Opposition Senator Lambert Brown has blasted Government Senator Aubyn Hill, stopping short of accusing him of hypocrisy for his criticism of the People’s National Party (PNP) following an appearance of the formerly incarcerated dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel at the party’s annual conference last September.

Hill used his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate last November to also criticise the decision of the PNP and its president, Mark Golding, over the decision to name twice-convicted attorney-at-law Isat Buchanan as the party’s standard bearer in Portland Eastern for the upcoming General Election.

Brown hit back at Hill while making his contribution to the 2024/25 State of the Nation Debate in the Senate on Friday.

He told Hill that his comments about Kartel and Buchanan run counter to his Cabinet colleague, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, who suggested in 2019 that even persons convicted of murder and manslaughter `should at some point be eligible for expungement of their criminal records.

“His call also runs counter to the warm embrace of his Minister of Culture, (Olivia) ‘Babsy’ Grange, the warm embrace she gave to the man (Kartel)…” said Brown.

“It seems to me the JLP is talking out of two sides of their mouth and that is the definition of hypocrisy,” he added.

Brown said he holds no grief for persons who have been convicted at some point in their lives but said “we should not play politics with the misfortune of others”.

He then pointed to the Buju Banton 2019 concert, ‘Long Walk to Freedom’, which was held at the National Stadium shortly after Banton was released from a United States prison where he was sentenced to 10 years on a drug conviction.

“That concert brought real benefits to Jamaica, people came here, we earned foreign exchange. Buju and Beres, whether at Plantation Cove (St Ann) or in Miami, bring foreign exchange to the country,” Brown said before urging Hill not to condemn members of the cultural and creative industry who may at some point in time have run afoul of the law.

“I say this much, the cultural and creative industry will bring more to Jamaica than the corporate companies that he (Hill) is talking about”.

To underscore his point, Brown noted that Kartel’s ‘Freedom Street’ concert at the National Stadium on New Year’s Eve was reported to have impacted the Jamaican economy to the tune of $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

READ: Freedom Street attracts global audience

“Someone said to me that …in one night (Kartel) earned more in investment for Jamaica than the ambassador appointed in 2016 and now the Minister of Investment (Hill) has brought to Jamaica in nine years,” Brown remarked.

Continuing, he said “We should not be too quick to condemn others because while I do not equate these ex-convicts with our national heroes, history tells us that four of them were convicted,” he said.

The Opposition senator told Hill that as a professed Christian he should know that “on that hill in Calvary where there was an old rugged cross, people there were convicted too. And at least two of those convicts went on to paradise”.

Buchanan was convicted in Jamaica in 1997 for possession of, dealing in, and taking steps to export cocaine. In 2000, he was again convicted, this time in the United States, for conspiracy to import cocaine, and was handed a 10-year prison sentence.

Despite his convictions, Buchanan has gone on to become one of Jamaica’s more prominent attorneys-at-law. Yet, Hill had said his candidacy raises questions about Golding’s judgment on integrity.

Hill also blasted the PNP leadership after Buchanan, who represented Kartel on appeal, appeared on stage with the entertainer at the PNP annual conference at the National Arena last September.

“Like nearly all of Jamaica, I watched in amazement, with sadness and horror, at the parade of personalities at the recent PNP party conference.

“The PNP leader paraded convicted criminals, not only in Jamaica’s jurisdiction, but in (an) overseas jurisdiction, and has been promoting… overseas convict as a candidate for our Parliament, and therefore, as a future lawmaker,” said Hill without naming either Kartel, real name Adijah Palmer, or Buchanan.

“I peeped and searched the TV pictures and could not find a drop of integrity or good judgment on the PNP party conference platform,” Hill added.