Prime Minister Bruce Golding, we see, is to address the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair in a series of islandwide meetings with various groups, including NGOs, the business community and civic society.

According to Mr Daryl Vaz, the minister who has responsibility for information, these groups have major concerns about the issue that has been plaguing the Government since March this year, therefore it is important that the prime minister address them.

There’s hardly anyone, we believe, who hasn’t seen this planned series of islandwide meetings for what it really is — a public relations exercise designed to repair the Government’s image and regain support from the masses.

Whether the true objective will be achieved is left to be seen, as these meetings will place Mr Golding face-to-face with people, most of whom, we hope, will subject him to vigorous cross-examination in the hope that he will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

For despite the Administration’s dismissive tone in response to the e-mail trail published by the Sunday Gleaner, the public is still left with the three rival positions on the issue.

One says plainly that the Jamaican Government, which is headed by Mr Golding, hired US law firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips with a view to lobby Washington to drop its extradition request for Mr Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to answer charges of drug and gunrunning.

The other — which is the position being maintained by the Government — says that the hiring was done by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which is also headed by Mr Golding.

The third is the insistence by Manatt that it was retained by the Jamaican Government to deal with treaty issues.

What no one is denying is that the deed was done. The country, we insist, must be told why.

Mr Golding, we are sure, is going into these meetings fully aware that the missteps he and his administration have made since August last year, when the extradition request was made public, have seriously eroded the level of trust they once had.

Quite frankly, it will be extremely difficult for the Government to recover any significant credibility from this issue which Mr Vaz correctly described as “a complete, total mess-up from day one”.

Commendable, Mr Campbell

The decision by Mr Colin Campbell to postpone his re-entry into representational politics in light of the contractor general’s recommendation that the director of public prosecutions pursue legal action against him for obstructing the contractor general’s probe into the Trafigura affair is, on the face of it, commendable, even as it qualifies as good politicking.

By withdrawing his candidacy in the North Central Clarendon constituency, Mr Campbell has highlighted the folly of his colleagues in the Opposition People’s National Party in accommodating Mr Kern Spencer in the Parliament while he is before the court on corruption charges.

Although Mr Spencer has announced his intention not to seek re-election, we continue to maintain that he ought to step away from the legislature while these question marks are hanging over his head.

The same applies to Mr Joseph Hibbert, the Government member who, though not charged, is facing serious allegations about his integrity.