ROPER’S PERSPECTIVE
BY GARNETT ROPER

Early in the life of the Bruce Golding political administration one of the nicknames that began to make the rounds was “Bruce Almighty”. At the time I had no patience for the nickname. I could see nothing that warranted it. However in recent times a combination of events, attitudes and pronouncements have given the name Bruce Almighty new currency.

The claim/charge of almightiness is not in the first place a charge about ability. It is a form of demagoguery in which the political leader appears to arrogate to himself powers and approaches that puts that leader beyond the reach of accountability, rules and conventions. It is a mishandling of power and people, as if neither they nor their rights matter.

The Jamaican Prime Minister can be forgiven for thinking that there are no consequences for one’s action: if one is powerful enough, one will have the numbers that matter on one’s side and by network and connections let alone strategic association make the worst examples of maladministration disappear. The recent events make that case in the way of thinking which characterizes the Jamaican Prime Minister. He has lied to his Parliament, flouted treaty obligations.

Indeed the announcement this week of the appointment of a US ambassador to Jamaica has put paid to the lie that the delay by more than 16 months in appointing a US ambassador had nothing to do with the failure to extradite Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke. So soon as Jamaica has complied with its treaty obligations and has extradited Dudus a US ambassador has been appointed.

Yet Bruce Golding was prepared to subject the national interest to his ill-conceived brinksmanship in interest of his constituent and the Jamaica Labour Party. And as suddenly as anything else Bruce Almighty has began to proceed in the opposite direction from the one in which he had set his face for 10 painful months. He authorized the signing of the extradition for Christopher Coke and with the help, fortuitous or otherwise, of a paid member of the Jamaica House staff managed a swift extradition of Mr. Coke to the USA.

In pursuit of the his re-minting of the image of Bruce Almighty as crime fighter in chief, over 70 members of the said political constituency were slaughtered in illadvised resistance against the security forces. Since that time, hundreds of Jamaican young men have had their civil liberties taken away. Unlike those from West Kingston that had resisted the security forces in the Labour Day war (under a Labour Party Government) these young men who have been kept in detention, some for more than six weeks), with no specific charges being made against them. Human rights organizations and certain conscientious members of the legal fraternity have begun to paint a picture of conditions of detention, which are most certainly in violation of international standards.

The mass detention of young men from communities in the eastern half of the island and the dismantling of Tivoli have resulted in the precipitous decline in violent crimes.

record. It has not however solved crime. Sooner rather than later those now detained will have to be returned to the communities from which they have been taken and when they do, they are more likely to be bitter than broken. All of this however, is an effort to re-mint the image of the PM; it is to salvage the reputation of compromised, arrogant and no doubt corrupt political administration.

Disrespectful statement

There is a shrillness to the pronouncements from the administration. In the case of the PM he has been testing the waters to see if he still has the magic or power in his voice. Recently, he directed his attention with all the shouts of the despotic and the desperate to the Portmore Municipal Council. He told the PMC to comply with the most recent ruling of the Attorney General or he would dissolve the Portmore Municipal Council.

If that is not the voice of a despot, I am not sure what that is. It is the PM attempting to jump on a proverbial “weak fence” and bully the people of Portmore because in the opinion of Bruce Golding they lack political clout. They do not have amongst them, the movers and shakers that one associates with the people of upper St Andrew. They are little people who get the power to govern themselves by the discretion of political authority. In the mind of Bruce Golding such discretion can be taken away the caprice and whim of the PM or more precisely the Minister of Local Government.

It is a disrespectful statement.

The people of Portmore deserve their autonomy. It is not up to Bruce Almighty or anyone else to take it away at will. He has said this in order to see if he has still got it. He wants to know if people will quake and shiver when he thunders from on high. The statement by the PM and Minister of Local Government directed at the PMC is not merely disrespectful it is ill conceived.

The Mayor of Portmore and each elected councillor on the PMC (when they chair committees) ought to be able to have an original vote and a casting vote. That this is not the case is an omission that ought to have been corrected by the necessary amendments.

To accuse the PMC of lawbreaking simply for operationalizing the mechanism utilized by every other parish council to break deadlocks in decision making and further to threaten to abolish them is misconceived.

Every PC in Jamaica breaks a tie at the level of Council or the Committees of Council by the Chairman exercising the casting vote. Bruce Golding is saying that it is ipso facto wrong for that to be done in the PMC. Once again Bruce Golding is arrogating to himself the powers of the courts.

He did this in the case of Mr. Coke’s extradition and was made to eat crow but he has learnt nothing. If he respected the people of Portmore and their municipal council, he would have invited them to a meeting and enjoined legal counsel to find the best resolution to the matter without this betrayal of the arrogance of power.

Tribalistic politics

Worse than being disrespectful and ill-conceived, the threat of the PM is contradictory of the expressed position of the PM and the JLP. The PM has promised to abolish the post of Minister of Local Government. Such a position as minister is not relevant to the proposed reform of Local Government that will preserve the autonomy of local government. How does he now threaten to use the power of the minister against local government in the instant case the PMC. This is self-contradictory.

Secondly, the Government has given a solemn undertaking to make the city of Portmore the 15th parish in Jamaica. How does this threatened dissolution of the PMC help the administration towards the goal of making Portmore the 15th parish?

Unless of course, the promise to make Portmore the 15th parish is like Jephthah’s vow, promising more than he knows or has.

Thirdly, the threat to dissolve is an expression of rank oldstyle tribalistic politics. Bruce Almighty knows that Portmore is one of very few PNP controlled (by majority, the Mayor is JLP) councils in the island. It is power by any means fair or foul, that this is about. Bruce Almighty is operating by the logic, “If you can’t beat them dissolve them.”

Finally, I understand from some not unconnected parties to the JLP that they believe that Audley (cometh the hour cometh the man) Shaw is the man for the job. Indeed Audley has been walking around with copies of his own biography saying how wonderfully he has done with JDX and IMF and tax collections. It reminds me of the Old Testament story in the book of Isaiah repeated in the books of Kingdom, of the Rabshakeh and Sennacrib, leaders of a long ago age convinced of their almightiness.

While the Rabshakeh was threatening Jerusalem to give them a sauce from the cauldron of the almightiness of Sennacrib, Sennacrib was called away to settle a dispute at his home. The story ends with Sennacrib suffering his demise at the hand of his own.

Almightiness is something we must tremble to take up.