Epic battle! - Short-term memory loss, long-term recollections at Manatt-Dudus enquiry
Published:Sunday | March 13, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Correction & Clarification
The Sunday Gleaner reported that a general election was held in Jamaica in 2005 which is incorrect. Also Senator K.D. Knight was referred to as a Member of Parliament and he is not. We regret these errors.
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
IT WAS billed as a looming epic battle, but the bomb that threatened to smash the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry to smithereens was a four-word accusation hurled at K.D. Knight by Dorothy Lightbourne last Thursday.
"All Labourite fi dead" was hardly the damning evidence expected by attorneys and observers at the enquiry, but it was enough to ignite Knight's fiery temper, as well as those of other Comrades at the Jamaica Conference Centre.
As Lightbourne, the justice minister and attorney general, hurled "the venomous words", as Knight described it, at the attorney representing the People's National Party, igniting a scathing verbal confrontation, the trio of commissioners - chairman Emil George, Donald Scharschmidt, and Anthony Irons - hastily retreated to chambers to find a way to defuse the verbal bombshell.
During the weeklong, intense cross-examination featuring short-term memory loss and long-term recollections, short tempers and long tongues, Lightbourne claimed that 31 years ago, in the aftermath of the violent general election of 1980, Knight kicked the chair on which she was sitting and declared, "All Labourite fi dead".
To describe Knight's belated reaction as furious would be an understatement.
Admired and despised for his robust style of cross-examination, Knight pronounced himself the aggrieved party and demanded an unequivocal apology and withdrawal of the "offensive" remark.
The hearings crashed to a premature end after Knight refused to accept the apology Lightbourne tendered to the commission after a 10-minute disruption of the proceedings.
As temperatures soared to boiling point among party faithful, George abruptly called it a day, but not before security reinforcements had filed into the conference centre.
As people gathered for Friday morning's proceedings, there was a heightened sense of tension, but Knight and Lightbourne appeared to have slept off the previous day's discomfiture, and after an hourlong meeting among the lawyers and commissioners, Lightbourne "withdrew" the controversial comment.
Knight was soon back to his acerbic self, however, describing as "faulty" Lightbourne's memory of the reported 1981 incident.
Without stating that he accepted the 'apology' from Lightbourne, Knight declared that the people's business was bigger than the antagonists, bringing an end to the dispute, to the obvious relief of George and his fellow commissioners.
Intense Week
It was the most intense week of the hearings so far, with the earlier duels involving Hugh Small, the prime minister's attorney, and former Minister of National Security Dr Peter Phillips paling in comparison.
The face-off between Phillips and Frank Phipps, the attorney for the Jamaica Labour Party, was blistering, but could not match last week's crosstalk.
Lightbourne would not make eye contact with Knight as she kept her eyes glued on the chairman of the commission of enquiry.
For every question Knight asked, Lightbourne would start out with, "Mr Chairman" - no acknowledgement of the man who was asking the questions.
Notwithstanding, she could not resist a sharp retort to Knight's snide remarks. If Knight threw a verbal uppercut, Lightbourne would counter with a jab.
She steadfastly refused to respond to his questions with a simple yes or no.
As she persisted on "elaborating" on and "clarifying" just about every response she tendered, Knight declared, "You chat too much!"
Another time he said: "I am exasperated!"
And when Knight said he hoped that no law student was listening to her responses, Lightbourne retorted that they should not be listening to his method of cross-examination.
One of Lightbourne's stock responses as Knight pressed for terse answers was: "I am not allowing you to put words in my mouth."
It was the need to respond to every comment from Knight that led to Lightbourne's seemingly innocuous "All Labourite fi dead" allegation that temporarily threw the commission in disarray.
The justice minister held her position that Christopher 'Dudus' Coke's constitutional rights were breached with the use of wiretapping evidence which, she argued, had been illegally obtained.
She insisted that outside of the wiretapping, there was not adequate evidence to establish a prima facie case against Coke.
But under cross-examination from Knight, Lightbourne maintained that her later signing the extradition request was not a dereliction of duty on her part as she was forced to do so under Section 13 of the Constitution - in the public's interest.
Lightbourne claimed that a near riot, sparked by the clamours for the resignation of the prime minister, forced her hand.
- A 31-year itch
Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, incumbent attorney general, testified last week to remembering an ugly incident from 31 years ago in which People's National Party senator and lawyer, K.D. Knight, allegedly kicked her chair and said, "All Labourite fi dead."
Over the last three decades, much has happened in Jamaica. Here are a few highlights:
The nation's population swelled by over 400,000 births.
The country has had:
Five prime ministers Edward Seaga (1980-1989)
Michael Manley (1989-1992)
P.J. Patterson (1992-2006)
Portia Simpson Miller (2006-2007)
Bruce Golding (2007 to present)
Six attorneys general
Winston Spaulding, QC (1980-1986)
Oswald Harding, QC (1986-1989)
Raphael Carl Rattray, QC (1989-1993)
David Coore, QC (1993-1995)
Arnold J. Nicholson, QC (1995-2007)
Dorothy Lightbourne (2007 to present)
Seven general elections
Dates: 1983, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2005, & 2007
Three major incursions in west Kingston
July 2001May 2007
May 2010
Four governors general
Sir Florizel Glasspole (Started in 1973-1991)
Sir Howard Cooke (1991-2006)
Sir Kenneth Hall (2006-2009)
Sir Patrick Allen (2009 to present)
Nine police commissioners
William Bowes (1980-1982)
Joe E. Williams (1982-1984)
Herman E. Ricketts (1984-1991)
Roy Thompson (1991-1993)
Col Trevor MacMillan (1993-1996)
Francis Forbes (1996-2005)
Lucius Thomas (2005-2007)
Rear Admiral H.M. Lewin (2007-2009)
Owen Ellington (2009 to present)
Number of persons murdered:
27,424 (as at December 2010)
Commissions of enquiry
Esso Fire
Eventide Home Fire
Gilbert Zinc (1988-9)