Manatt - arena for political points?
Published:Saturday | April 16, 2011 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
The memories of May 24, 2010 will always be etched in the minds of Jamaicans. The state forces were resolute to unclench the fists of the gun-clutching criminals who have been wreaking havoc on the nation for almost two decades and forced them to surrender. The war has not ended but the hoodlums are doubtlessly on the retreat.
Not only will we remember the incursion of May 24 but also the enthralling five-hour episodes of the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry that followed. The enquiry was commissioned by Prime Minister Bruce Golding in an attempt to satisfy what appeared to be the insatiable appetites for full disclosure among sectors within the society. The magnitude of these sittings weighed so heavily on the characters of various interests that we saw the strongest contingent of our legal luminaries in any one sitting defending the interest/s that they represented.
These brilliant attorneys were tasked with unveiling the truth; a principle which predicates their noble career and that attorneys like Queen's Counsels Hugh Small, Frank Phipps, K.D. Knight, with their wisdom and know-how, would have had experience in unravelling quite effortlessly at times.
Mr Knight oftentimes reminded the commission of its existence, which he said was to facilitate an expedition for truth. On his final day of cross-examining Mr Golding, I began to doubt whether he was convinced of this when he seemed to have changed lanes, and instead of seeking to unriddle the facts to find truth, he appeared to have given up on the prospects of there being any revelation besides those which were already known before the commission began.
Amid all this, in my quiet time, I wonder to myself whether there was indeed more to know, or was this just another political display aimed at embarrassing and castigating an opponent for purely political measure. If there was indeed more to the tale, have these eminent attorneys working towards a common goal failed in their pursuit of truth, or is there really nothing further? I wonder.
I am, etc.,
RANDOLPH LEDGISTER