I believe in the sanctity of wives and children of MPs and councillors from intrusive media. Is a minister’s family fair game for cartoons or columns? What’s the Press Association of Jamaica’s stand? What precedent of a wife of an MP interfering in affairs of state? The Dudus debacle shredded many reputations – now Mayor McKenzie’s. Do we trust our prime minister and mayor? Do our security forces trust them? Do they trust the forces? Did Dudus set terms for them to negotiate with the US Embassy? He must have. Did it include moving the JDF out of Dudus’s city? Did Cabinet approve Desmond’s brief? They negotiated with and for Dudus behind our backs and tell us the US is a bully and papers are wrong. These “pannier machetes” cut back and front. The blood of 73 massacred citizens is on their hands!

Check this: they said Dudus would slaughter the city, but did not equip the forces to put him down. They chose to placate him! Seen? He would be as powerful after the deal as before – fools! And we must live with this. “We get sell out!” Dudus was their saviour and they were his accomplices. Someone should swing for this. Do we need justice from outside like Noriega? The JLP must save itself and ask Chris Tufton to step up and lead the nation. Bruce sold newspapers and engaged the diaspora all year long. Outside the NCB branch in Brixton, see me, big celebrity, mobbed by a crowd of three mampy – “Nuh ‘im dat, a fi ‘im pictcha enna di Hobserva; lash dem fi wi, a dem mek we cyaan guh ‘ome!” – aaaah roast corn talk! Or as they say in T&T, “Lead up!” WikiLeaks betray US secrets, but shine light on our weak, shameless leaders. Eddie was so so right! And, friend, it ain’t over!

The UK Guardian printed conversations between the PM’s wife Lorna Golding and US Embassy officials. True to Republican Tea Party ethics, she served no tea. I read it and hoped the earth would swallow me. I live in a strange land; neighbours, colleagues know I am a proud Jamaican! I am shamed! If a regal Lorna had read them the riot act, “persona non grata”, sent them off to appoint an envoy, I would have been so proud, but not of a sham “mek-fren” tea party to “get a bly”. To see OPM’s media apparatus in damage control mode says we were hurt, not them. Mrs Golding’s motives were pure. She tried to help: “stand by your man”. She was standing alone. State Department officers are trained by experts – months on dialect, culture, situation analysis, who is who in our banana republic; memory skills, report protocols – we are mince meat to them! Cocktails or a tea party feeds the intelligence mill. These are professionals; accountable and eternally vigilant – USA first! Learn from them! Bless Mrs Golding – a mother’s heart – let this end here, now!

WikiLeaks proves we must train Cabinet members and their spouses; improve feedback skills and document things. There are no private meetings among nations; people have friends, nations have interests. Grow up! Now, help me answer these questions:

First: Can “pillow talk” subvert the nation? What is the risk profile of spouses and bedmates of our politicians? Politics is an informal process but the state and its secrets are under law. As partner in a global firm we were often egged on to score cocktail party points by using privileged tax, IP, bank data – which are not shared even with wives! Strictly “for the job!”; we don’t even do “need to know!” What secrets are divulged in pillow talk? Can a minister share a pizza and state secrets with bedmates? Some not the “’till death do us part” type? Can we police MPs’ integrity and ignore the bedmate? When an MP’s bedmate buys land where the new road will run, pads to consultant in the firm about to get a state contract, calls the French about the hotel deal not yet signed, can he just say, “Oh, she has her own business, I am a politician; nothing to do with me”?

Do we screen an MP’s bedmate before he is made minister? The FBI and MI5 do so. Leaders and nations can be betrayed by “honey traps” and pillow talk. But is there another side? Can a politician suborn his wife or bedmate to do his dirty work? Hide behind apron strings? Let her take the heat? Even in Bible days, men used women!

Second: What is the view of the media? Owners? The PAJ? Mine is: a politician’s family is sacred; but they remove themselves from media embargo when they become politicians or seek to influence affairs of state. So what’s the tipping point? If his family lobbies via a civil society body like Jamaicans for Justice and the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica, or supports a son or anyone to campaign for political office, as all citizens may do, that’s OK – no media scrutiny. But should wife or family access the state apparatus (OPM media team, security, car, office, secrets), it changes once they touch public money. If bedmates influence public policy, use our assets, etc, then we are free to investigate them and write. My iron law for media is, “Follow taxpayers’ money wherever it goes.” Anything or anyone impacting public policy demands media scrutiny! Did the EU MP who leads the pressure group, “Pensions for Prostitutes”, dream it up off his own bat or did a “night lady’s” pillow talk?

Michael Manley had a wife who was a public figure and a politician; another who was a public figure but not a politician. Each merits different media scrutiny and protection. Some are code red, some green or amber – in my book! The McNeils had brothers in JLP and PNP Cabinets – great! Portia’s spouse is on her campaign (some spouses don’t care a fig for politics – they just go for protocol). He is a top executive, not a politician; can she as PM call on his formidable skills? Are there rules for family who are not longstanding public servants? Are they then “media meat”? Some wives make headlines in their field, even when her MP spouse is in deep guano. Should a strong wife lobby for a weak minister? The Clintons are interesting; Secretary of State she, he statesman, titled President; involved in party campaigns and as requested by the sitting President, paves the way for his wife in some areas. What if he just did it off his own bat to help out his wife? Let’s hear from bigger brains in the PAJ! We face hard decisions and work in 2011. There is no Happy New Year unless we commit and work for change. No big drama; just quietly get involved in your community! Blessings on you, my conscious friend!

Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants currently on assignment in the UK.

franklinjohnston@hotmail.com