PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos — Jamaicans living and working in this tiny northern Caribbean island are expressing anger and disappointment in the Bruce Golding administration for allowing the mayhem gripping the Jamaican capital as criminals seek to prevent the arrest of Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke by members of the security forces.

Coke has been implicated in drug- and arms-running between Jamaica and the United States and is facing possible extradition to that North American country. An arrest warrant has been issued for him, but urging police to “leave ‘Dudus’ alone”, residents had barricaded the community.

After several appeals to remove the blockages went unheeded and members of the constabulary and defence forces were attacked, security forces on Monday stormed the community.

More than 40 persons, civilians and security personnel alike, have been reported killed in the operation conducted in West Kingston, a tough neighbourhood in the capital city which is more than 100 miles east of the tourist resort city of Montego Bay.

The Jamaicans, who were on Monday evening gathered at a meeting aimed at organising a registered Diaspora group on the island, said Prime Minister Golding has squandered their faith in and expectations of him.

“I am disappointed that the PM has smeared his name like this. I am disappointed to know that our leader has tarnished his name,” said Wayne Jackson, who runs a professional college in the island.

“I’m one of those persons who decided to give him a chance and vote for him, so it’s very disappointing,” he added.

Massage therapist Olive Jackson was equally disappointed. “I’m upset because things had settled down nicely the other day but it has escalated now,” she said.

Added school teacher Heather McNeil: “I had hoped that after so many years the white elephant of Tivoli had disappeared, but this makes it clear that it hasn’t. We have worked long and hard to be where we are and we can’t afford for them to destroy everything.”

A hospitality worker who was not at the meeting but who also spoke with the Observer, said her anger stemmed particularly from the fact that she went against her family’s traditional voting patterns when she voted for Golding’s Jamaica Labour Party in 2007, hoping things would be different.

“It is unfortunate for everybody to be held captive, but I blame Bruce. I’m so upset with him. I’ve voted once in my life and I voted for him and this is what he has done,” fumed the woman who asked that her name not be used. “All of my family is PNP but I decided to vote for him. I’m so upset. I don’t like how he’s leading at all.”

Joleen Grant, a graphic artist who left Jamaica three years ago, said: “For a man who’s supposed to be bright, he made a very silly decision. He should not have intervened. He should have left it for the appropriate people because even if his argument was legitimate about illegal evidence, there will now always be a cloud over it, there will always be people thinking it was because it was his constituency.”

The Diaspora group — which comprises business owners, professionals and civil servants — said the entire affair has made things more difficult for them because they have already been battling antagonistic behaviour from TCI natives — known as “belongers” — who believe Jamaicans are violent, aggressive and boisterous.

“This is like an albatross around the necks of Jamaicans here,” said journalist Vivian Tyson. “It can’t spell well for people here because already Jamaica has a reputation; already they [Turks and Caicos Islanders] think we are violent and aggressive.”

And almost equal to their anger is the sadness brought on by the impression of growing lawlessness in Jamaica and the way it is portrayed in the international media.

“It’s sad,” said another hotel worker who asked that her name not be published. “They need to get it under control because it is going to impact negatively on tourism and on the image of the country. I think if [the extradition order] was [signed] earlier, it wouldn’t have got this out-of-hand because the criminals wouldn’t have had time to strategise.”

Grant interjected: “I feel sad (too), because Jamaica already has a bad reputation and with all of this and all the media attention it is getting, it makes it look like we’re more lawless because the criminals are banding together to challenge the security forces. And what makes it worse is that a lot of (outsiders) don’t know how big Jamaica is and how small Tivoli is compared to that, so they think that it’s all of Jamaica that is in turmoil. I’m just waiting and watching for a solution, knowing sadly that even if they catch this one person, it won’t solve the problem,” she sighed.

Several of them said they have reconsidered travelling to Jamaica in the wake of the unfolding impasse. Others pledge they will not return home permanently or invest in business in Jamaica unless and until the Government reins in and reduces the level of criminal violence in the island.

President of the steering committee for the fledgling Diaspora group, Sharlene Escoe, who has been in Provo for the past 12 years, also weighed in.

“I myself want to invest in my country. I want to open an eco-lodge there, but I feel trapped,” she said. “I want to give back, but where am I going to give back? How am I going to operate my business, which will have to be out in the open, knowing that I’m not secure?”

Escoe related an incident two years ago in which her five-bedroom, five-bathroom house in a Montego Bay suburb was broken into while she was visiting on vacation. It was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back for her.

“The house is now locked up. I’m not going back there to live. I’m afraid of going home. When I go (to Jamaica) these days I stay in a hotel. I have to be a tourist in Jamaica now and that’s too sad,” she said.

It was an act of criminal violence that drove educator Wayne Jackson away as well. When his helper was raped at his house, also in Montego Bay, his family packed up and headed here.

Like Escoe, Hylton McCarthy, who operates a tailoring business on Provo, said he too was fearful of returning to do business in Jamaica. His main concern was being targeted by criminals during his business expansion. He said if the crime rate were to decrease, he, like many other expatriates, would go home.

“It’s not about the money or the stability of the economy,” he said. “I relocated because of the difficulty of doing business there. I closed my business and came here as a singing evangelist but when I saw the opportunities that exist here, I reopened it.”

The group feels the situation presents an opportunity to arrest lawlessness but believes there is a lack of political will to get it done. Still, as Kirkland King puts it, they hope that the Government learns the obvious lesson that it can’t befriend criminals and have them as the go-between between residents and the police.

“It sets a dangerous precedent,” said King.