Dear Editor,

Looking back over the past many months of this Christopher Coke affair, the conclusion to be drawn is that we have witnessed a very disappointing, indecisive and unaccountable form of leadership.

What is currently being witnessed is uncharacteristic of what many persons have come to expect from the prime minister. None of the many missteps made were necessary or can be reasonably explained. What has taken place is that Prime Minister Bruce Golding has departed from the principled and ‘New and Different’ stance enunciated by him in a past life and has embraced, through expediency, the status quo. It is clear that this is a position he is not comfortable with, hence his inability to convincingly defend it, and the blunders made.

A position was taken on the deportation of Jamaican citizens to the United States on the basis of flimsy evidence that the Jamaican judicial system does not accept. The prime minister, who was then the leader of the Opposition, addressed this. All that was necessary was for the prime minister to remind the people of the position he took, and advise of his intention to deal with the Christopher Coke matter accordingly.

Would there be criticisms and disagreement with the position? Yes indeed. Would there be a scandal. No. So the question is, why the Jamaica Labour Party and the Administration believed that at the height of this information age it was necessary to conduct themselves in this Nicodemus or cloak and dagger fashion? All of this has resulted in both a national and international spectre.

The greatest scandal in all of the many foolish steps that have been made is the unnecessary and wanton loss of life of so many, and the disruption in the life of a nation. Clearly we have criminals we must remove from the streets. Clearly we have dangerous elements among us we need to deal with. It is also clear that our security forces — both JCF and JDF — must today be ashamed of themselves.

If every raid on Tivoli Gardens can only result in massive loss of life and no significant recovery of illegal weapons — which we all know must exist since police and soldiers are killed and wounded in these raids — it is clear that there is no intelligence here. God help us.

Irvin C Wade

ircivwade@hotmail.com