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PNP was divided on PM's handling of 'Dudus' request — WikiLeaks
Phillips: Golding indecisive on ‘Dudus ‘ extradition
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
WHILE the Government dithered on the United States request to extradite Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, Opposition parliamentarian Dr Peter Phillips admitted to a US Embassy official that some members of his People's National Party (PNP) didn't necessarily share his view that Prime Minister Bruce Golding was handling the matter poorly, according to a US diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks.
In the same cable, dated September 18, 2009, the US official also reported that Phillips said he never supported the PNP's dual-citizenship court challenges as he regarded the strategy as "political opportunism, not principled", and an attempt on the part of Portia Simpson Miller at "a shortcut back to power".
According to the cable, while Phillips conceded that there was "legitimate room for debate" as to whether non-citizens should be allowed to serve in Parliament, the issue has become "so infected by irrational passions" that time will need to pass before it may be discussed dispassionately.
The US official was reporting on a September 14, 2009 meeting at the US Embassy in Kingston with Phillips. He said the former national security minister described the state of affairs in Jamaica at the time as a "low level explosion" in which trends of rampant crime, youth violence, economic malaise, foreign debt, an inadequate educational system, and the extradition controversy might coalesce to push Jamaica toward a "tipping point" at which the country might become ungovernable, a failed state along the lines of Haiti or Somalia.
Said the US official: "While Phillips didn't think "Jamaica is there yet", he said that such an eventuality was "closer than we imagine".
According to the US official, Phillips depicted "the viability of the Jamaican state" as in danger and said it was imperative that the Government make efforts to reform the security sector and get the nation's "financial house in order".
The cable said that Phillips described the extradition controversy as exacerbating these problems in ways that might conceivably lead to the "dismemberment of the state".
Noting that the MP had garnered headlines the previous week in publicly denouncing the governing Jamaica Labour Party's handling of the Coke extradition request, the US official said Phillips criticised Golding as "indecisive" and "looking for a reason not to act" on the request.
"Were the Golding Government to refuse to arrest and extradite Coke, the GOJ would be implicitly admitting that large portions of the country — garrison communities in parts of Kingston, Spanish Town, Montego Bay, and elsewhere that have been governed by local "dons" and criminal syndicates for decades — were not under GOJ control," the US official wrote.
According to the official, Phillips said that if the Government failed to act, much of the public may lose faith in government authority as it would become clear that the garrison criminal syndicates hold the real power in Jamaica.
Added the official: "Although Phillips conceded that his PNP also had ties to garrisons and organised crime, he claimed a difference of degree and that "contact is not the same as subordination"."
The official said that Phillips contrasted the JLP's handling of the Coke affair with his own management of similar extradition and other high-profile cases involving "dons" and drug kingpins with PNP ties during his tenure as security minister.
Said the cable: "As soon as the previous PNP Government knew an extradition request was imminent, Phillips said that the relevant actors -- the MNS, Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT), and the Office of the Public Prosecutor (OPP) would meet in one location, "bring their stamps", and process the request immediately so as to prevent unnecessary delay and media leaks. Then, vetted units of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and/or Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) would be employed to apprehend the suspect before the accused would have time to react or go into hiding."
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1RvlEYM20
PNP was divided on PM's handling of 'Dudus' request — WikiLeaks
Phillips: Golding indecisive on ‘Dudus ‘ extradition
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
WHILE the Government dithered on the United States request to extradite Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, Opposition parliamentarian Dr Peter Phillips admitted to a US Embassy official that some members of his People's National Party (PNP) didn't necessarily share his view that Prime Minister Bruce Golding was handling the matter poorly, according to a US diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks.
In the same cable, dated September 18, 2009, the US official also reported that Phillips said he never supported the PNP's dual-citizenship court challenges as he regarded the strategy as "political opportunism, not principled", and an attempt on the part of Portia Simpson Miller at "a shortcut back to power".
According to the cable, while Phillips conceded that there was "legitimate room for debate" as to whether non-citizens should be allowed to serve in Parliament, the issue has become "so infected by irrational passions" that time will need to pass before it may be discussed dispassionately.
The US official was reporting on a September 14, 2009 meeting at the US Embassy in Kingston with Phillips. He said the former national security minister described the state of affairs in Jamaica at the time as a "low level explosion" in which trends of rampant crime, youth violence, economic malaise, foreign debt, an inadequate educational system, and the extradition controversy might coalesce to push Jamaica toward a "tipping point" at which the country might become ungovernable, a failed state along the lines of Haiti or Somalia.
Said the US official: "While Phillips didn't think "Jamaica is there yet", he said that such an eventuality was "closer than we imagine".
According to the US official, Phillips depicted "the viability of the Jamaican state" as in danger and said it was imperative that the Government make efforts to reform the security sector and get the nation's "financial house in order".
The cable said that Phillips described the extradition controversy as exacerbating these problems in ways that might conceivably lead to the "dismemberment of the state".
Noting that the MP had garnered headlines the previous week in publicly denouncing the governing Jamaica Labour Party's handling of the Coke extradition request, the US official said Phillips criticised Golding as "indecisive" and "looking for a reason not to act" on the request.
"Were the Golding Government to refuse to arrest and extradite Coke, the GOJ would be implicitly admitting that large portions of the country — garrison communities in parts of Kingston, Spanish Town, Montego Bay, and elsewhere that have been governed by local "dons" and criminal syndicates for decades — were not under GOJ control," the US official wrote.
According to the official, Phillips said that if the Government failed to act, much of the public may lose faith in government authority as it would become clear that the garrison criminal syndicates hold the real power in Jamaica.
Added the official: "Although Phillips conceded that his PNP also had ties to garrisons and organised crime, he claimed a difference of degree and that "contact is not the same as subordination"."
The official said that Phillips contrasted the JLP's handling of the Coke affair with his own management of similar extradition and other high-profile cases involving "dons" and drug kingpins with PNP ties during his tenure as security minister.
Said the cable: "As soon as the previous PNP Government knew an extradition request was imminent, Phillips said that the relevant actors -- the MNS, Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT), and the Office of the Public Prosecutor (OPP) would meet in one location, "bring their stamps", and process the request immediately so as to prevent unnecessary delay and media leaks. Then, vetted units of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and/or Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) would be employed to apprehend the suspect before the accused would have time to react or go into hiding."
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1RvlEYM20
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