A waste of time
Published:Saturday | July 10, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Editor, Sir:
Calls by civil society, media, business and the Opposition for a commission of enquiry (COE) surrounding the Dudus affair - incursion, evasion and extradition - will go unheeded by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) as it would have been similarly ignored by the Opposition if they formed the government of the day.
The simple reason is that were the JLP to convene such a commission, it would be committing political suicide as its handling of the whole sordid Christopher Coke affair has been a self-inflicted, political nightmare! Because of the obfuscation, dithering, delaying tactics, misrepresentation of the facts, etc., the JLP's political stock and base have declined drastically, as evidenced by the recent Bill Johnson poll findings published in The Gleaner.
But, as strange as it may sound, the JLP can conceivably come out the beneficiary of this whole fiasco if it acts with the political savvy displayed before 2007 general election by calling for a truth commission to enquire into garrison politics - its formation and nurturing, gangsterism and donmanship, and their combined effect on the Jamaican economy over the past 60 years.
Blaming the JLP
The Jamaican landscape in general and, in particular, the inner cities and/or garrisons, were wrecked - politically, economically, socially, morally, etc., long before this present JLP administration took office. It would, therefore, be manifestly unjust to blame our present dysfunctional state of affairs solely on the JLP.
All the energy currently being expended on calls for a COE should be directed towards a truth commission. In order for a complete healing of relations between the warring factions - JLP, People's National Party (PNP) and no 'P' - and recovery of the Jamaican economy to take place, we need to hear the 'whole stinking truth'. The rotten state of affairs needs to be gutted.
If the JLP summon the courage to do what the PNP did not do in 18 years - convene a truth commis-sion - I would do what I have not done in 24 years - vote JLP. If a born and bred (former Comrade) can consider voting JLP if such a commission were convened, just imagine how many Labourites and uncommitted would vote Labour. If the PNP wants to win the next general election, they would stop call for a Dudus COE and call for a full truth commission instead.
I am, etc.,
CARLOS KING
Old Harbour, St Catherine