ON reading the words that Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne chose to welcome Mr Ian Murray back into the Senate, we couldn’t help wondering which world she is living in.

According to Mrs Lightbourne, great things are expected of Mr Murray who has been drafted back to replace Dr Ronald Robinson, who resigned from the Senate and his ministerial duties for his role in the scandal that we can conveniently call ‘Dudus’.

It’s not that we don’t share her sentiment.

Great expectations should, in our view, be a given in every case of a public appointment, big or small.

But considering that expectations of those who can still tell the difference between what is right and what is wrong have been so rudely dashed by much of her own conduct in ‘Dudus’, we are disappointed at her failure to capitalise on Friday’s opportunity to say something to inspire the public’s trust.

For unlike Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who has at least acknowledged that something was horribly wrong about his unwarranted intervention in the matter of the us extradition request for Mr Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, who is accused of drug- and gun-running, Mrs Lightbourne and her colleague senators have shown no signs, fake or real, of remorse.

Indeed, to their ongoing discredit, the slavish endorsement that all 13 of them gave Mr Golding less than 24 hours before he recanted from his folly, has not officially been repudiated.

So as far as the record they’re still pro-Dudus, pro-garrison, pro-everything that can never — from a perspective that goes beyond a bellyful — be right for Jamaica. As far as the records are concerned, we can only conclude that had they had things their way, those two big crocodiles that the authorities found penned up in Tivoli Gardens recently and all that they represented, would still be there.

The torture chamber, shallow graves and every other feature of the jungle justice to which Tivoli Gardens owes its five-star paradise status would still be there. In time, their replicas would be all over the country.

What expectations can we realistically have of a Senate that has not seen fit to distance itself from this?

That Mrs Lightbourne, whose own role in the matter has compromised her independence and integrity, is able to sail past the issue with the vaudeville-type quality she has been taking to Parliament throughout the affair, is lamentable.

We are told that Mr Murray serves on the board of a number of public entities, holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics with a minor in political science, is a businessman and farmer, among other achievements.

One can only hope that in addition to his credentials, which seem to be indicative of some amount of brightness, Mr Murray will also bring some moral quality to the Senate.

Lord knows his colleagues, nay all of us, need it.