Liar, Liar
The Dudus/Manatt, Phelps and Phillips (MPP) affair continues to create sinking sands beneath the feet of Bruce Golding since he and his government have once again been caught in a lie.
According to email transcripts printed by the Sunday Gleaner (August 22), there is the clear implication that both Golding and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne had more than a party interest in keeping Dudus out of the hands of US law enforcement.
It also implies that Lightbourne lied not only to the country, but to parliament in claiming that she had no knowledge of the involvement of negotiations with Manatt, previous to March this year.
The Gleaner revelations have opened a floodgate of criticism and distancing from Golding in particular, as many who have previously found it convenient to give him the benefit of the doubt, now have no doubt as to the government’s culpability regarding Dudus.
Once the Gleaner turns against Golding, it is a sure sign that his support amongst the ‘upper classes’ is damaged goods. Even several Jamaica Observer columnists (despite a recent cartoon) are asking real questions.
Golding wants the private sector and other organizations to send him questions for his answering… which is disingenuous. The appropriate place to tell the truth is parliament… but then again he has already lied to parliament.
Apparently when the going gets tough, Golding gets going, in another direction.
His recent words are instructive, “… when I got this job I understood clearly that I am accountable to the people of Jamaica, not to any board room, not to those who sit at the pinnacle of any private sector empire and not to those who own and control particular instruments of media dissemination… I am accountable to the people of Jamaica, and it is for them that I work, and it is to them that I will give account at the appropriate time”.
The appropriate time. In political parlance, that means never. With elections 2 years away, Golding intends to deny, deny, deny.
While his honeymoon with the general public has long been over, it continued with those who controlled the major media, the private sector organizations, and the Norbrook mafia. The ship, at least publicly, is deserting the rats.
Golding and his cronies have no shame. My call for his resignation, doesn’t include the entire government even though they are all accessories. Both parties are seriously deficient to meet the needs of the Jamaican people, but I accept that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) deserve, by reason of our previous insanity, a reasonable chance. Golding however, is not the person to lead Jamaica. He is morally corrupt and incompetent. Seaga knew that also.
Still, as much as he intends to hold unto power, his hands might be forced sooner than later… and not by the Jamaican people. People’s National Party (PNP) general secretary Peter Bunting suggests that several members of the JLP ‘s hierarchy might be indicted for extradition.
In my June 1 blog, “Just short of death”, I wrote these words, “News coming to me from legal circles in New York, has more than strongly hinted than a super indictment has been amended to include three top ranking Jamaica Labour Party members on charges of obstruction of justice, money laundering and conspiracy. Who are they? Well let’s say if these names ever get released in the near future, there should be little surprise. Why am I not releasing the names? Because as much faith as I have in my source, there is always a lot of politics that can play out in this situation and I wouldn’t be surprised if deals are cut with the Jamaican government and the United States justice and state departments. The level of the names could destroy the present government. I suspect that with one of the indicted, no easy deal can be cut because not only has there been several money trails leading to that person, but said person offended the US state department in an attempt to secure a safe location for Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke. The thing is that I wonder how far the US government is willing to go in this thing because as I have been told, they have been following money trails via the Dudus connection for some time. Apparently, because the justice department was slowly turning the screws on the Jamaica government instead of taking a big hammer approach, several connections were flushed out and have now made the wanted list”.
So who are these people? Well, all three are ministers in the government and only one has immunity for the time being, but not for ever.
One of the three, I’m told, was the person directly running Dudus, the direct link between the prime minister and Dudus. As I see it, one, probably two, will have to be sacrificed for the ‘greater good’. But the world is not level, and one never knows what deals are being cooked up between governments. And anyone who believes that the US government doesn’t do deals with crooks, are still living in ‘neverneverland’.
However, it is very likely that the US government will wait until after the next election to send these warrants. This is not the time to be accused of toppling a Caribbean government, even a corrupt one.
The JLP, as long as it is headed by Bruce Golding, is becoming a pariah in our nation. I wonder how long before another ‘gang of five’ or ‘western 11’ begins to emerge. With elections just 2 years to go, it is a sure bet that some are estimating their chances to become ‘prime minister’.
Golding was never respected by the ‘old guard’ JLP and draws his power mainly from the James Robertsons and Darryl Vaz’s of the party. But like any other beast that eats its children, the JLP is not above turning on itself and publicly eating its innards. It won’t take much to topple this government.
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I find it amusing how like the above cartoon, Bruce’s defenders try to find an ‘immoral equivalency’ between the PNP scandals and the JLP’s current dilemma. There is none.
No one can deny that both parties are laced with corruption but there is no comparison between the Trafigura scandal where no one died, and Golding/Dudus where several hundred people died and tens of millions damage was caused to Jamaica as a result.
And there is no two ways about it. Either Golding was himself in league with dangerous criminal elements, or he is the most incompetent leader in all Jamaica’s history, including colonial governor Edward Eyre.
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Years of brainwashing has made a large number of the American people, stupid. I don’t think that there is another country in the world where the people would so stubbornly fight against their own self-interest. Tell them that McDonalds is poisoning them and they rush to defend the right to eat toxic foods. Just to prove what? How stupid they are.
Corporations are bleeding this country dry yet people defend them with a zeal born of stupidity.
BP poisons the waters, fast foods corporations poison the children, insurance companies rip off their customers, Wall St screw the public… but idiots argue that it is un-American to put these malefactors under scrutiny or in any way regulate them. And the people always end up getting bit in the butt.
Miami taxpayers are the major financiers of the proposed new Marlins stadium, not by their will but by the commissioners who ‘represent’ them. During negotiations, attempts at determining the Marlins finances were blocked by the courts. So, the politicians negotiated in good faith and the taxpayers are left with the tab.
But good faith was not a two-way street and it turns out that the Marlins generated a $50m profit last year. Current mayor, Tomas Regalado, who to his credit as commissioner didn’t support the stadium deal, is trying to renegotiate the deal. But all he is getting from the Marlins, is the finger.
And in another story of shameful pandering to the rich, the father and son developers who bribed Broward County politicians to support their developments, have been given four year probationary terms.
Charges of bribery and perjury were dropped against Bruce and Shawn Chait, so they are not going to prison… but the politicians (Broward County commissioner Josephus Egelletion and Tamarac commissioner Patricia Atkins-Grad) they corrupted are.
So, isn’t this like arresting the crackheads because the dealers got caught and blabbed on them? I would think that it is more important to jail the corrupter than the corrupted. But being rich buys special treatment, just ask fans of Paris Hilton.
