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About a year ago, after months of circumvention, obfuscation, scheming and conspiring, Prime Minister Bruce Golding acquiesced to widespread pressure from civil society and instructed his attorney general to sign the United States' extradition request for Jamaica's most powerful and fearsome criminal overlord, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, aka 'The President'. This unsteady, wavering 'leadership' was the proximate cause of the devastation, international backlash and epic loss of life that ensued.
Rather than expeditiously evaluating the veracity of the request, promptly turning it over to the security forces, and allowing the wheels of justice to run their course, the PM dithered and dawdled, enabling The President and all The President's men, women and children to garrison themselves in preparation for war. What should have been a short-lived security and judicial operation became the darkest period in the history of independent Jamaica.
This was Orette Bruce Golding at his absolute worst.
Last week, Bruce Golding spoke to an audience at the Brookings Institution - the eminent Washington, DC-based policy think tank. As the PM spoke, those who long ago cast him into the vast cesspool of lame-duck leaders might have only heard something akin to "blah blah blah blah blah." But in a nearly 30-minute speech and subsequent question-and-answer session, Golding masterfully laid out many of the pressing issues facing Jamaica and the Caribbean.
waxing philosophical
The PM took umbrage with globalisation and its discontents. He bemoaned Jamaica's categorisation as a middle-income nation - a label that has all but rendered us ineligible for external debt relief. He touched on the asymmetry of bilateral trade negotiations with developed nations and the termination of preferential trade arrangements. He spoke of the disproportionate impact that sudden shocks such as natural disasters have on vulnerable Caribbean economies. He discussed renewable energy, agriculture, even US policy towards Cuba. For a brief moment, the world was treated not to the rhetorical rants of the godfather of one of the 'gangs of Gordon House' but to the insights of an informed and engaged world leader.
This was Orette Bruce Golding at his absolute best.
For today's column, I had originally prepared a scathing critique of the failures of Golding's administration. But then it occurred to me: Everyone already knows of 'Bad Bruce', the man who was willing to put his political capital on the line for an accused gunrunner, the man who unilaterally and unceremoniously dismantled the Public Service Commission, and the man who many accuse of habitually speaking out of both sides of his mouth as it suits his interests.
But was there a good Bruce - a 'Good Golding' - lurking beneath that familiar surface?
Many years ago, deejay Buju Banton prophetically reasoned that "everything weh gwaan a foreign, yardie get the blame." The same holds true for the prime minister, domestically. It has become de rigueur to 'blame Bruce' for everything in Jamaica. Little Prento didn't pass for Wolmer's? Blame Bruce! Granny's pressure is high? Blame Bruce! You used three bars of cake soap yet you're still black? Blame Bruce!
disconcerting allegations
But beneath the popular rhetoric, despite the Dudus debacle, the Manatt imbroglio, and the disconcerting allegations of malfeasance and corruption within his camp, the PM has managed to put together a string of successes.
After a rocky start, the administration has made significant strides in stabilising the economy - primarily through engagement with multilateral agencies, most notably the IMF. Interest rates have been sliced substantially as a result of the Jamaica Debt Exchange, inflation has been reduced to single digits, and exchange rates have steadied. Golding has successfully commenced privatisation of underperforming state assets - most conspicuously, Air Jamaica and the sugar factories. And major tax reforms are reportedly forthcoming.
The administration has taken steps to tackle crime and corruption - establishing the Independent Commission of Investigations to probe police abuses, as well as proposing a special prosecutor to investigate public corruption. After the west Kingston incursion, major crimes, including homicides, dropped precipitously and have yet to revert.
Finally, Golding has proposed term limits for his own position, the office of prime minister, and tabled legislation to overhaul our outmoded defamation laws.
Bad Bruce certainly stole the initial acts of this JLP administration. He has been roundly condemned for his transgressions. Nonetheless, Good Golding has been quietly at work. For the sake of Jamaica, we hope that it is he who will star the remainder of the show.
Din Duggan is an attorney working as a consultant with a global legal search firm. Email him at columns@gleanerjm.com or dinduggan@gmail.com. Follow him or view his past columns at facebook.com/dinduggan and twitter.com/YoungDuggan.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...cleisure2.html
Rather than expeditiously evaluating the veracity of the request, promptly turning it over to the security forces, and allowing the wheels of justice to run their course, the PM dithered and dawdled, enabling The President and all The President's men, women and children to garrison themselves in preparation for war. What should have been a short-lived security and judicial operation became the darkest period in the history of independent Jamaica.
This was Orette Bruce Golding at his absolute worst.
Last week, Bruce Golding spoke to an audience at the Brookings Institution - the eminent Washington, DC-based policy think tank. As the PM spoke, those who long ago cast him into the vast cesspool of lame-duck leaders might have only heard something akin to "blah blah blah blah blah." But in a nearly 30-minute speech and subsequent question-and-answer session, Golding masterfully laid out many of the pressing issues facing Jamaica and the Caribbean.
waxing philosophical
The PM took umbrage with globalisation and its discontents. He bemoaned Jamaica's categorisation as a middle-income nation - a label that has all but rendered us ineligible for external debt relief. He touched on the asymmetry of bilateral trade negotiations with developed nations and the termination of preferential trade arrangements. He spoke of the disproportionate impact that sudden shocks such as natural disasters have on vulnerable Caribbean economies. He discussed renewable energy, agriculture, even US policy towards Cuba. For a brief moment, the world was treated not to the rhetorical rants of the godfather of one of the 'gangs of Gordon House' but to the insights of an informed and engaged world leader.
This was Orette Bruce Golding at his absolute best.
For today's column, I had originally prepared a scathing critique of the failures of Golding's administration. But then it occurred to me: Everyone already knows of 'Bad Bruce', the man who was willing to put his political capital on the line for an accused gunrunner, the man who unilaterally and unceremoniously dismantled the Public Service Commission, and the man who many accuse of habitually speaking out of both sides of his mouth as it suits his interests.
But was there a good Bruce - a 'Good Golding' - lurking beneath that familiar surface?
Many years ago, deejay Buju Banton prophetically reasoned that "everything weh gwaan a foreign, yardie get the blame." The same holds true for the prime minister, domestically. It has become de rigueur to 'blame Bruce' for everything in Jamaica. Little Prento didn't pass for Wolmer's? Blame Bruce! Granny's pressure is high? Blame Bruce! You used three bars of cake soap yet you're still black? Blame Bruce!
disconcerting allegations
But beneath the popular rhetoric, despite the Dudus debacle, the Manatt imbroglio, and the disconcerting allegations of malfeasance and corruption within his camp, the PM has managed to put together a string of successes.
After a rocky start, the administration has made significant strides in stabilising the economy - primarily through engagement with multilateral agencies, most notably the IMF. Interest rates have been sliced substantially as a result of the Jamaica Debt Exchange, inflation has been reduced to single digits, and exchange rates have steadied. Golding has successfully commenced privatisation of underperforming state assets - most conspicuously, Air Jamaica and the sugar factories. And major tax reforms are reportedly forthcoming.
The administration has taken steps to tackle crime and corruption - establishing the Independent Commission of Investigations to probe police abuses, as well as proposing a special prosecutor to investigate public corruption. After the west Kingston incursion, major crimes, including homicides, dropped precipitously and have yet to revert.
Finally, Golding has proposed term limits for his own position, the office of prime minister, and tabled legislation to overhaul our outmoded defamation laws.
Bad Bruce certainly stole the initial acts of this JLP administration. He has been roundly condemned for his transgressions. Nonetheless, Good Golding has been quietly at work. For the sake of Jamaica, we hope that it is he who will star the remainder of the show.
Din Duggan is an attorney working as a consultant with a global legal search firm. Email him at columns@gleanerjm.com or dinduggan@gmail.com. Follow him or view his past columns at facebook.com/dinduggan and twitter.com/YoungDuggan.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...cleisure2.html
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