Big problems, big distractions

Martin Henry, Contributor

We are captives of the urgent and of the immediate. Meanwhile, any number of important but not urgent matters are left to waste.

The sittings of the Manatt-Coke commission of enquiry (COE) have outpointed any daytime soap opera for popularity and are run again at nights as both the broadcast and cable television channels compete to satisfy audience demands.

Both the lawyers and the drama-addicted public, and apparently even the commissioners themselves, seem to have forgotten the terms of reference of the enquiry. The COE was established to enquire into:

1. The issues relating to the extradition request for Christopher Coke by the government of the United States of America;

2. The manner and procedure in which the said extradition request was handled by the Government of Jamaica and the role and conduct of the various public officials who handled the extradition request;

3. The circumstances in which the services of the law firm Manatt Phelps & Phillips (MPP) were engaged in relation to any or all of the matters involved, by whom were they engaged and on whose behalf they were authorised to act;

4. Whether there was any misconduct on the part of any person in any of these matters and, if so, to make recommendations as the commission sees fit for the referral of such persons to the relevant authority or disciplinary body for appropriate action.

The commission was mandated to "make a full and faithful report and recommendations concerning the aforesaid matters and transmit the same to the governor general on or before February 28, 2011". That is tomorrow. But the expensive commission and the expensive lawyers are heading into overtime with no clear end in sight for achieving the terms of reference, while media and public salivate for more drama.

The country specifically needs to know, following from the terms of reference, whether there was misconduct on the part of Bruce Golding, the prime minister and leader of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, and Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, minister of justice and attorney general, who are the principal political players; other members of the government who had a hand in the matters; and public servants who were engaged with the matters, including the solicitor general and the then police commissioner.

The COE has come to its originally appointed end without even hearing from Mr Golding and Ms Lightbourne. Instead, it has been bogged down with Dr Peter Phillips, the former minister of national security, and his 'secret' memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the government of the United States, when neither Phillips nor the MOUs seem, from this distance, central to the business of the COE, according to its terms of reference.

courtroom dramatics

And why have the commissioners surrendered the enquiry, bound hand and foot, to the lawyers? I wouldn't pretend to know much about the protocols and procedures of COEs, but I am willing to learn. Why do the people appearing before it need lawyers at all? And, if they have to have lawyers, why aren't counsel simply behind-the-scenes advisers to their clients rather than main actors on the stage, cavorting in the media limelight and converting the COE into courtroom dramatics?

more productive procedure

If the purpose of the COE is to establish the truth of the matters laid out in terms of reference Nos. 1-3, and to draw inferences of misconduct, No. 4, wouldn't it be a more productive procedure to have the participants in the matters present their version of the truth to the commission and be examined by the commissioners themselves, and other participants in the matters permitted to contradict and rebut those 'truth' statements in a controlled fashion managed by the commissioners?

Shouldn't the commissioners themselves be ferreting out the document trail against which to check the truth statements presented to them, with criminal penalties attached to destroying or altering records?

The COE has been allowed to degenerate into a colourful, telegenic battle of lawyers as point men and women for political parties and political operatives seeking to inflict maximum damage on opponents while protecting their own backs. Even when Golding and Lightbourne appear in overtime, we are not about to get any closer to the truth.

The key people who should be 'examining' Golding and Lightbourne are not Hugh Small and Frank Phipps on their side, or K.D. Knight and Patrick Atkinson as antagonists for the PNP, but former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Ronald Robinson, and Solicitor General Douglas Leys, who have presented themselves as political and public-service victim, respectively, of the alleged indiscretions of both Golding and Lightbourne. And, yes, Harold Brady, himself a lawyer, and the point man for the JLP/Government for securing the services of MPP, one of the two key events which laid the groundwork for the COE. But Brady has refused to appear before the commission.

Meanwhile, as the movie runs, delivering massive entertainment value, both actors and spectators are distracted from the root cause of the whole drama. The extradition request by the United States government and hence the need for MPP arose out of the nasty nexus between politics and crime, running back to the formation of our modern two-party political system at the end of the 1930s and the early 1940s.

This nasty nexus has spawned the garrisons which have served as the seedbed for organised crime, involving gun- and drug-running and the criminal control of entire communities. The prime minister gave a solemn undertaking for the dismantling of garrisons in his 'forgive me' speech of May 17 last year. At the top of Mr Golding's "fast track going forward" list were "measures to reverse the institutionalisation of political tribalism and garrisons as manifested in many constituencies across political lines, including my own constituency, an issue I propose to anchor in the Partnership for Transformation and with a commitment to implement the recommendations."

Who now remembers or cares about these commitments while anxiously awaiting the next episode of the Manatt-Coke COE serial?

Speaking a week before the incursion into Tivoli Gardens by the armed forces confronted by paramilitary defenders, an incursion which cost more than 70 civilian lives and that of a soldier, with many others wounded, the prime minister told the nation, "This matter of the extradition has consumed too much of our energies and attention and has led to a virtual paralysis that must be broken. The nation's business cannot continue to be disrupted and distracted by the ordeal of the last several months."

That ordeal and distraction has continued into the COE.

Meanwhile, in addition to the entrenchment of crime, the nation faces several other critical, but perhaps not burning, issues which are overshadowed by the drama of the COE, and before overshadowed by the matters which have led to the enquiry. Not least among these issues is low and declining productivity which the daytime COE TV super show will not help at all.

rising food prices

While the lawyer/actors have been playing to the gallery, increases in the price of wheat-based products have been quietly announced. This is not a blip rise. In an excellent editorial last Wednesday, 'The food crisis and Ja', The Gleaner quoted World Bank President Robert Zoellick as saying, "Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels. The [rise in prices] is already pushing millions of people into poverty and putting stress on the most vulnerable who spend more than half of their income on food."

Jamaica has always been, since the Spanish came, and always will be a net importer of food and is really fed by the imported staples wheat and rice, never mind the sentimental sloganeering of "grow what we eat, and eat what we grow". In any case, domestic food prices, already generally higher, are bound to follow the price of imported food upwards.

Our poverty level has risen from nine per cent four years ago to 16 per cent now.

Where is the political response to this escalating food/poverty crisis?

Agricultural production for virtually every crop, export and domestic alike, is well below 1960s levels. When the minister crows about increased production, what he means is that we are a little less deep in the hole of decline which we have been digging for decades, not out of it.

illiterate students

Driven by the democracy protests across the Middle East, oil is following food in an upward price spiral. Last week, a barrel cleared US$100 on world markets. We have plenty of democracy, which is one of the few positive signals from the COE, but no oil. The planning for alternatives to oil such as liquefied natural gas and coal, plus more renewables, seems to be hit by the distractions and the endless political squabbles.

To top it all off, Ruel Reid, chairman of the National Council on Education, adviser to the minister of education and principal of the once-illustrious Jamaica College, wrote in this newspaper last Wednesday that "approximately one out of every two primary-school graduates can be considered illiterate". Three quarters of the population have no skill certification.

So we haven't even got an education foundation for fighting back the major long-range, systemic challenges facing us as a nation.

Meanwhile, highly educated, cerebral, articulate - and high-priced - lawyers perform on the national stage created by the Manatt-Coke COE. And multiple thousands drop hands to watch them play in the middle of the day.

Martin Henry is a communications specialist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and medhen@gmail.com.