One of the common threads running through all of the world’s great religions is the concept of forgiveness. No man is beyond redemption. Not even Mr Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

The former Tivoli Gardens ‘don’ can still redeem himself even at this eleventh hour. He might have decided to waive his right to an extradition hearing, but hard as it seems, he does not have to leave Jamaica’s shores without the forgiveness of his compatriots.

At his extradition hearing today, Mr Coke can choose to make a statement in which he can call names of any prominent Jamaicans who might have aided and abetted him in his rise from a modest Tivoli don to an internationally designated, if alleged drug lord.

We can safely assume that no one can rise to such dizzying heights in the crime world without the assistance, whether willingly or for reward, of many persons.

Such people would have had to participate in the severe corruption of public and private others, likely resulting in the untimely demise of persons who were standing in their way.

It is for that reason that there is great concern that Mr Coke be kept safe and sound and very much alive. There is precedence in the death of his father, the infamous Lester Lloyd ‘Jim Brown’ Coke before him. He died in a mysterious fire at the maximum security General Penitentiary, while awaiting extradition to the United States.

The nation is hoping ‘Dudus’ Coke will live to spill the beans and, in doing so, reveal the identities of the persons who are accessories to his illegal deeds.

The good that can come of this is perhaps unimaginable. We would, at last, be able to remove the wool thrown over our national eyes by the crooks who sit in high places.

We would be, at last, in a position to begin the process of lancing the boil and perhaps forcing the cancer of corruption into remission.

In short, Mr Coke would have given his country a chance to start again. He would have demonstrated that the good seen in him even now by his many supporters in Tivoli Gardens, is not limited to that enclave but can be extended to his country.

Thinking Jamaicans know that Mr Coke was not born a don. He came as only the most recent in a long line of hardmen — including, of course, his father — who enforced a kind of jungle justice, previously for politicians but latterly in their own right, based on the extent of their ill-gotten gains.

There are ‘business partners’, lovers, henchmen, friends and a host of others who would have benefited from the filthy lucre amassed by Mr Coke. Many of them must now be cowering in fear that their names might be called.

Our suggestion to Mr Coke is that he must not go down alone. He must take as many guilty people as he can.

If he does, perhaps then, his nation can forgive him… And he might find peace within himself.