PRIME Minister Bruce Golding has chosen to remain silent about the involvement of his administration in the hiring of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips to lobby the Barack Obama administration to back off on the US request to extradite Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke on drugs and gun charges. However, that has not silenced the issue.

In his much-anticipated Budget presentation on Tuesday, the prime minister talked generally about taming crime and gangs and about cooperation with the United States, but offered not a word about the disruptive issue that needs to be resolved if the country is to have a better than even chance of working through the social crisis that Mr Golding so eloquently described.

From a narrow perspective of communications strategy, the decision to remain silent is understandable.

The Budget contained some good news for contributors to the National Housing Trust (NHT), pensioners and some other socially disadvantaged groups. Clearly, Jamaica House did not want to dilute that message by raising an issue which the prime minister’s handlers knew he would not put to bed regardless of what he said.

If he did a mea culpa, admitting to being on the wrong side of the issue, the response would be to ask what took him so long; and if he merely repeated that the Government did not hire the firm – without providing hard evidence – then there would be just a loud national sigh.

Daryl Vaz, the minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for information, may be on to something when he told a post-Budget media briefing Wednesday that the prime minister did a ‘smart’ thing by focusing on Budget issues. Indeed, there would have been no questions or discussion about the housing and social benefits had Mr Golding dealt with the Manatt controversy.

But the delay has only postponed the inevitable. It has not removed the communications and political nightmare of the 800-pound gorilla that remains in the room with inestimable potential for damage.

The Jamaica Council of Churches joined a long list of business, civic and political voices pressing the prime minister to ‘come clean’ and tell the country what he knows. Some want an independent investigation as there is no confidence in the Government’s approach – mandating Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) general secretary and Cabinet minister Karl Samuda to look into the matter.

Meanwhile, Peter Phillips, Opposition member of Parliament and former national security minister, and the person who first brought the issue to light on March 17, has now formally put specific questions on the agenda of the House of Representatives – questions that should be answered in three weeks, unless they are overshadowed by events.

Among other things, Dr Phillips has asked the prime minister if he’s aware of published reports in the Washington Post that a minister in his government was present at a meeting with US authorities which Manatt, Phelps and Phillips attended.

“Is the prime minister aware of such a meeting? If so, who was the minister who attended the meeting?” the questions stated.

Phillips also wants to know if anyone acting on behalf of the Government has paid money to Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. This in light of an official report by Manatt that they received just under US$50,000 from Harold Brady and Company on behalf of the Government.

The prime minister has also been asked whether he was aware of the postings on the US Justice Department website which indicated that a contract was entered into by Harold Brady with Manatt, who asserted on the document that he was authorised to do so by the Government of Jamaica.

These are specific questions asked of the prime minister in Parliament, the supreme law-making body in the country. It’s not a joke.

The prime minister would also know that the said Washington Post article of April 15 reported that US officials had no reason to believe that Manatt was representing anyone other than the Government of Jamaica.

In the absence of hard evidence to the contrary it is impossible for any rational human being to believe that Manatt lawyers could provide written evidence to the US Justice Department that they represented the Government of Jamaica if that was not so.

It seems, also, Solicitor General Douglas Leys would have to explain how he represented Jamaica in a meeting with senior US officials and had Manatt lawyers on his side of the table if they were not part of the Government team. Without a clear and credible explanation it would not be surprising if questions about judgement surfaced.

Jamaica’s credibility and stature in international relations, nurtured over decades of intelligent and painstaking diplomacy by professional foreign service officers and political appointees alike, have been called seriously into question by the poor handling of the Manatt affair by the Golding administration.

The prime minister must clear the air because it stands in the way of progress with the United States on law enforcement matters crucial to the survival of Jamaica as a democracy based on the rule of law.

In this context, it was remarkable that the prime minister should be taking the United States to task for not doing enough to stem the flow of guns into the island which, he quite rightly pointed out, was responsible for the frightening number of murders that, according to the Gleaner, reached 493 in the first 110 days of this year.

Not surprisingly, Peter Bunting, the opposition spokesman on national security, described the prime minister’s statement as “hypocrisy” because “the Government has continued to frustrate the efforts of the United States to extradite alleged gun and drug trader Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke”.

The prime minister seemed to be suggesting that Jamaica’s commitment to the fight against drug trafficking could be affected by how Washington responds, reducing the flow of guns into Jamaica when he asserted that the US should address the “flow of illegal guns from the US to Jamaica with the same vigour that we seek to apply to the flow of illegal drugs from Jamaica to the US”.

In fact,it is in Jamaica’s interest to stop criminality in both directions. The inflow of guns provides fire power to make the threats of extortionists credible and fuels an out-of-control murder rate.

Also, the use of Jamaica as a point for transshipment of drugs provides the cash which empowers the criminal empires, gives them effective control over whole communities and corrupts state institutions, including law enforcement and the political system.

Therefore, Jamaica cannot see cooperation to stem the flow of narcotics into the United States as something that benefits the US. It is in Jamaica’s vital national interest.

Finally, the prime minister still needs to clear the air because, as this newspaper said in a powerful editorial last Sunday, “As things stand now, all graceful exits out of this one have been closed off.

“There’s no more room for claiming ignorance or sprouting bravado. Whatever other information is out there is going to come out, bit by bit, in the most public and humiliating way.” Time is running out.

kcr@cwjamaica.com