Hylton Should Step Aside

Gary Spaulding, Guest Columnist

The parliamentary Opposition has been caught snoring for the better part of a year in which thunderous calls were made for a commission of enquiry to be convened into the May 2010 police-military blitz in West Kingston.

It's been an open secret for nearly a year that the political battleground was being prepared for the commission of enquiry, after the security forces' operation claimed the lives of at least 76 civilians and one soldier.

An enquiry was the best that Public Defender Earl Witter could come up with after multiple delays in publishing a report that had wore the patience of Jamaicans thin.

But there was no need to wait on Witter, as Lloyd D'Aguilar, the self-styled defender of the people of West Kingston, had long been clamouring for such an enquiry.

Even so, the political party that has been so inextricably linked to that constituency has shirked its responsibility to participate in the process of framing the terms of reference for the commission of enquiry, as well as commenting on the selection of the commissioners before now.

The paternalistic instincts of Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) forces that have stolidly stayed with the loyal people of Western Kingston - particularly in the areas that have served it well, electorally - appear to be absent, with Member of Parliament Desmond McKenzie seeming to be the lone voice in the wilderness.

NO RESPONSE TO INVITATIONS

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has revealed missives between her Government and the Holness-led Opposition on the plans to forge ahead with a commission of enquiry.

Simpson Miller has released correspondence corroborating her claim that she had been communicating with the Opposition on this issue, but with less-than-satisfactory response.

Justice Minister Mark Golding had written to Delroy Chuck, his Opposition counterpart at the time, seeking that side's intervention, in May 2013, but a definitive response was not forthcoming.

Similarly, a response to the prime minister's letter, just over a week ago, to Opposition Leader Andrew Holness has not been forthcoming.

The gaudily colourful political domain that is West Kingston has been a magnet for controversy since the Back o' Wall days.

Dubbed by cynics and detractors as 'The Wild, Wild West', the area is back in the fray, commanding, as it did four years ago, significant international attention.

Not unlike other troubling times, it is the political representative who has found himself at the vanguard of the battle.

West Kingston has earned the reputation of being the political capital of the Jamaica Labour Party.

No one, including the JLP's revered founder, Alexander Bustamante, and his protégé, Hugh Shearer, also a former prime minister, failed to retain the volatile seat for more than a term until Edward Seaga ventured into the constituency in the 1950s to win it in the 1962 general election.

Seaga retained the seat until his retirement from representational politics in 2005. The constituency, in good and bad times, became inextricably linked to the JLP that Seaga led between 1974 and 2005.

The current MP, Desmond McKenzie, is no stranger to Western Kingston. He was not only born and bred in the constituency, he was also nurtured and socialised in the art of politics there. For he has been a councillor in the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation for many years.

It was from that safe Tivoli Gardens political haven that McKenzie was able to launch his political career that first landed him the mayorship of Kingston.

Indeed, McKenzie was councillor for the Tivoli Gardens division when four persons were killed during confrontations with security forces in 1997, and then in 2001 when a three-day operation claimed 27 lives.

It was in the commission of enquiry into the 2001 operations that Velma Hylton's supposedly offensive comments were made.

McKenzie wants Hylton, one of the three commissioners appointed by Governor General Patrick Allen on the recommendation of Simpson Miller, to be removed from the commission which will look into the events of May 2010.

His screams are deafening, while there is a barely a whimper from the Opposition - for good reason.

Holness and his team ignored the Government when the appointment was being made, so the Opposition's moral authority is questionable.

This is the context in which McKenzie is representing the constituency of Western Kingston today ahead of yet another commission of enquiry featuring Tivoli Gardens.

It is not easy for McKenzie to isolate himself from any attacks - real or perceived - against his people.

Hylton's antecedents cannot be ignored as an attorney of some repute.

Though dramatic, the 2011 enquiry that involved Western Kingston indirectly but specifically focused on the engagement of American lobbyists from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips is remembered for the dismal failure of the commissioners, Emil George, Anthony Irons and Donald Scharschmidt. We can ill afford that performance to be repeated, especially if we seek to restore public faith and confidence in commissions of enquiry.

SCEPTICISM NOT NEW

If memory serves well, scepticism hovered over the heads of the commissioners, particularly Emil George, long before the start of the 2011 commission of enquiry.

In whatever context Velma Hylton may have made the comments as an advocate in the 2002 Tivoli commission of enquiry that have sparked such outrage from Desmond McKenzie and the people of Tivoli Gardens, then and now, it is serving as a contaminating effect on the impending enquiry.

As it was with George, there can be no question about the eminence of Hylton's legal capacities.

However, in order to remove any shred of doubt, Hylton should seize the opportunity to recuse herself as one of the commissioners. Surely, there may be merit to the argument that her controversial comments - that she couldn't understand why law enforcers should not shoot back if women and children formed human shields for gunmen - suggest bias for the security forces or a lack of concern for the rights of unarmed civilians, even if collaborating with criminals.

In the aftermath of the Tivoli siege, I suggested in an article in this newspaper that both sides of the political divide were to be held responsible for treating Tivoli Gardens as untouchable spoilt children. As such, I urged the Big Two to suppress their partisan leanings to correct the mistakes of the past.

Alas, that suggestion was not heeded and the people of West Kingston are lamenting that their lives are much worse than before the tragedy of May 2010.

Gary Spaulding is a parliamentary and political affairs reporter. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and gary.spaulding@gleanerjm.com.