LETTER OF THE DAY - Whose interests are being served?
Published:Tuesday | May 11, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Editor, Sir:
While I do not wish to belabour my disgust at the present situation involving our Government's handling of the Christopher 'Dudus' affair, I must again question our prime minister's logic in choosing his present course in this matter.
Does he think this will go away if he avoids the issue long enough? Does he feel that the Jamaican people are so easily fooled by stupid statements put forth by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which have simply created more questions than answers? Does he feel that the United States (US) Government will just 'forgive and forget'?
Our dear prime minister has seemingly gone full circle in partaking in what is arguably the most clear act of garrison-style politics since our Independence, despite his proclamations to the contrary. Bruce Golding has proven that a leopard cannot change its spots and is now looking far more like the Bruce Golding of the JLP in the late 1980s and early 1990s than the angelic Bruce who created the National Democratic Movement sometime later. He must be asked if his desire for power has usurped his moralistic ideals, as that is how it appears to an outsider looking in.
Forget about extraditing Mr Coke and the legalities of that for a moment. Golding has never questioned the validity of the evidence against Mr Coke, to my knowledge, but simply the manner in which it was obtained and passed to the US authorities. How can it be that Coke has not yet been questioned or detained in Jamaica by our Jamaica Constabulary Force and asked to face the Jamaican courts on the basis of that evidence? Surely, if Golding was in a legal quandary but wanted justice to be served, he would obtain the evidence and have Dudus prosecuted and charged.
rogue state
We are precariously close to being rightly declared a rogue state. It is not a case of the US trying to 'bully' us, but clearly, a case of our stupidly using that form of reverse psychology in a feeble attempt to justify our disgraceful actions against an ally with whom we have long-standing treaties, supposedly cooperating in the fight against crime.
In any country where common decency prevailed, the Government would fold as a result of a debacle such as this. Not so in Jamaica, where instead of shame, disgrace and humiliation, our 'leaders' amazingly continue to provide us with more arrogance! Again, I ask the question: whose interests does our chief servant really serve, and why?
I am, etc.,
R.S.