The children of 'Dudusgate'

A.J. Nicholson, Contributor

Jamaica's 49th year as an independent nation has taken off on its journey, with 'Dudusgate' and its progeny snapping at its heels. It was a long night of distress that enveloped Year 48, and the hundreds-pound gorilla which was created by, and which haunts Jamaica House has spawned many children.

The most dangerous and divisive of that brood is the plan that was conceptualised to re-make Prime Minister Bruce Golding as the arch-crime fighter, and which was envisaged to redound to the benefit of his electoral fortunes whenever the next general elections are called.

That plan, this child of 'Dudusgate', was not a proper platform on which to erect the security programme of the nation, and the struggle to have the horrendous spilling of blood on our soil recede and eventually dissipate. It was an ill-advised and disuniting plan, precisely because any criticism or suggestion coming from any quarter, in particular, from the parliamentary Opposition, would be portrayed by the planners and their companion influential voices as coming from a source that is not to be seen as "part of the fight against crime and corruption".

So, we have witnessed the venom that was cast at the Opposition and the gradual reversal in reaction to the consideration by the House of Representatives of the extension of the life of another child of the gorilla - the imposition of a state of public emergency in parts of the country. Influenced by the plan, it was deemed that the undergarments of the Opposition were showing, and not clean; the People's National Party is the party of the lumpen; voices will cry from the grave. It soon morphed into whether the Government had tricked the Opposition; whether the Opposition had fallen into a trap; told you not to write off Bruce Golding politically.

What on earth are we doing to ourselves? Is this the modus that we intend to adopt as we approach the 50th year, pushing our security programme with outlandish pronouncements and the interplay between questions of trickery and political gimmickry? Are we really serious about tackling the monster? On a living-in-peace issue that should invite and attract consensus from every quarter, divisiveness is being pushed by influential voices?

One-month extension

And, in reality, we could have been experiencing such a different feeling today, on this first Sunday in the 49th year journey, had the prime minister himself not been caught up in the web of that enervating plan. For, Jamaicans are entitled to expect that a thinking leader of government, not shackled by any such plan, and accommodating the imperative of having his people coalesce around the fight against the monster, would have managed the request for extending the state of emergency with a credible and trustworthy offering as we approached the marking of 'Emancipendence'.

The extended life of the two-month offspring of 'Dudusgate' was due to expire on Thursday, July 22. A prudent and thinking head of government on Thursday, July 15, one week before, would summon the leadership of the security forces to inquire of them, bearing in mind their original request for a proclamation of a three-month period, what was their present position on the matter. The reply would have been for a further one-month extension, as the commissioner of police later affirmed.

Immediately, the fore-warnings of the Opposition when the first extension was sought; questions raised by lawyers and human rights campaigners in the interim; and, generally, his own determination to attempt to unite the country around the issue, would have sent a strong signal into the brain of a focused prime minister. So, having told the security leaders that he would get back to them, he would have a call placed to the leader of the opposition.

On a matter of such general public importance, the leader of the opposition would be obliged to answer the prime minister's request for an urgent meeting. That week-end meeting would have been properly advised of the 31 affirmative votes - a majority vote of all the members of the House - that was necessary for the motion to be carried, and that an extension may be sought for one day and up to 365 days. Those procedural matters would be out of the way.

Both sides would have put forward their views on the proposal for the extension and, of course, as soon as the 15-day suggestion came from the Opposition, a focused and thinking prime minister would foresee several possibilities: an opportunity to address, in the House of Representatives, the questions raised relating to the constitutionality of the request for an extension; matters concerning the management and use of the emergency powers; and, as far as prudence would allow, certain strategies to be put in place after the period of emergency comes to an end.

He would be keenly aware that he may not convince everyone by his arguments, but he would have paid the courtesy of addressing the issues as he saw them, stressing that, rightly or wrongly, his best advice was that the request is based on sound constitutional grounds, and indicating the plans for accelerated improvement of the criminal justice system. And, with a visionary outlook, the House would re-convene between Emancipation Day and Independence Day for the further extension, since the 15-day period would come to an end on Thursday, August 5.

Rallying of the nation

A rallying of the nation by himself and the leader of the opposition from Gordon House, to begin the 49th year journey would not only be innovative and impactful, it would also be a display of class and style.

After meeting with the Opposition, he should easily convince his Cabinet and the leadership of the security forces that he has to adopt a Solomonic approach concerning the demands of the people. As a thinking head of government, he would advise them that he did not share the views of some people that the citizens of Jamaica place security above abuses by State operatives; that he was convinced that what the people want, equally, is both security and justice and he had to seek to find common ground in the highest court of the land; that he had to lead the drive to erect a platform of consensus-building in the society, certainly on issues relating to justice and security. The general reaction to the later awful-looking Buckfield incident would have borne out his truth.

Had the prime minister and members of parliament gathered at Gordon House with that kind of preparation, passion and perception in the interest of the people's business when the second extension of the period of the state of emergency was sought, we would be moved, today, by the hope that we were striving to travel in the right direction.

The dividing line

The dangerously divisive plan, spawned by 'Dudusgate', prevented that from happening. As it was, the House of Representatives was caught between the dividing line of security being argued for by the Government, and justice being argued for by the Opposition, when the cry from the people is a demand for both. With focused leadership, it could have been so very different.

Another of the children of 'Dudusgate' bestrides the Upper House as a dividing line between the Opposition and government senators. The 13 government senators are still on record as endorsing Prime Minister Bruce Golding's role in the creation of the gorilla, and they insist to this day, that he did nothing wrong. Those senators have had real opportunities to withdraw that imprudent endorsement and apologise to the nation - none more so than when the censure motion was brought against the minister of justice and leader of government business for her own role in 'Dudusgate'.

With the motion destined to be defeated by their numbers, what better time for each of the 12 who had given that outrageous endorsement to have withdrawn it gracefully, seeking the forgiveness of the people who they serve, by an open and frank apology? As it is, as has been said elsewhere, "everything that these senators say and do must be viewed against the background of this very telling failure on their part to concede, as did Mr. Bruce Golding, that his role in 'Dudusgate' was unwholesome and downright wrong.

For a country that purports to be striving to move in the right direction, this is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs for its Upper House to be in. Most unsatisfactory, indeed". The opposition senators and all Jamaica await that concession, beginning the process of removing that child of the gorilla from the chamber.

So, there are disturbing dividing lines in Jamaica's houses of parliament - a reflection of what obtains generally in the society. And the children of 'Dudusgate' continue to be allowed a free rein to influence the public agenda in ways that can only wreak havoc on our governance processes.

A fruitful 49th year journey requires that Jamaica be allowed to exhale. And the nation will only begin to breathe freely, and the gorilla will only be removed from Jamaica House and its brood put to flight, when the mountain of questions is allowed the space to be fully answered in an independent enquiry, led by local and foreign persons of trust and distinction.

A.J. Nicholson is Opposition spokesman on justice. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.