The commissioner and his 'Troupes'

Daniel Thwaites, Contributor

The lotto scam has been responsible, according to the police, for some 600 killings and US$300 million robbed over the last few years, plus lots of bad press abroad.

So when Deputy Mayor Troupe's house was raided and he and his son arrested by the special task force, it was sensational and dramatic. The pictures in The Gleaner were ... arresting. Subsequently, I heard the police commissioner on radio confirming that the high-profile arrests were linked to the lotto scam.

It seemed clear that the deputy mayor would have to resign. There is, we were reminded, due process and the presumption of innocence. But then again, there are accusations and there are ACCUSATIONS, and these were in the latter category.

But now something isn't fitting together. Perhaps a premature raid and radio campaign has fouled up intelligence gathering? How is it that after all the hoopla, Mr Troupe is being charged for something else? If they don't have enough evidence to charge Mr Troupe for the lotto scam, why the media spectacle where that, in particular, was mentioned repeatedly?

I would have imagined that before such a public raid and arrest, a wiretap or a cross-dressing lotto-scam informant would have been used to secure evidence. Wiretaps and cross-dressing, after all, are not just for Dudus.

Either way, someone will have a lot of explaining to do. For if the police are right, and the deputy mayor of Montego Bay is a lotto scammer, the Second City is in serious trouble. Moreover, the PNP's campaign-financing ethic has crashed further through the floor with Trafigura, then Olint, now this. Alternatively, if the police are wrong, and they have created this phenomenal splash without evidence to back it up, then the commissioner needs to explain. Suppose Mr Troupe is, as he claims, innocent? In the court of public opinion, it is 'guilty until proven innocent'.

It's not quite the same thing, but in terms of the 'presumption of guilt' for public officials, I'm reminded of Mr Audley Shaw, one of my favourite orators, and his recent legal travails. Consider that Mr Shaw had massive audiences when libelling Peter Bunting. However, as is the nature of these things, now that Shaw would "unreservedly apologise" and acknowledge that he had "no basis" for saying what he did, it got precious little press.

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE

Minister Kellier has announced National Minimum Wage increases from $4,500 to $5,000 per week, and from $6,655 to $7,320 for industrial security guards. Isn't this picture the perfect microcosm of the economic tragedy? Everything is expensive, except labour.

The press reports that security guard employers resisted the modest increase. I would ask the employers to consider, if not their employees, the rest of the public. Do we really want armed men earning less than US$100 per week? Think about it.

A CIVILISED NATION?

On this note, I want to pause to agree with St Catherine MPs Grange and Daley on their caution on the question of the ombudsman. Some of the younger MPs - my contemporaries - were not convinced about the continued need for the office. Reports are that my friend, MP for Western St Mary Jolyan Silvera, said that Jamaica was "a civilised nation" and hence the ombudsman's post is obsolete.

No question, things are better in St Mary. But all the same, civilisation is at best only three missed meals from utter ruin and collapse. Furthermore, in less blessed parts of the island, where armed men are paid less than $8,000 per week, we may, in fact, be stretching the language of civilisation to accommodate our realities.

My own observation is that in the heat of electoral collisions, where every utterance is a challenge and every public meeting a powder keg, there's much to recommend Ms Grange's warning that "many lives have been saved as a result of this institution". That's the voice of prudence and experience.

This is not to say that a re-envisioned ombudsman's office shouldn't be nested in the Electoral Commission to cut costs. But tread cautiously around this mechanism of quick appeal and decision on campaign conduct. The price of keeping it may be tiny compared to the cost of potential mayhem without an ombudsman.

PRAYERS FOR OLYMPIANS

Las May's descriptive cartoons of John Public glued into the couch and Olympic TV is correct in all but one respect. John is drinking beer, which few can still afford. There's a national expectation that the team must outdo the medal haul in Beijing. So, of course, I've enjoyed Father Ho Lung's wonderful 'Prayer for our Olympians'.

As you may have gathered, I'm a great fan of Father Ho Lung's columns, although discipline entails that this will be the last that I comment on. He gets me thinking. I like that in his prayer, he is careful to not ask for too much, but rather for guidance for the athletes. "Still," Ho Lung concludes, "I can't help it but I pray that our island will prove to be the best. But not my will, but Your will be done." Me, too! Not being a saint, I can't help it - I just straight out pray for the Jamaicans to crush the competition.

But sports give me this little prayer puzzle. Seeing that God already knows our innermost thoughts, and given his goodness, wouldn't He already know to make STGC beat KC? Furthermore, if the other side prays equally hard, wouldn't God be torn between taking care of his rival children?

But then you have to wonder, why pray at all? God has had a long time and perfect information, so surely he's made up his mind about what He's going to do. Are we supposed to think that we can pray and change God's mind? He would have made the perfect decision already.

I don't know the answer, but I'll join Father Ho Lung in the prayer for our athletes. Having prayed, rum in hand, this couch athlete is ready to watch the working athletes perform.

Daniel Thwaites is a partner of Thwaites, Lundgren & D'Arcy in Westchester and Bronx counties in New York. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.