the trans-national narcotics trade and gunrunning.
Speaker Chuck is also a seasoned attorney and student of the law. The prime minister's say-so that the scheme involved only persons within the JLP and that this was purely a party political initiative has to be tested, in light of his performance to date. So, I invite the Speaker to consider the following 'facts' as stated by the JLP and the Government. The solicitor general, Douglas Leys, states that he was approached by Brady to engage the services of the law firm in Washington, DC, months before the now fortuitous, now planned December plane ride.
There is email interchange between the solicitor general and others at an address that he says was given to him by Brady. Those others turned out to be the law firm itself. The incisive question asked by Dr Omar Davies as to whether the contents of those emails will be made public goes to the core of whether "that is the end of the matter", concerning Golding's veracity. A contract is entered into with the law firm and signed by Brady as being authorised by the Government of Jamaica as consultant to the Government of Jamaica.
Rationalise the role
The initiative had been sanctioned by Golding, albeit, as he now says, riding the party horse. If so, it surely must take a giant leap to rationalise the role and involvement of the solicitor general, to the extent that he is meeting with members of the law firm and inviting them to meetings which they could not have attended if they had not been contracted to represent the Government of Jamaica, as indicated in documents already filed by the law firm.
Significantly, the matter of the Government entering into contracts of this nature falls within the duties of the solicitor general.
It is surely an uncanny quirk of fate that the filling of the position of solicitor general for which the prime minister sought first to flex his political muscles, has now become the very position that provides the strongest link between party concerns and Government activity. So, the Speaker would now appreciate that there is still a mountain to climb to convince the public that these are purely party matters; they also touch the well-being and peace of mind of members of the public, in all strata of the society.
There is an abundance of lessons that are eternal, and we should remind ourselves. In sticking to the rules, which we must, the human experience dictates that mistakes will be made. When an error is discovered, own up post-haste and, if an apology is required, tender it forthwith. Any other route leads to disaster, certainly where that route is sought to be taken over time in the face of warnings and advice coming from persons who should know.
The prime minister chose to abandon those lessons and chose to proceed along that other route, astride those two galloping horses: the party horse and the leader of government horse. The trick is: how does he dismount?
This, surely, is 'Bruce-on-the-loose'.
A.J. Nicholson is opposition spokesman on justice. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.
