MR Emil George is one of the personalities of the Dudus/Manatt Commission of Enquiry whose image has taken a severe battering, probably the worst of his life.

Mr George, who is described by attorney Hugh Small as “the most senior Queen’s Counsel in Jamaica”, has had an extremely rough passage as chairman of the Commission which has been charged with the unhappy business of trying to ferret out the truth of what eventually culminated in the death of 73 people, mostly from Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston last year May.

The attorneys representing the various witnesses rode roughshod over him every day that the commission sat at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston. Much too often, Mr George appeared to be out of his depths and struggling to come up for air.

At full flight, Mr K D Knight who was more than a handful, threatened the chairman: “If you don’t take charge, I will!”

Messers Small and Frank Phipps, while being less belligerent, kept appealing (read instructing) the commission chairman to rule this way or that. On several occasions, he ruled in their favour, only to go back on his ruling based on objections by Mr Knight or some other attorney.

It could have been easy for anyone to conclude that Mr George was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We are not saying he is not a capable man. Indeed, we recall his sterling performance as an attorney in what came to be known as the “Flour Poisoning Enquiry”, with Commissioner Justice Egerton Green, into the deaths of 21 Jamaicans, mainly from St Thomas in 1976. The victims had consumed counter flour from Germany which was contaminated with parathion, one of the deadliest pesticides known to human beings, en route to Kingston aboard the SS Heidelberg. But that, compared with the Dudus/Manatt enquiry, was a stroll in the park.

What appears to be the problem this time, is that Mr George had no clue how to deal with attorneys on a political mission. While Mr Knight did a commendable job of trying to dig out the truth, it was that political mission that soured his performance.

We sensed that the two major political parties saw the enquiry only for its political value — the People’s National Party (PNP) for the quality of its attack and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) for the skilfulness of its defence.

Mr gentleman George spent the entire time ducking the political missiles which were being fired from all sides.

And yet, we do not think that all is lost. Mr George can still redeem himself, even at this late hour.

Mr George’s report is being written, with time allotted for statements from the several attorneys that will also form part of that report. If he can dig through all the drama and the charade, the obfuscation, the outright lies and the political manipulation, if he can do that and find the elusive truth, men will pronounce him a success after all.

Because that is what no Jamaican seems to be expecting — the unearthing of the truth behind the co-mingling of government and party activities; the risk to our cherished relations with the United States; the fear that lies were told to the Parliament and finally, the events of May 2010 when the declaration of a Limited State of Emergency led to the killing of 73 persons as security forces battled heavily armed thugs protecting Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke from arrest and extradition.

Call us naive, but we believe that Mr George can still do this.