Golding's new game plan

Robert Buddan POLITICS OF OUR TIME

Bruce Golding's address to the nation last Monday was about three things: an apology, the decision to sign the order to proceed with the Coke extradition, and political reform. On the face of it, all of these sounded good and had their place. The powerbrokers, his handlers and advisers must have read the public outbursts, looked at some soft spots to wiggle through if he was to save his job, and come up with those three aspects for a speech formula. The question is, how far did these go in rectifying his confessed and non-confessed wrongs? So far, not far enough.

The Apology

The apology suggests that his actions were innocent and well-intentioned, aiming only to assist in a difficult situation with the United States (US). But, upon reflection, and having listened to the people, he realised that he had committed a misjudgment and many had been disappointed by it.

If Mr Golding was telling the truth to the nation last Monday night, then many of his ministers were lying by commission and omission. Daryl Vaz and Karl Samuda have to clear their names. Dorothy Lightbourne did not know the truth, or did not tell us what she knew. The ministers in foreign affairs did not know or did not say what was true or false about matters properly under their jurisdiction. The solicitor general still has to answer for what he knew and did, and whether he acted properly.

The nine months of silence, denial, deception, distraction, arrogance and confrontation, which led to the crescendo for Golding's resignation in the first place, suggests guilt rather than innocence.

His story still conflicts with what his public relations 'spinners' told us, what Manatt, Phelps & Phillips believe, what the Americans have accused his government of, what the local press has had us think and what the foreign press has written.

Reforms

Golding's apology bears a striking resemblance to the speech formula used by Ronald Reagan after his own long silence and eventual apology to Americans in 1987 in the midst of the Iran-Contra scandal. But Golding failed to do what Reagan did. Reagan appointed a commission to investigate the scandal. He then adopted its recommendations about how to fix a system which had failed to check and balance against the abuse of power that the Iran-Contra scandal had represented.

We have many truth and reconciliation bodies. The Parliament, the media, the Church, the police, the Public Service Commission and the disciplinary committee within the Jamaica Labour Party are among them. They all stand for law, morality and decency. They can still investigate and recommend fixes that Golding has failed to recommend. They can fix what went wrong with the minister of justice and her professed ignorance; the lax procedures that caused any improper behaviour the solicitor general might have been involved in; the need to make the lines between the party leader and prime minister clearer and more accountable; the means of ensuring that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in the loop in all foreign matters; and ensuring sanctions when these fail. These are the reforms he should have addressed. Instead, he has even failed to discipline any wrongdoer in the Golding-Coke-Brady-Manatt-JLP-Government of Jamaica affair.

Order to Proceed

Up until Sunday, May 16, the attorney general still had Christopher Coke's case at the Supreme Court, even though it was a case, as one newspaper headline put it, of Lightbourne versus nobody. Up till then, in other words, the Government had not intended to sign the extradition order to proceed against Coke.

By Monday night, Golding had virtually admitted that the whole extradition delay was a farce, as many had thought all along. His claim of protecting Coke's human rights was suddenly out the window. The wiretapping defence was suddenly forgotten. The case in the Supreme Court was, in effect, dead in the water. The complaints about the US being intransigent and infle-xible, and that constitutional rights did not begin in Liguanea, disappeared. The People's National Party was not being 'CIA', Portia Simpson Miller was not a 'drama queen', and the Opposition was not merely trying to grab headlines after all.

Peter Phillips said Golding had already prejudiced the case in ways that could cause more court delay.

Golding had come to the point where something had to give. The US wanted Coke's head, and the nation wanted Golding's. He was still trying to save both. All that Golding has done is bring the situation back to where it was in August 2009, not forward. He is only now doing what he should have done nine months ago.

Turn of Events

The turn of events, not conscience, has brought things to a head. Samuda admitted on April 27 that Jamaica Labour Party persons asked Harold Brady to hire Manatt, Phelps & Phillips (MPP) to, in my view, lobby for Coke. At that very time, Golding was away bird shooting in Paraguay. Was he anticipating that Samuda's admission might cascade into more questions that could force him to speak of his own role, which it did?

Probably the arrest of Shower Posse members in Toronto on May 3 also had something to do with it. Golding made his own admission of sanctioning the contact with MPP in Parliament one week later. This quickly snowballed into demands for his resignation. The very real possibility had arisen that Shower Posse members arrested could cut a plea bargain that could implicate Coke. This would mean that since both the US and Canada would want him, the chance that one would get him if the other one didn't, greatly increased. He could also be demanded by the Canadians on grounds that his lawyer could find little to delay and defend him on, in contrast to the US request.

Tivoli is blockaded. The American Embassy's warning of "possible civil unrest throughout Jamaica" might still come true. The leader of the Opposition has asked Golding to protect innocent lives in his constituency. We'll see if Golding has moral authority to be listened to even there.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm or columns@gleanerjm.com .