Has PM endorsed Warmington's rants?

Kay Osborne, Guest Columnist

"The authority of the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to take any decision or action that he considers necessary or useful to the party is an authority that has never, certainly not in my long time in the party, ever been questioned. It wasn't questioned under Sir Alexander Bustamante, it wasn't questioned under Mr Seaga; it hasn't been questioned under me."

This unequivocal statement made by Prime Minister Bruce Golding last Friday at the Manatt-Coke commission of enquiry is important on two counts. First, the statement clarifies the scope of authority that the JLP leader, PM Golding, commands, at least in so far as his understanding of his authority as party leader. Second, Mr Golding's statement contradicts the JLP's argument two days earlier, on March 16, that important party decisions are only made through a constitutional and democratic process involving supporters.

Prime Minister Golding's statement was in response to a question posed to him by his attorney at the enquiry, Hugh Small: "What authority do you have ... to take the decision to send Dr Robinson and Mr Brady to undertake this mission without first consulting with persons in the party?" The JLP statement was in response to Women in Media's call that Prime Minister Golding not permit Mr Everald Warmington to be nominated as the JLP candidate for the upcoming by-election in South West St Catherine.

Contemptuous vulgarities

Women in Media's call was in response to former JLP MP Everald Warmington's reported vile, vulgar, sexually explicit, verbal attacks on CVM's Kerlyn Brown and on Garfield Burford. Mr Warmington was supposed to be responding to a legitimate journalistic question about his reasons for remaining a member of the House of Representatives since 2007 when, by his own recent admission, he knew that his membership was in breach of the Jamaican Constitution. Mr Warmington's latest loutish and contemptuous vulgarities are part of a decades-long pattern of abusive attacks on citizens and national institutions for which he has never apologised.

Prime Minister Golding's statement on the scope of his authority as JLP leader undercuts the JLP's argument that Mr Golding could not have acted on Women in Media's call that, as party leader, he take a stand against Mr Warmington and that any such action could only be taken through a process involving party supporters. Further, if Mr Golding has the authority he claims, the JLP's statement seems like an attempt to shield him from having to take responsibility for his role as party leader who, along with other JLP leaders, enables and allows Mr Warmington to target citizens, including media professionals, and national institutions with his longstanding reprehensible conduct. For this, the JLP leadership has to be held accountable.

Public-conduct standards

In addition, the JLP needs to explain the public-conduct standards that were used to vet and endorse Mr Warmington's candidacy as the JLP's first choice for the upcoming by-election in South West Catherine. Since the party, including the JLP's leader and leadership team, is obliged to ensure that its candidates meet minimum public-conduct standards, the JLP is duty-bound to provide citizens with information on the public-conduct standards that Mr Warmington meets and so earns the party's endorsement and full support.

If Mr Golding's statement that he has the authority to take important party decisions is true (it has to be taken as true since Mr Golding's statement was made under oath), the clear implication on the Warmington matter is that Mr Golding believes that his intervention, as described by Women in Media, was neither necessary nor useful to the party. Hence, the inevitable question: On what basis does Mr Golding justify his decision not to use his considerable authority to take a stand against Mr Warmington's persistently contemptuous conduct? Why has he not embraced the opportunity to signal to Jamaicans that he represents a higher standard of political conduct than his compatriot, Mr Warmington's?

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