EDITORIAL - Route to a worthy Tivoli enquiry

We endorse the Government's acceptance of Earl Witter's recommendation for a commission of enquiry into the Tivoli Gardens affair, but agree with the provisos of Messrs Bruce Golding and Edward Seaga.

For we are clear about the kind of enquirers we do not want, and of the outcome that would not be of value to Jamaica. That is to say, we must avoid, at all costs, a commission in the image of Emil George into the related Manatt affair and the intellectually flaccid report they produced. That would further erode confidence in Jamaica's institutions.

This enquiry must determine, whether, based on the evidence, or a balance of probabilities, all or any of the at least 76 civilians who died during the operation to capture the then fugitive Christopher Coke were the victims of extrajudicial killings by the security forces. Mr Witter, the public defender, who investigated the matter, says that prima facie evidence is that many were.

A commission of enquiry need not preclude, as Mr Seaga, a former prime minister and decades-long West Kingston MP fears, concrete action by the authorities to deal with social and economic privations in West Kingston, or other inner-city communities.

Nor need it be the "charade" into which, Mr Golding says, the one he called into his Government's handling of America's request for the extradition of Coke descended.

While we agree with Mr Golding about many of the failures of that enquiry, we do not believe it was entirely without merit, the failings of Mr George and his fellow enquirers, notwithstanding. For in-between the appallingly poor management of the hearings and specious findings of the commissioners was evidence of prevarication, inappropriate political manoeuvrings on the part of public officials, and a commingling of party and state affairs.

Bipartisan Negotiations

Mr Golding has part of the antidote for this: the quality of the terms of reference by which the proposed commission proceeds. He is right to remind that those who now form the Government - in Opposition at the time - had argued for those terms of reference to be subject to bipartisan negotiations - advice he did not accept. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller would do well to now heed her own advice. She should engage not only the Opposition, but civil-society organisations on the matter.

But there is another level of insulation from the narrow political interest which would help build public trust in the commissioners, thus allowing them to go about their work without the burden of expectation of partisanship.

For ultimately, based on the law, it is the prerogative of the governor general to authorise a commission "to enquire into the conduct or management of any department of the public service, or of any public or local institution, or the conduct of any public or local officers of this island, or of any parish, or district thereof, or into any matter in which an enquiry would, in the opinion of the governor general, be for the public welfare". It is he, therefore, who sets a commission's terms of reference.

Governors general have, over time, totally surrendered this responsibility, merely acting on the advice of the prime minister. In this case, Sir Patrick Allen should not allow that to happen.

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