Nevertheless, Panday was given a two-year custodial sentence. Perhaps due to the fact that he was a former leader of one of Trinidad's largest trade unions, the punishment is with 'hard labour'. One cannot help but feel sympathy for him because it is difficult to conceive of any 72-year-old man dealing with anything hard. Whatever people may say about Jamaicans being homophobic, I bet you that he is one fearful Trinidadian now.FULL OF LESSONS
Anyway, Panday's conviction is full of lessons and should be a test case for our own Jamaican politicians. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has constantly appealed to the highest authority, God as her guide. With a determination to seek righteousness and achieve 'probity and transparency,' she has implied that she will be guided by Christian principles.
This should, therefore, make a whole lot of her associates on both sides of the house nervous because many are suspected of not only having skeletons but mausoleums in their closets. Though I am not sure how much is caught on tape, the Government has had more than its fair share of impropriety. These include the National Solid 'Wastage' Management Authority (NSWMA), Operation Pride, White Water and many more. On the other hand, many questions have been raised about local government and in particular the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)-dominated parish councils.
Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies, in his Budget presentation, has committed to going after those large earners of capital who fail to pay their income taxes. Thus, it does appear that the Government is pursuing white-collar criminals. So Mr. Big, watch out!
INCARCERATED FOR THIEVERY
Jamaica needs to remember that it was Portia in her first ministerial portfolio who ordered the investigation of the accounts of the Ministry of Labour's farm work programme in 1989.
Like Panday who dared his detractors to bring the evidence against him, Bruce Golding had similarly tempted the new PNP government to substantiate allegations back then. The result was the incarceration of former minister JAG Smith and his permanent secretary Probyn Aiken for thievery.
So the Trinidadian case is not all that different from our own. The only real difference is that Panday had been the biggest honcho in his party.
I have no doubt of his guilt but I have one question. Would the Government's attorneys have had the same zeal if he were still the Prime Minister? I know that the Americans went to great pains to impeach Bill Clinton because it was alleged that he lied that he did lay with Monica Lewinsky. Despite his denial of the encounter it did not blow away. The lesson to be learnt from Uncle Sam is that no one is above the law in a democracy. Democracies are founded upon the concept of equality of all.
Last week was the 51st anniversary of the formation of the United Nations (UN) and 12 years since the first free multi-racial elections were held in South Africa. These are significant because Panday reminds me of Mandela. One main difference though is that Mandela is an ex-prisoner who became prime minister as an old man while Panday chose to do it in 'reverse'.
GREATER SIGNIFICANCE
Still, the greater significance of Mandela's ascendancy is that he knew that he had inherited a country where a lot of wrongs had been perpetrated. Rather than engaging in a witch hunt, he established a truth and reconciliation commission. In a country where the entrenched class of people with capital had a lot of persons with dirty hands, one needed to clean up the past before moving forward.
I don't know whether such a commission will work in Jamaica, but we need to get to the point of zero tolerance for those who use their high offices to rob, pillage and rape the government coffers. We need to end the culture of corruption.
On the 51st birthday of the U.N. I am still guided by many of its principles. These include freedom of expression and other fundamental human rights. The concept of universal standards and rights is the only way forward because injustice anywhere is a threat to peace everywhere.
NOT MUCH OPTIMISM
Omar's budget presentation does not offer much optimism, although it is nice and conservative. He speaks about increasing tax collection by 19 per cent but the key industries that contributed to the growth of the economy - electricity, construction and water - are not direct contributors to foreign exchange earnings. Furthermore, although poverty, unemployment and illiteracy are declining, these have had no impact on the crime rate.
We need to start from above where clear signs are given to the next generation who are in gunman college and robbery school that 'you will be caught just like the big man'. There can be no other way - one law, one order.
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
