Golding gets his day
Published:Friday | March 18, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
Prime Minister Bruce Golding is scheduled to take centre stage at the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry today, bringing to a climax almost two months of frenetic activity involving attorneys and witnesses.
The appearance is highly anticipated in the context of the controversial role Golding played in the nine-month period leading to the extradition of alleged drug lord Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
The Gleaner understands that security measures will be heightened at the Jamaica Conference Centre as throngs of supporters from both the Jamaica Labour Party he heads, as well as the rival People's National Party are expected to descend on the venue.
Hugh Small, Golding's lead attorney, should share the spotlight with the prime minister after a nine-day marathon session in the witness seat by Justice Minister and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne.
K.D. Knight and Patrick Atkinson, the lawyers aligned to the People's National Party, will square off next week with Golding.
Between August 2009 and May 2010, the Bruce Golding administration had maintained that Coke's constitutional rights were breached by, among other things, the provisions of two controversial memoranda of understanding that facilitated the sharing of wiretapping data containing Coke's conversations.
Former National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips, who Atkinson represents, has come under fire for covertly signing the MOUs with the US and the United Kingdom.
If the comments out of the enquiry are anything to go by, the prime minister will be intensely grilled on his statement that had Lightbourne opted to sign the extradition order, she would also have to sign her own resignation.
Sternest test
Golding's sternest test at the enquiry could relate to questions about his subdued about-face after public pressure was brought to bear on the Government in May 2010.
In response to queries from former national security minister, in the House of Representatives, Golding had initially disclaimed knowledge of the engagement of the US law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to assist his party or his administration out of a diplomatic imbroglio in which it had found itself after Lightbourne refused to sign the extradition request.
Golding later told Parliament that he had sanctioned the engagement of Manatt and, in doing so, elicited a thunderous backlash as the calls for his resignation came fast and furious.
Knight and Atkinson have made much of Golding's defiant pronouncement that constitutional rights do not begin at Liguanea (the location of the US Embassy) in reference to the diplomatic stand-off with the Americans.
Small has indicated that the prime minister will be available today, next Wednesday and Thursday.