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EDITORIAL - Coke Enquiry Should Be Focused On Truth
Published: Friday | March 11, 20111
Sometime soon, perhaps in the next week or so, Prime Minister Bruce Golding is to give evidence before the commission of enquiry into whether his Government, broadly, behaved corruptly in how it handled America's request for the extradition of the alleged gunrunner and narcotics smuggler, Christopher Coke.
We hope that Mr Golding will not only be truthful, but eschew any temptation to cloud the proceedings with side issues, or by invoking detritus.
The prime minister must not contribute to the process of obfuscation and the political hijacking that has become the centrepiece of the enquiry, starting with the Government's and the governing Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) earlier effort to make the hearings about the former national security minister, Dr Peter Phillips, and secret memoranda he signed with the United States and Britain.
Those memoranda, it appears, codify the arrangements under which the partners support sophisticated communications intercept facilities in Jamaica and may share the fruits of these wiretaps, in accordance with Jamaican law. This capacity is run under the code name Operation Anthem.
Government lawyers and witnesses have made much of the fact that Dr Phillips, when he signed those secret memoranda in 2004, did not take them to the Cabinet for approval or gain specific clearance from the then prime minister, Mr P.J. Patterson.
Dr Phillips' response is that he need not have such clearance because the memoranda did not create new policy or cause Jamaica to enter new agreements. In any event, the prime minister knew fully of the capabilities of Anthem, to which the memoranda were subsidiary.
Perhaps Dr Phillips was wrong not to have had Cabinet clearance, and maybe he should have specifically briefed his prime minister about these memoranda. It might be that his behaviour breached the principle of collective responsibility of the Westminster Cabinet government. It is possible that Dr Phillips should be censured.
But with respect to this enquiry, those are, frankly, peripherals - red herrings that ought not be of any great moment to these proceedings.
Stick to terms of reference
What should be the central point of interest of the commission's chairman, Mr Emil George, QC, and his fellow commissioners is whether the Government and its agents were corrupt in how they dealt with the extradition of Coke - a strong supporter of the JLP, who operated from the base of the party's street power, Tivoli Gardens.
That, for the most part, has not been the focus of this enquiry, which has meandered and frolicked around side issues.
Hopefully - notwithstanding yesterday's dispute over an incident that may or may not have happened three decades ago - the enquiry is by now back on track and headed on a path of truth. If it has, the commissioners have to keep it there.
Moreover, Prime Minister Golding must do his best, whatever the temptation, to ensure that the enquiry is not again derailed. That is assuming that Mr Golding is vested in truth and committed to good and decent government.
Published: Friday | March 11, 20111
Sometime soon, perhaps in the next week or so, Prime Minister Bruce Golding is to give evidence before the commission of enquiry into whether his Government, broadly, behaved corruptly in how it handled America's request for the extradition of the alleged gunrunner and narcotics smuggler, Christopher Coke.
We hope that Mr Golding will not only be truthful, but eschew any temptation to cloud the proceedings with side issues, or by invoking detritus.
The prime minister must not contribute to the process of obfuscation and the political hijacking that has become the centrepiece of the enquiry, starting with the Government's and the governing Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) earlier effort to make the hearings about the former national security minister, Dr Peter Phillips, and secret memoranda he signed with the United States and Britain.
Those memoranda, it appears, codify the arrangements under which the partners support sophisticated communications intercept facilities in Jamaica and may share the fruits of these wiretaps, in accordance with Jamaican law. This capacity is run under the code name Operation Anthem.
Government lawyers and witnesses have made much of the fact that Dr Phillips, when he signed those secret memoranda in 2004, did not take them to the Cabinet for approval or gain specific clearance from the then prime minister, Mr P.J. Patterson.
Dr Phillips' response is that he need not have such clearance because the memoranda did not create new policy or cause Jamaica to enter new agreements. In any event, the prime minister knew fully of the capabilities of Anthem, to which the memoranda were subsidiary.
Perhaps Dr Phillips was wrong not to have had Cabinet clearance, and maybe he should have specifically briefed his prime minister about these memoranda. It might be that his behaviour breached the principle of collective responsibility of the Westminster Cabinet government. It is possible that Dr Phillips should be censured.
But with respect to this enquiry, those are, frankly, peripherals - red herrings that ought not be of any great moment to these proceedings.
Stick to terms of reference
What should be the central point of interest of the commission's chairman, Mr Emil George, QC, and his fellow commissioners is whether the Government and its agents were corrupt in how they dealt with the extradition of Coke - a strong supporter of the JLP, who operated from the base of the party's street power, Tivoli Gardens.
That, for the most part, has not been the focus of this enquiry, which has meandered and frolicked around side issues.
Hopefully - notwithstanding yesterday's dispute over an incident that may or may not have happened three decades ago - the enquiry is by now back on track and headed on a path of truth. If it has, the commissioners have to keep it there.
Moreover, Prime Minister Golding must do his best, whatever the temptation, to ensure that the enquiry is not again derailed. That is assuming that Mr Golding is vested in truth and committed to good and decent government.
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