Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights
The clamor has begun anew: With the furor of the Christopher "Dudus" Coke quagmire recently abated, the People National's Party (PNP) has sounded a clarion call for an independent investigation in to the connection between Prime Minister Bruce Golding and the Jamaican government's role in hiring U.S. law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to halt the extradition of accused gunrunner and drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke.
Recently unearthed e-mail correspondences indicate clear complicity between Golding's associates as well as an attempt to protect Coke and circumvent the extradition request. The e-mails, which span a seven-month period from September 2009 to March 2010, indicate that Manatt had acted on the behalf of the Jamaican government and not as the Prime Minister had claimed, by its evil twin, the Jamaica Labor Party.
According to the Sunday edition of the Jamaica Gleaner:
"E-mail correspondence involving Solicitor General Douglas Leys, JLP local attorney and facilitator Harold Brady, and officials of the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips confirms that the United States law firm was working on behalf of the Golding-led Government of Jamaica, even if it had been engaged by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). The e-mails also include directions from Manatt for the solicitor general to write to a high-ranking member of the U.S. Justice Department seeking clearance on a proposed press release to be issued locally during the heat of the 'Dudus' controversy. The first e-mail contact between Leys and Manatt came on September 19, less than one month after the Government received the extradition request for Coke."
In May, after much hand-wringing, truth-bending and political maneuvering, Golding gave in to mounting local and U.S. pressure to sign Coke's extradition warrant, resulting in an unprecedented escalation of violence in West Kingston and surrounding environments that left more than 100 people dead, hundreds wounded and substantial damage to Kingston's infrastructure and businesses estimated in excess of J$100 million.
The e-mails also indicate that the Prime Minister and the Attorney General were updated at intervals on the discussions and were apparently involved in decisions, regarding the United States and the Coke issue.
Even though the e-mails prove that Golding and his team were behind the Coke fiasco, Golding survived a no-confidence vote initiated by the People's National Party and has promised to institute social programs in garrison communities.
And while there are some who still publicly voice that given the recent evidence Golding should resign - PNP President Portia Simpson Miller stated that Golding is "too compromised to remain in office" - his party remains firmly behind him. Golding has survived to some degree, and has managed to retain leadership - if not his credibility.
Meanwhile, the island appears, even through the violence and corruption, to have escaped largely unscathed ... for now.