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Never again, Mr Prime Minister, never again
Monday, May 24, 2010
var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
NEVER again must our prime minister operate with wanton disregard for the truth, or violate and betray the trust reposed in him or in his office. Never again must he or his ministers, deliberately or arrogantly, mislead the country's highest court (Parliament) or treat members of the media and fellow citizens with such disdain as his colleague ministers Ken Baugh and Karl Samuda did last Sunday at that Jamaica Labour Party's press conference in Ocho Rios.
Never again must he, or his colleagues, bring Jamaica's name into disrepute and then wager bets on the presumption that Jamaicans will accept erudite elocution --however hollow or hypocritical -- in lieu of responsibility.
GOLDING... should have resigned
GOLDING... should have resigned
1/1 
Never again must our prime minister act in a manner so giddily contradictory to the conventions of the rule of law and then hide behind parliamentary orders to dodge questions from the parliamentary Opposition.
Never again must our prime minister defend a politically poisoned position because it is expedient, but which could be detrimental to Jamaica. These are serious transgressions. Ironically, Mr Golding mentioned "impeachment" as part of a slew of constitutional reforms he intends to bring to Parliament. Yet, he did not provide elucidation during his national broadcast. In that address, he spoke with expert innocence and heavy conviction. Hopefully, he was convinced and convicted by his own rhetoric and got one thing clear: that he must practise a new style of leadership and politics, for Jamaica's sake.
The prime minister must now subscribe to a new political Magna Carta, one that eschews the kind of executive hanky-panky that marred the sanctioning of the deal with Manatt, Phelps and Phillips and the lousy attempts thereafter at obfuscation. For in no decent democracy would a leader who so flagrantly abused the people's trust be allowed to continue as prime minister; irrespective of party support. Equally true, no self-respecting people should excuse these kinds of transgressions without first creating and cementing a new paradigm of leadership by which their leaders must abide.
I support impeachment initiatives, but feel very strongly that involvement in the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips affair qualifies as an impeachable offence. Any prime minister who behaves with such manifest contempt and disrespect for the Parliament and people cannot pass the fit and proper test of leadership and should recuse himself. So, shouldn't he have pre-empted his own proposals by resigning after the broadcast? And while some have accepted the prime minister's apology and for various reasons, substantially more remain indignant with Mr Golding because they find his actions and utterances so despicable that they cannot, in good conscience, accept his atonement for the terrible wrong that has been done to Jamaica.
To them, the government's involvement in this saga reminds them of the man who endears himself to, and ultimately wins the confidence of his neighbours, but who on several occasions, while playing Ring-a-ring-a-roses, a pocket full of posies with the neighbour's kids, purposefully violates one of the neighbour's daughter's innocence. Yet denies it every chance he gets and fesses up only after being caught. So, to this group of aggrieved Jamaicans, Mr Golding's Monday night apology was emblematic of convenient earnestness, and came only because he was caught "red-handed".
Unfortunately, Mr Golding has successfully managed to create an environment where a large bloc of citizens cannot and will not take him at his word anymore. Popular sentiments are as uncomplimentary, as they are pointed. Some people feel so betrayed and untrusting of the prime minister that if he tells them to run, they'd walk. Mr Prime Minister, it would not take a rocket scientist to figure out the pervasive feeling of untenability that hangs over the rest of your term as prime minister. Sir, it is for this reason, and more, that like hundreds of thousands of sceptical Jamaicans, I was unpersuaded by your Monday night apology, and continue to believe you should have tendered your resignation.
Up to now, despite several statements, a pre-apology press conference, and the nationally televised broadcast, we are no wiser as to the truth and special circumstances surrounding the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips issue. And although the extradition request has been signed and the accused is "supposedly" been sought by the police, we are still trying to ferret out the truth in this nasty national thriller that has done great harm to our country. We are yet to hear from Mr Golding, which of his compañeros will pay for this mother of all scandals. The stench of the diplomatic opprobrium associated with this deal is unbearable, so too are sightings of it in the international press. The prime minister must, without hesitation, lay bare the truth --the whole truth and nothing but the truth -- if he intends to resuscitate his credibility and authority.
As citizens, we cannot allow this matter to die like "Sammy mouth". We deserve better from our prime minister. For, if as the minister of information and JLP deputy treasurer, Daryl Vaz, loudly proclaimed that he knows his boss well enough to say that for Bruce Golding it is his party that comes first; then it is fair game to dismiss Golding's pre-apology involvement in the extradition matter and his sanctioning of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips to assist, as purely politically partisan. It is now clear that Golding's insistence that the US would violate Christopher "Dudus" Coke's human rights by insisting that the Jamaican government acquiesce to its request for Coke's extradition because of illegally obtained evidence was perhaps driven by selfishness, and not as an act of altruism as Golding insisted upon. The bigger question that must be answered, however, is why the sudden 360-degree turn on Dudus' extradition by Mr Golding.
Finally, inasmuch as I could give Mr Golding the benefit of the doubt, my disinclination to do so is exceeded by fears that his apology was the offspring of plain unadulterated political expediency and nothing more. Thematically, there are too many disconcerting similarities between his apology and the schemes of Niccolo Machiavelli in Chapter 18 of the novel The Prince. As Machiavelli opined, and I agree, a prince does not have all good qualities. He just needs to appear to have them; so he can deceive and because men generally judge by the eyes; pretence can be sold as a noble deed. Therefore, I cannot buy the prime minister's apology as a genuine and noble deed, not until he resigns.
Burnscg@aol.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...-again_7632438
Monday, May 24, 2010var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
NEVER again must our prime minister operate with wanton disregard for the truth, or violate and betray the trust reposed in him or in his office. Never again must he or his ministers, deliberately or arrogantly, mislead the country's highest court (Parliament) or treat members of the media and fellow citizens with such disdain as his colleague ministers Ken Baugh and Karl Samuda did last Sunday at that Jamaica Labour Party's press conference in Ocho Rios.
Never again must he, or his colleagues, bring Jamaica's name into disrepute and then wager bets on the presumption that Jamaicans will accept erudite elocution --however hollow or hypocritical -- in lieu of responsibility.
GOLDING... should have resigned
GOLDING... should have resigned 1/1 Never again must our prime minister defend a politically poisoned position because it is expedient, but which could be detrimental to Jamaica. These are serious transgressions. Ironically, Mr Golding mentioned "impeachment" as part of a slew of constitutional reforms he intends to bring to Parliament. Yet, he did not provide elucidation during his national broadcast. In that address, he spoke with expert innocence and heavy conviction. Hopefully, he was convinced and convicted by his own rhetoric and got one thing clear: that he must practise a new style of leadership and politics, for Jamaica's sake.
The prime minister must now subscribe to a new political Magna Carta, one that eschews the kind of executive hanky-panky that marred the sanctioning of the deal with Manatt, Phelps and Phillips and the lousy attempts thereafter at obfuscation. For in no decent democracy would a leader who so flagrantly abused the people's trust be allowed to continue as prime minister; irrespective of party support. Equally true, no self-respecting people should excuse these kinds of transgressions without first creating and cementing a new paradigm of leadership by which their leaders must abide.
I support impeachment initiatives, but feel very strongly that involvement in the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips affair qualifies as an impeachable offence. Any prime minister who behaves with such manifest contempt and disrespect for the Parliament and people cannot pass the fit and proper test of leadership and should recuse himself. So, shouldn't he have pre-empted his own proposals by resigning after the broadcast? And while some have accepted the prime minister's apology and for various reasons, substantially more remain indignant with Mr Golding because they find his actions and utterances so despicable that they cannot, in good conscience, accept his atonement for the terrible wrong that has been done to Jamaica.
To them, the government's involvement in this saga reminds them of the man who endears himself to, and ultimately wins the confidence of his neighbours, but who on several occasions, while playing Ring-a-ring-a-roses, a pocket full of posies with the neighbour's kids, purposefully violates one of the neighbour's daughter's innocence. Yet denies it every chance he gets and fesses up only after being caught. So, to this group of aggrieved Jamaicans, Mr Golding's Monday night apology was emblematic of convenient earnestness, and came only because he was caught "red-handed".
Unfortunately, Mr Golding has successfully managed to create an environment where a large bloc of citizens cannot and will not take him at his word anymore. Popular sentiments are as uncomplimentary, as they are pointed. Some people feel so betrayed and untrusting of the prime minister that if he tells them to run, they'd walk. Mr Prime Minister, it would not take a rocket scientist to figure out the pervasive feeling of untenability that hangs over the rest of your term as prime minister. Sir, it is for this reason, and more, that like hundreds of thousands of sceptical Jamaicans, I was unpersuaded by your Monday night apology, and continue to believe you should have tendered your resignation.
Up to now, despite several statements, a pre-apology press conference, and the nationally televised broadcast, we are no wiser as to the truth and special circumstances surrounding the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips issue. And although the extradition request has been signed and the accused is "supposedly" been sought by the police, we are still trying to ferret out the truth in this nasty national thriller that has done great harm to our country. We are yet to hear from Mr Golding, which of his compañeros will pay for this mother of all scandals. The stench of the diplomatic opprobrium associated with this deal is unbearable, so too are sightings of it in the international press. The prime minister must, without hesitation, lay bare the truth --the whole truth and nothing but the truth -- if he intends to resuscitate his credibility and authority.
As citizens, we cannot allow this matter to die like "Sammy mouth". We deserve better from our prime minister. For, if as the minister of information and JLP deputy treasurer, Daryl Vaz, loudly proclaimed that he knows his boss well enough to say that for Bruce Golding it is his party that comes first; then it is fair game to dismiss Golding's pre-apology involvement in the extradition matter and his sanctioning of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips to assist, as purely politically partisan. It is now clear that Golding's insistence that the US would violate Christopher "Dudus" Coke's human rights by insisting that the Jamaican government acquiesce to its request for Coke's extradition because of illegally obtained evidence was perhaps driven by selfishness, and not as an act of altruism as Golding insisted upon. The bigger question that must be answered, however, is why the sudden 360-degree turn on Dudus' extradition by Mr Golding.
Finally, inasmuch as I could give Mr Golding the benefit of the doubt, my disinclination to do so is exceeded by fears that his apology was the offspring of plain unadulterated political expediency and nothing more. Thematically, there are too many disconcerting similarities between his apology and the schemes of Niccolo Machiavelli in Chapter 18 of the novel The Prince. As Machiavelli opined, and I agree, a prince does not have all good qualities. He just needs to appear to have them; so he can deceive and because men generally judge by the eyes; pretence can be sold as a noble deed. Therefore, I cannot buy the prime minister's apology as a genuine and noble deed, not until he resigns.
Burnscg@aol.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...-again_7632438