Erasing the corruption stain
Published:Tuesday | July 6, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Editor, Sir:
Gary Spaulding had an interesting article in The Sunday Gleaner, 'Erasing the corruption stain', in which he outlined the task Burchell Whiteman and others have in trying to clean up the People's National Party's (PNP) tarnished image.
I hail this thrust by the PNP, as the reality of Jamaican politics is that it's either they or the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) that will form the government and, the latter, having lost all moral authority, recognise the apple is within their grasp.
Apparently, too, the parties seem to understand that in order not to be swept to power by tribalists only, and thus having to face a very rocky road to get support or consensus from the rest of us, they must give the thinking public a reason to trust them, hence this sudden interest in integrity and weeding out corruption.
Probe trafigura affair
However, if this new body is not to be only a face card, before they even do anything else, it must demand answers to the Trafigura affair and share those answers with the public. For in the same way that the public will not be appeased until all is told about Manatt, Phelps & Phillips , neither will it be, until all the gory details about the underhand deal with Trafigura are told. For while it is well known that Trafigura gave the PNP $30 million, with the expectation that the then ruling party would do something, what we can't find out is exactly what was promised. Was it that Trafigura would have been allowed to dump toxic waste in Jamaica? Was it that the contract to pull Nigerian oil would have been renewed without competitive tender?
If this integrity body is to be credible, it must do a better job than previous bodies in selecting who will be allowed to represent the party in an election. Since the 2007 election, the police have been showing great interest in two of their candidates for involvement in gangs. What would have happened had these two candidates been elected to Parliament to make laws that affect the rest of us? This matter simply cannot be swept under the table.
I am, etc.,
JOAN WILLIAMS