The mother of all enquiries

How can it be controversial as to whether there is to be a commission of enquiry into the West Kingston assault/incursion/invasion/operation/pacification/debacle? As Mayor Brown Burke might say, "Weh de F wrong wid some people doh, eeh?"

More Jamaicans died in this one conflagration than in any discrete event since the Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865, and over the years, there have been commissions to enquire into far less momentous events and occurrences, from labour disturbances to contaminated flour. To propose that this series of events, still shrouded in mystery, should pass without a properly empowered fact-finding body developing a report on it, is reckless in the extreme.

In fact, after the Morant Bay massacre, a Royal Commission was established to investigate. Assisted by facts discovered therein, Governor Eyre was hounded by a group of well-thinking Englishmen, like John Stuart Mill, who had formed into the Jamaica Committee, precisely to prove the point that lives in the colonies had worth. Well, nowadays, that point has to be vindicated by locals.

One objection already raised is that the commission's findings will be political, as if controversy is by itself a reason to avoid it. However, I think it fair to say that this whole matter has been controversial from the very start, and that is partly because the results do have political import. It could well be that they have far-reaching political import, and perhaps that is precisely what some fear.

Till today, it is the utter avoidability of the disaster - even at the last moment - that still shocks. The warrant had arrived for Dudus, and had it not been for completely corrupted public officials, all of these lives could have been spared. After all, the police were not unaccustomed to picking Dudus up in the past, and they could have easily done so again.

Instead, it appears that Dudus was informed by someone privy to highly classified information about the arrival of the warrant. Or more accurately, someone briefed by security personnel immediately informed another, who then informed Dudus himself! All of this is recorded and known, and that part, at least, should absolutely be made public.

Working out the terms of reference for the commission is obviously going to be a big part of this process. Well, I hope that it is given a broad frame of reference, and that the commissioners are granted wide scope and latitude to investigate how this 'murderation' came to be.

The last commission was so tightly circumscribed, and ultimately so useless, that despite some great made-for-TV moments, it has to be remembered as a failure. But it was set up to fail, and there's no need for this upcoming commission to be like that. For starters, a chairman must be chosen who can see past his eyebrows.

Even so, it wasn't a complete waste. It was worth every last penny to watch K.D. Knight surgically dissect and dismember the fabrications, then mop the floor with the heads of the perpetrators. And it was no small comedy to listen to media surrogates try to be Solomonic about a baby that cannot be split in half. But people knew what they were seeing.

Parliament might want to take the opportunity to update the law books on the penalties for failing to appear and answer questions if called. This business of being able to avoid the commission by paying a $500 fine has to stop.

After thrashing about for months, the last commission was unable to ascertain who actually paid for the outsourcing of Jamaica's foreign policy to Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. And that was a direct consequence of people thumbing their noses at the commission, and the spinelessness of the commissioners who understood from the very outset that they were to return a report worth little more than contaminated toilet tissue.

Perhaps some who couldn't recall at the last hearing will have recovered their memory. I imagine that Mr Coke himself should have a lot he'd like to say, and this would be a perfect time to let him have the microphone.

I don't mean to diminish the seriousness of the enquiry at all by saying that I shall be buying up popcorn and settling into a comfortable chair to enjoy it. There's so much rubbish on television nowadays, it's good to be able to look forward to a satisfying programme. Ah, yes! Set up correctly, it will be the mother of all enquiries, even though we know part of the ending. Spoiler alert: The villainous king resigns and hands the sceptre to a prince.

THE MAYORAL F-BOMB

It's wonderful how in a country with so many social maladies, a curse word from an unapproved source can cause a collective stoppage of breath. It reminds me that there's a wellspring of traditionalism and decency that may, after all, save our little country. Never mind that 'badwuds' are multiplying faster than rodents in New Kingston, we don't expect it from public officials who wear funny hats on formal occasions.

The offending tweet was: "What the F. All angles has Holness, Direct has Audley both discussing the IMF and Jamaica's economic future. How biased can media be?" So it wasn't even a curse word, but a curse letter. Close enough!

Anyway, I'm not sure that simply having Holness and Shaw as guests can be considered "biased". Both gentlemen are in campaign mode, against each other, and against the Government, so they have reason to be out and about. In any event, on further investigation, it turned out that government members had been invited by the media houses, but had chosen to avoid the programmes.

I myself am not particularly offended by the F-bomb and its cognates, but that's because my intolerance has been worn down and out by repeated attacks. For instance, I used to consider the word 'screw' horrendously lewd. But nowadays, even children use it all the time. They say that they 'screwed up' this or that, or that they 'got screwed', and various other usages. I still find it hard to deal with, but I'm adjusting.

Last year, a woman named Kay-Ann Lamont was shot in St Thomas, supposedly for cursing. There was general outrage after that incident. Deacon Espeut, needing even more outrage, argued that 'bad words' are an attack on the State. I can never think of this nonsense without smiling, but I wonder how that theory accounts for the mayor doing the cursing? Perhaps it's a species of treason if a high public official attacks the State with an F-bomb.

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