Golding wanted quiet resolution
Published:Thursday | March 24, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
Prime Minister Bruce Golding says he remains remorseful about the turn of events that followed the extradition request for former Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
"I regret that the (Jamaica Labour) Party became so involved," Golding told the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry during his second day of testimony yesterday.
The prime minister said his hands were forced when Justice Minister and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne was being pushed to sign the extradition request.
Golding described as "testy" the communication with the United States (US).
"Based on the response I received, the attitude of the US was strange. I got the clear impression that we were spitting in the wind," Golding asserted. "The posture of the US was that we could talk until the cows come home (but) we would not get the kind of serious consideration that we require."
Golding said based on the tension in Tivoli Gardens, he was in a haste to move the discussion to another level.
"I knew that we needed to move swiftly ... my impression was that we were not going to get anywhere. Subsequent events have validated my suspicion, the position of the US did not move one inch," declared the prime minister.
Golding also refuted claims made by former state minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Dr Ronald Robinson, that he (Robinson) went to the US to meet with representatives of the law firm, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips as a government official.
Golding's antenna
The prime minister said Robinson, a former deputy general secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), attended the meeting with attorney-at-law Harold Brady as an official of the party.
Golding told the enquiry that his antenna should have gone up when Manatt insisted that it should be retained formally after Brady sought the law firm's assistance.
"It was at that point that I should have realised that it (the extradition matter) would not go away quietly. That is what I regret," Golding said.
In response to Small's reading of excerpts from his apology in a nationwide address in May last year, in the aftermath of widespread public outcry, Golding stressed that the JLP should not have become as involved as it did.
The prime minister said the initiative to engage Manatt was triggered by the impasse which had arisen between the Government and the US over the Coke extradition request.
Golding said it was his desire at the time to see the matter resolved swiftly and easily.
"On receiving the proposal that was brought to me by Brady and Robinson to move the dialogue quietly to a higher level, I acceded to the suggestion."
He contended that similar initiatives to engage intermediaries were undertaken during the Seaga administration of the 1980s as well as the Manley and Patterson administrations of the 1990s.
"It is something that was done in the 1980s, the previous administration and by governments all over the world," declared Golding.