Sure justice

Robert Buddan, Gleaner Writer

The arrest, extradition and arraignment of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke in just a few days between June 22 and 25 was a demonstration of the swift justice we can have if we really try. In four days, Coke was arrested, taken to a local court where he waived his rights against a local trial, was flown to New York, arraigned in a New York court and pled not guilty to charges.

These four days of swift justice followed 10 months of delay on spurious grounds by the Jamaican government. There was an additional month of a curious search and arrest of Coke. It shows how we can delay justice when we want to. This delay followed a period of tragically slow justice. Whether justice is swift or slow, we hope, in the end, we will have sure justice. Sure justice must be legal, political and social because many issues need to be tried in the court of law, public opinion and social policy.

The issues for the court will be argued there. Matters of public affairs relevant to our democracy and specifically to just governance, which the court of public opinion should consider, are separate matters for public debate. The Government claimed two principles for defending Coke from extradition - his constitutional rights and Jamaica's sovereignty. In the process, it put our entire system of democracy and governance on trial for the world to see. We shouldn't expect a kind verdict.

Constitutional Right

The Jamaican government defended Coke's constitutional right on at least six changing grounds as the basis for refusing his extradition. They amounted to saying Coke's rights were prejudiced. In the end though, the Government turned against Coke's rights without any new argument as to why those six grounds no longer held credence. Yet, Coke himself, once he was arrested, waived his constitutional rights against extradition on all grounds. We are left to wonder why Coke, his lawyers and the Government had not simply avoided the farce of those spurious defence arguments and saved the country the pain and embarrassment of those 10 months of intrigue and deceit.

Jamaican-born constitutional lawyer and Florida law professor David Rowe had suggested from early that Coke avail himself of the services of a Jamaican or American court. Rowe's opinions have been respected well enough for local and international media to have regularly asked for it. If Coke was serious in repentance at his hearing when he said he turned himself in out of consideration of what was best for his family, community and country, then he took a long time under obviously misguided advice to come to this conclusion. It was this misguidance, the People's National Party (PNP) charged, that emboldened Coke to believe his rights should be defended, even so violently as to cause the death of more than 70 and some say over 100 persons in the attack on Coke, his family, and community not counting the attack by the international press on our nation's integrity.

Sovereignty

By waiving his rights to trial in Jamaica and against the extradition, Coke's actions raise serious questions about the government's role in the affair. Mr Golding admitted to sanctioning the engagement of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips (MPP) in the matter to sort out a treaty 'dispute' with the United States (US). Why could his learned lawyers not have advised him that if Professor Rowe's advice was followed there would be no treaty dispute and no need to retain MPP? He could have avoided the public damage he has caused himself, his party, government and country.

The other curiosity is over the matter of sovereignty. The prime minister himself defended his government's actions in Parliament on the grounds of sovereignty. He would not allow constitutional rights to be decided in Liguanea where the US Embassy symbolises US power. He would be willing to pay the political price to prevent this. But Golding turned around to launch an attack on the rights of Coke, rights his government had spent the previous nine months defending. In the process, he also attacked the rights of those citizens of Tivoli Gardens who were not in league with Coke and his organisation. This sudden about-face might have resulted from pressure from Liguanea. Some say it came from President Obama himself. It did come just two weeks before a top-level meeting between the US and CARICOM governments on drugs and security sanctioned by Obama.

More revealing was the fact that the Reverend Al Miller was the driver of the car in which Jamaica's most wanted fugitive, Christopher Coke, was found by the police. The reverend also happens to be director of the National Transformation Programme (NTP) which operates from within the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). The police charged the reverend with perverting the course of justice and harbouring a fugitive. The Reverend Miller himself said, in his defence, that he was transporting Coke to the US Embassy, the same place in Liguanea about which his boss, the prime minister, spoke out against.

It seems more than curious that Miller was also engaged in a police and international matter in which he did not have the authority of the police or the US to act. Does he even know the law of international jurisdiction or the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Law? Private citizens cannot intercede in such matters just so. Worse, the reverend was transporting a fugitive, not to the Jamaican authorities, but to the American authorities in violation of the sovereignty of the country his boss said he would protect at whatever political price.

The Political Price

A cross-section of Jamaican organisations has called upon Golding to resign. So far, only the former junior minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade has stepped down. In the days following Coke's departure from Jamaica, the PNP asked Golding to sack Reverend Miller. He has not. The PNP's senators have introduced a motion of censure against the minister of justice and attorney general for justice delayed now that events have proven that they need not have been. The political price has not been paid.

Public opinion polls have shown that Golding and his government stand guilty in the court of public opinion. Jamaicans disagree with the way the Coke extradition was handled. They fear the damage it has caused relations with the US. Their support for Golding as prime minister has fallen well below that of the leader of the Opposition. Their support for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has fallen far below that of the PNP. They believe the JLP is more corrupt than the PNP. The political price is to be served at the next elections when voters act as jurors of democracy.

What of social justice? We must attack poverty and underdevelopment in our communities. A recent New York Times report says that shootings in two poorer, black neighbourhoods of Brooklyn were 81 times higher than a nearby better off, white neighbourhood. Poverty, racial and class discrimination, guns, drugs, crime and violence exist independently of the PNP and JLP. If we don't give people social justice we all will pay the price.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm or columns@gleanerjm.com.