Royal mess - Dodging Daryl

Peddling information on road repair, the Canjet hostage crisis, the Haitian earthquake response, government expenditure, public broadcasting, protective vests for the police, sugar, Air Jamaica, casino, and nearly every other matter, has become the trademark of the government's information point man, Daryl Vaz.

Talk: smooth and convincing - that is as good as the information portfolio gets.

Listed among the young Turks that pushed Golding into power, Daryl Vaz was always a front-liner. An 'A'-lister in the Office of the Prime Minister, an executive member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) who was soon to get his powerful portfolio as information czar.

But power, of talk or otherwise, is not absolute, and a blunt blow from Dr Peter Phillips in Parliament flung the sleek salesman and his well-pitched portfolio into a crisis.

Willingly or unwillingly, he scrambled to sort out the mess of the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair.

From the front line, Vaz was to become the voice of the defence. Well, until he was temporarily relieved of the strain by JLP General Secretary Karl Samuda.

Challenged for proof

Buttressed by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Vaz challenged anyone to provide proof that the firm had been contracted by the Government.

His was the voice that demanded explanation from local attorney Harold Brady as to why the Government of Jamaica had been named as the contractor of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

Vaz also demanded that Brady provide proof that "an error" in the documents filed with the US Department of Justice had been corrected.

However, the amendment posted by Manatt was well short of a correction, and put more ammunition in the hands of opposition People's National Party (PNP), which argued that there was something "fishy" in the arrangement.

It was expected that the Government would shine more light on the matter, but Vaz, the astute salesman, had little to sell.

"I have been told that something was delivered to my office, but I'm not in office until Monday, so I don't know what the contents are," Vaz told The Sunday Gleaner.

That was not enough for the opposition leader: "Should Mr Brady be found to have misrepresented the Government, severe and immediate sanctions are required," said Portia Simpson Miller.

Information passed on

By the following Monday, Vaz was reporting that the information submitted by Brady had been passed on to the solicitor general.

Vaz told a post-Cabinet media briefing that he had received word from Solicitor General Douglas Leys that a response to documents submitted by Brady would be announced.

Leys was asked by the Government to examine documents submitted by Brady, which should prove his argument that the US law firm's claim that it was acting on behalf of Jamaica was an error, which was corrected.

But Brady's response became feisty and dismissive. Vaz said little, and the public demanded more.

A brewing confrontation with Brady was fast and furiously morphing into a public brawl. Vaz was blasted as being either "daft", or withholding information. He declined to respond to allegations by Brady that he knew more about the issue than he was willing to say.

Vaz's smooth talking could not soothe the raging monster that the Manatt mystery had become.

It was riling his party members even as it bolstered the Opposition. Silence was the only solace.

But silence is not allowed with the information portfolio. He was later stacked with the job of reinforcing the prime minister's parliamentary explanations. He had no choice but to mouth the party's line and stick to the script.

"The prime minister was right in deciding not to address the Manatt issue," Vaz declared after the Budget presentation.

According to Vaz, had the prime minister addressed the issue, it would have detracted the attention from the announced increased National Housing Trust benefits, and other issues.

Once again, the press would not allow Vaz the privilege of pandering to his party.

Journalists rocked him with a barrage of questions at the post-Cabinet briefings. But he was adamant, as he pointed the news gatherers back to the prime minister's declarations in Parliament.

His tongue would not be drawn on the matter.

"I have nothing else to add," he told probing journalists.

But that has failed to satisfy, and the demands continue for more information, as the public seeks to find out just what he did know.