Only Karl Samuda, the JLP general secretary believes that the cancellation of the visitor’s visa of Wayne Chen, a JLP functionary and the chairman of the Urban Development Corporation, by the US State Department is an isolated act.  Wayne Chen discovered this week that his visitor’s visa had been cancelled for more than a month.  He discovered this when he tried to make a trip with his family to the USA.

Karl Samuda has rubbished the idea that other visas have also been cancelled by the State department and this is part of the political response of the US to the refusal of the Golding administration to comply with US request to extradite one of their own, Christopher ‘Dudus Coke’, to answer drug and firearm charges in the US.  One is not sure if one should laugh or cry for Karl Samuda or if his display is buffoonery or arrogance.

The rest of us are quite clear that this is what we feared, that the US would have to take action to ensure that American laws are complied with, so consequences will have to flow.  At the time of writing I was unable to confirm whether speculations that the US embassy has temporarily ceased issuing visitor’s visa to Jamaican citizens were well based.  Sources would neither confirm nor deny whether this was so.  It is clear that this is the first salvo, and the second is the report from the US state department that dire consequences would follow if Jamaica does not promptly extradite those that the US has charged.

The US has said that failure to do so could lead to deterioration in the diplomatic relations between the US and Jamaica.  I hope this is not lost on the rest of us, as it appears to be on Karl Samuda.  It could mean anything from reduction in the available quota of visitor’s visa and work permits granted to Jamaicans, as well as to travel restrictions; it could eventually mean even as much as no fly.  It is remarkable the mess that the Golding administration has put Jamaica into because of this one man.  It is incalculable the damage done to Jamaica’s good name.

Warn and cajole

Those from the chattering classes that keep making excuses for this lot will have their day coming.  It is not going to be pretty from here on out for Jamaica and Jamaicans.  We had better wake up and smell the coffee.  Over the last six months I have mentioned this matter in at least a dozen columns.  I have warned and cajoled.  I am not alone in this; David Rowe using his column on the pages of the Sunday Herald and his every appearance on Jamaican media has been unequivocal.  He has warned of real and present danger.  In my column of November 1 2009, I wrote as follows:

What the historical parallels make undeniable is that the refusal to comply with an extradition request is regarded by the JLP as having a significant bearing on the international relationships.  In the past, the JLP, however ill-advised, with great braying and prancing and beating of the chest, severed the international relationship with Cuba on the pretext that Cuba refused to extradite criminals wanted by the Jamaican authorities.

Perish the thought but imagine for a minute that the US was to take a similar position on this matter now to the position taken by then by the Seaga administration of the 1980s. I am not sure what is the consequence of not having a US Ambassador in Jamaica, but my general understanding is that the presence of an Ambassador usually indicates the degree of value placed on the relationship between the countries that exchange ambassadors, and the amount of business conducted between the two countries.

Eleven months is not a terribly long time.  And the Observer, which first published the story of the absence of the Ambassador, has indicated that 11 months without a US Ambassador in Jamaica is not unprecedented.  It did not bother to tell us which delay in the past in naming a US Ambassador to Jamaica was longer.  I was unable to find any period when the gap between US Ambassadors to Jamaica was greater than six months.

What conclusion must we draw?  Must we conclude that the USA is less valued than it used to be to Jamaica and that Jamaica is less important than it used to be to USA?  Whatever happened to “our man in the Caribbean” the designation given by US President Ronald Reagan to Edward Seaga in the 1980s?

The more important question is why would the JLP, under the watch of Bruce Golding, be prepared to overturn their own Magna Carta?

Savaging the standard

The PM has said he would rather pay the political price than extradite ‘Dudus’ Coke on the evidence so far proffered by the USA.  This administration listens only to its sycophants and to the embedded media.  It might however suit the PM well to remember that our Constitution preserves a role for others more competent than himself to assess the quality of evidence.  They are called the judiciary.  And after all, it was the nation’s interest not the interest of the Labour Party or Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke for which we elected him to defend.

The Golding administration has come to the belief that they can do anything and get away with it.  They increased the gas tax twice in a single budget year without a hint of protest.  They therefore concluded that the Opposition has no presence in the streets and they can simply make general announcements even when they are savaging the standard of living of the Jamaican population.

They are going to close down Air Jamaican early April and end the careers of more than 900 workers.

Only the Air Jamaica workers have protested, and even so it is muted and without real energy.  In the words of Bob Marley, the members of the Golding administration say to themselves, “No one can stop us now.”  And so they thumb their noses at the mighty USA flouting their laws dishonoring treaty obligation and thinking it is business as usual.  Well this week, there was a reminder that it is not business as usual.  Some people do take their laws seriously.

What to expect

What therefore can we expect in the near turn?  In the first place there is precedence for the Golding administration changing course.  It twice resiled from imposing GCT on toilet paper and salt last year, because of public pressure.  Let us hope that however late in the day good sense prevails and they set in motion the process for the matters of criminal charges to be tested in the courts.  It might be too late for the Jamaican courts, so at least it will be tested in the US jurisprudence.

Secondly, I would like to hear from the parliamentary Opposition.  I hope they find the confidence to speak of the proud record of international cooperation, legislative foundation, and political will to stamp out criminality and violence as part of the DNA of this country.  I want to hear them say that Jamaica deserves better and is capable of better than what has come to describe us under the Golding administration.

We are not a Banana Republic; we need not become a failed state; we have honoured our obligations and paid our debts.  Default and dishonour are not our middle name.  The least that the Opposition can do is to seek a no confidence motion in the stewardship of the Prime Minister in respect of the national interest.

The people of this country need to get in on this.  This is not for the political class and the high-minded.  This is for all of us.  This is our country.  We need to stand up for Jamaica’s good name and for the rule of law.  We need to do this in the name of our forefathers and foremothers who fought and paid in drops of sweat of tears and of blood for this our Motherland.

We need to speak up for our children.  We do not want them to be forced to leave this country, as they were forced in the days of Crown Colony government and in the 1960s, when they saw no hope and no future in this country.  Let us speak because others have spoken and now it is our turn, we can do no less.  Here we stand, so help us God.