Mark Wignall | Good luck, Mr Hugh Wildman

No political party which can freely make the claim that it subscribes to the democratic ideal will want, in the term that if forms a government, even a single sitting of corruption.

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration, formed in early 2016, has had more than its fair share of mistrust in the public domain in three years. The one involving the early-morning arrest of Ruel Reid, ex-education minister; Fritz Pinnock, Caribbean Maritime University CEO; and other key people is one, which we suspect, took the JLP administration by surprise.

That is now water under the bridge. Two days ago, attorney-at-law Hugh Wildman, who represents key persons in the matter, announced that in his view of the law, the Financial Investigations Division (FID), whose officers arrested Reid and company, only had powers of investigation and not of arrest. And, I assume, it also meant that the body (FID) did not have the powers to direct or cause confinement.

According to Wildman, the FID can start the race, but it is totally void of the legs its needs to run the race. Early reviews, again, in the public domain, is that the man and woman at street level have concluded that their own views matter little in changing how the fortunes of one side either consolidate its power, or, the other side sinks into oblivion.

Without me even trying to fine-tune my way through the intricacies of the legal codes, let us assume that Wildman is successful and all of the remainder of his legal claims are met. Would that mean that Reid could then make an ethical claim that he deserves to be reintroduced into the inner sanctum of JLP power?

That, we know, is utterly ridiculous. The hierarchy of every political party measures every part of its political processes through a political eye. On that basis, I could never see Reid returning to ringing any bell, even in the JLP’s kitchen.

SPENCER’S EXONERATION

Kern Spencer of the People’s National Party (PNP), who had faced painful accusations of corruption, was eventually exonerated by Jamaica’s justice system. But who reading this now is able to convince him or herself that the PNP would dare reintroduce to, or accept Spencer inside representational politics. Very few, if any.

Mr Wildman may succeed, or he may be hoisted on the very petard of the law which sustains him. If a judicial review is granted and Hugh Wildman goes on to make himself an indelible etching in the history of legal luminaries in Jamaica, long before even the possibility of that happening, I could see Professor Pinnock returning to CMU, but with questions signs lurking.

Politicians know that it is the announcements which matter. In the craziness happening involving testimony in the impeachment probe in the Democratic-controlled House in the USA, the point was made by the covertly directed Whitehouse policy that Ukraine had to make a loud announcement that the country was investigating the Bidens.

In politics it is definitely the announcements of high-profile arrests that really matter among the news-consuming public. Anything which takes place a year to five down the road is purely another detail that can be skimmed away because too many more of the sordid stories are lined up. Just waiting to happen.

Wildman may be skating on thin ice in that the claim has been made that officers attached to the FID were technically those of the JCF or, he may yet succeed, as I previously stated. For now, that does not matter too much for a lot of other people who are conveniently tuned in and selectively turned off.

This matter introduced by Wildman may yet have some unintended political repercussions. For now, exercise some patience.

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