IN the aftermath of what has been to me a most surprising early guilty plea by Dudus in a case that most Jamaicans expected to stretch into next year, the general feeling among most Jamaicans is that whatever the legal processes, the hope is that the ex-don of Tivoli will talk and bare much of the nastiest side of our politics to our people.

With the man and woman at street level articulating it, they along with a struggling but dogged middle class are hoping that that process will signal the beginning of the end of this country’s evil and destructive association of politicians with criminality.

Faced with life in prison, on the face of it, Dudus has opted for an admission to crimes that will attract a maximum of 23 years. Two factors jump out at me in the hope that he will “sing”.

First, if he does so openly and serves a time of, say, 10 years, he will, at the end of it, be deported to Jamaica. By that time, those whom he had implicated (or their criminal agents), will be gunning for him even if his “songs” will have brought about the extradition of politicians, senior policemen and big businessmen.

I cannot see him returning to Jamaica under those conditions and even living as long as the 14 months that ex-Shower Posse member Vivian Blake lived after doing only eight years (he was paroled, they said) of a 28-year sentence on racketeering and criminal conspiracy.

Granted, the information that most have is that Blake died from kidney failure, and I have no problem with accepting that in the pages of this newspaper. That a man of his awesome criminal stature had grown so conveniently calm and passive, in the eyes of the US prison system, to be paroled with 20 years still to do told me much more.

Did Vivian Blake strike a deal behind closed doors? Is it likely that Dudus will opt for that route? Whatever the arrangements, officialdom in the justice system in all states on planet Earth do not tell all to the general public. That said, even if Dudus should sing a song with the lyrics unknown to us, the world is a wiser place, and if he is sentenced to, say, 20 years and does, say, only 10, the agents of those whom he had caused to be extradited from Jamaica to the USA will go after him when he arrives back home. With much less power at his disposal, in a still brutish Jamaica, he will make an easy target.

It may not be considered politically astute, but the Opposition PNP has rightly pounced on the Dudus guilty plea, simply because in our highly tribalised political system Dudus was seen as pro-JLP.

General Secretary of the PNP Peter Bunting has made an extremely bold statement in saying that he will be using parliamentary privilege to call out those he believes were co-conspirators with the ex-don. Parliamentary privilege allows our members of parliament free rein in saying anything about anyone in this country without fear of those so tarred and feathered, having redress through the courts.

In the past, at least two powerful politicians have used that forum to destroy deliberately those who were seen as stumbling blocks in their way.

If Mr Bunting starts the ball a-rolling, will the PNP be prepared for the firestorm that could result from this free-for-all?

Let us appreciate that with Dudus’s guilty plea, many of us in the media and other places can speak, write and chat informally about his exploits without the insertion of the word ‘alleged’ as a prelude to those modes of delivery.

Many of us, especially those in the ruling JLP, were quite familiar with the mechanics of his “judicial system”. Over the years (in the period from 1998 to his extradition) however, the man had grown much smarter and had straddled the political divide. The first real manifestation of this was in the September uprisings in downtown Kingston where gunmen from Arnett Gardens, Matthews Lane (PNP garrisons) had teamed up with gunmen from Tivoli Gardens to blow back against the security forces after Matthews Lane don Zeeks was taken in by the police.

In September 1998 these gunmen were openly walking on the streets (Orange Street, Beckford Street, North Parade, etc) with assault rifles, knocking on doors and ordering the residents to go out to Central Police Station to support the release of the now imprisoned Zeeks.

There has never been any doubt in my mind (since 2002) that Dudus was the master of all dons, the boss of all bosses. There has never been any doubt in my mind (since 2001) that Tivoli Gardens was the “mother of all garrisons”. After 2001, I needed no one to tell me about guns in Tivoli Gardens. That community, under the leadership of the ex-don, could outgun any four or five PNP garrisons put together, if the security forces were not involved.

If the general secretary of the PNP is prepared to use parliamentary privilege to “out” the political scoundrels in the JLP, will his party be prepared when the JLP begins to name names and give details of political associations with members of the PNP who are “honourable” members of parliament?

Don’t get me wrong now. Dudus has himself admitted his guilt and all well-thinking Jamaicans ought to be very interested in hearing the names of those JLP politicians who were not just his supporters but his co-conspirators, if they were indeed so. But, is Mr Bunting willing to awake the ghost of the late PNP thug “Willie Haggart”?

If Mr Bunting should buy into what may be thought of as fact that the “Haggart” murder was the result of a hit job ordered by a PNP semi-don, he might begin to see that although Tivoli Gardens was indeed the mother of all garrisons, Dudus was the boss of all bosses and guns grew like flowers in Tivoli, the whole political system, JLP and PNP is rotten to the core and there was an “uncomfortable” commingling with criminal elements on both sides.

Parliamentary privilege? The rot cuts both ways.

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