PNP still uneasy over selection for commission
Published:Tuesday | October 26, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
THE PARLIAMENTARY Opposition continues to express discontent over the way in which Prime Minister Bruce Golding has configured a commission of enquiry into the issues surrounding the extradition request for former west Kingston strongman Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller told Golding in a letter yesterday that "the ill-advised process that you chose to adopt has served to cast a giant shadow over the commission even before any announcement as to when it will begin, and where it will conduct, its proceedings".
Golding last week announced the appointment of former senator Emil George to chair a three-man commission of enquiry to examine the issues related to the extradition request and the circumstances under which United States law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips was retained.
The Opposition has contended that the appointment was made without consultation and that it breached a 2004 agreement forged between former prime ministers P.J. Patterson and Edward Seaga that commissions of enquiry be subject to discussions between the Government and the Opposition.
"You will agree that the matters to be inquired into include adherence to the rule of law, the role of Government, threats to the integrity of Parliament, and the separation of party and Government - issues which are fundamental to the proper practice of good governance in our country," Simpson Miller said in her letter.
Consultation exercise necessary
She argued that "the weightiness of the history-making issues that are to be inquired into, the widespread calls for the establishment of an independent commission, and the far-reaching interest that has been displayed by so many sectors of the society must certainly have impelled a prime minister, who is wedded to the cause of inclusiveness and transparency, to conduct a consultation exercise beyond the ordinary".
Simpson Miller added: "And more so, since your own conduct and actions constitute the axis around which the enquiry will inevitably spin."
Golding has admitted to sanctioning the engagement of Manatt, which attempted to lobby the US Government on the Coke extradition matter while the Jamaican Government delayed signing the authority to proceed against him for nine months.
Coke, a supporter of Golding's Jamaica Labour Party, was wanted in the US for drug and gun trafficking.
Meanwhile, the People's National Party Region Two, which covers the parishes of St Thomas, Portland, and St Mary, on Sunday called for Golding to rescind the appointment of the commissioners.
The group said there should be "appropriate and effective consultation" with Simpson Miller, as well as members of civil society, to include the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, Jamaicans for Justice, and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.