Prime Minister Golding of Jamaica might well have thought that with the dispatch of alleged drug baron Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to the custody of the United States of authorities, the long travail that threatened to destabilize not only Jamaica, but his own political legitimacy, had come to an end. And it is probably true to say that from the perspective of the United States, and the threat of a disruption of American-Jamaican relations, this is true. But, most likely to Mr Golding’s surprise, the issue has resurfaced, with his political credibility once again put on the line, as a result of information unearthed from American files by the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper. This information disputes some aspects of Mr Golding’s account of the matter to the Jamaican people.
Briefly, the Gleaner has printed material from documents which purport to show that Mr Golding’s assertion that discussions and negotiations with an American legal firm, Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, were undertaken by his Jamaica Labour Party, and not by, or on behalf of, the Government of Jamaica. These discussions, it would seem, were directed at permitting Golding to play for time while he tried to work out how Dudus, resident in his own parliamentary constituency, could be dealt with, without giving more and more offence to United States authorities unwilling to accept Jamaican claims that their demand for Dudus was procedurally wrong.
But the material published by the Gleaner, historically a paper deemed sympathetic to the Jamaica Labour Party, seems to implicate the Solicitor General and the Attorney General of Jamaica as being in direct contact, through a Jamaican lawyer, with the American legal firm. The firm, in turn, has insisted that this was so, and that from its perspective this was being done on the authority of the Government of Jamaica. Sensing the danger to his credibility, the Prime Minister has denied that whatever contact was made, was done with the authority of the Jamaican Cabinet, and he has now taken to the political hustings once again to explain his case to the people, and in particular, party supporters. But he has been finding that the reports in the Gleaner have credibility among the Jamaican public. They are obviously finding it difficult to believe that the intermediary who was dealing with Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, and who was known to be close to Jamaica Labour Party circles, would have sought to so directly implicate key officials of the state such as the Attorney General and the Solicitor General. And in consequence, a strong sentiment is being conveyed to the Prime Minister that these officials, at least, must be sacrificed to appease public opinion.
No doubt Golding has felt that the decisive manner in which he permitted the Jamaican security forces to hunt down Dudus, the government’s quick dispatch of the accused to the United States, followed by the government’s attempt to clean out the criminal areas while restoring the physical damage done, would have given him some political credit. This would certainly have reduced the strength of an opposition to his government’s behaviour that had clearly crossed party lines. And it would allow the government to return to giving its full attention to dealing with the country’s parlous economic situation
But the Gleaner’s disclosures, and Golding’s unpersuasive response, have resulted in an intensification of hostility, including raising the level of partisanship between the two main political parties. The government has sought to show that the People’s National Party, while in office, matched its own misdemeanours, by seeking funds from a foreign firm involved in the acquisition and sale of oil to fill its election war chest, in what has become known as the Trafigura Scandal. To this has been added publicity given to a report by the country’s Contractor General (responsible for monitoring the award of government contracts), suggesting that contracts given in 2004 to a company in which prominent persons performing public duties during the tenure of the PNP administration, were not above board. Some observers see these events as having the effect of dampening the intensity of the blame now cast by the public on the JLP, showing as they appear to do, that the PNP engaged in equally horrendous acts, and has no legitimacy for pretending that the resignation of the present government would result in any better behaviour by the their side. This sort of stance is, of course, not uncommon throughout the Caricom area where the multi-party system operates.
Golding’s present concern will be not only to protect his and his party’s political skin, but to seek to ensure that the resurrection of the controversy does not lead to negative comment in the international arena, and more particularly, negative responses by the United States government. For during the early part of the Dudus crisis it was feared in Jamaican circles that the Golding government’s attitude was beginning to have a negative effect on US-Jamaica relations, including a hesitation by the US to accredit a new ambassador to Jamaica until the crisis was resolved. But Dudus now being safely in their custody, it does not appear that the US government wishes to involve itself in the present controversy, instead, allowing the US legal firm to present a picture which the US apparently accepts as accurate.
In this regard, while the internal battle goes on, Golding must feel that given the strength of the spirit of Jamaican nationalism that has historically pervaded both main political parties, the PNP can be counted on not to allow undue negative sentiment to develop in US official circles. The government will have been buoyed by the fortuitous appearance, in the popular American magazine Newsweek, of a report indicating that Jamaica is perceived as one of the more hospitable destinations among developing countries, a sentiment no doubt attributed to the strength of the Jamaican image as a favourite tourism destination.
On the other hand, however, the Dudus crisis has given rise to widespread public discussion, emanating particularly from civil society organizations, of the need for reform of public institutions in which governments have significant influence, but which have functioned unchanged since the attainment of independence. It, and the Trafigura scandal, have also led to intense discussion on the means of financing political party operations, and in particular elections, in an era where these have become extremely costly, providing avenues for extensive domestic and external influences, leading to what increasingly appear to be perversions of the democratic process in Jamaica, as well as in the wider Caricom. Citizens of Caricom generally would well be advised to follow closely the consequences of the events that have been occurring in Jamaica. For we might well come to the conclusion that “there, but for the grace of God, go I.”
