WHEN Mr Bruce Golding took the Oath of Office to become Jamaica’s eighth prime minister on September 11, 2007, we — like many Jamaicans who had grown fed up with the deficiencies, arrogance and corruption that marked the tenure of the previous Government — breathed a sigh of relief.

That relief was grounded in our expectation that Prime Minister Golding would do all he could to transform into reality the hope of a brighter future that he so eloquently articulated on the campaign trail.

And even as we acknowledged, as he did at his swearing-in ceremony, that the task before him was enormous, we were confident that the new Government, under Mr Golding’s leadership, would offer a fresh, more practical and humane approach to governance, one that would, as he rightly said: “…retire the culture where one set of Jamaicans speak of ‘the government dem’ as if it were a hostile, alien force.”

We also shared his desire for what he termed “a new order in which all the people regard the Government, no matter which party forms it, as our Government”.

Against that background, his promise of transparency and accountability in government and the elimination of corruption received our full endorsement, as the country, we believed, had had its fill of contemptible politics for far too long.

That he has thrown much of that promise through the window by his poor handling of the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips saga has deflated our expectations, leaving us to wonder if this is the same Bruce Golding — whose intellect and capacity for incisive analysis we had come to respect.

And, like most Jamaicans, we were staggered on Sunday by the tone of the response to this saga coming out of the Central Executive Committee of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party. The arrogance and unwillingness to admit error have further eroded the huge political capital that accompanied Mr Golding and the Labour Party into office almost three years ago.

The party’s posture has, no doubt, also hardened the positions of those in the country who have called for Mr Golding to step down as prime minister.

Mr Golding, however, had at least one more chance to redeem himself and we are encouraged by the fact that he recognised that and offered a full apology to the country in his national broadcast last night.

For there is no shame in saying ‘I’m sorry’. In fact, it is the responsible thing to do. Indeed, we are heartened by the prime minister’s show of humility and his acceptance that displays of arrogance and disrespect “must not be allowed to happen” because, as he rightly said, he and his team are “the servants of the people”.

That is demonstrative of the Bruce Golding that Jamaica had come to respect and it contributed significantly to the confidence placed in him by the electorate.

The challenge now is for Mr Golding and his Government to win back the public trust and respect that they need not have lost had they subscribed to the truth from the outset of this imbroglio.

And now that he has decided to deal decisively with the extradition issue that spawned this controversy, he must now repair the damage done to the relationship between Kingston and Washington.

If nothing else, Mr Golding would have learnt from this recent episode that Jamaicans want far more than fancy talk, and we look forward to him putting flesh and timelines to the slew of programmes he outlined last night as part of his road back to credibility.

Nothing less will suffice.