Orville W. Taylor

For three weeks I held my breath and waited for the air to be cleared regarding the Trafigura Beheer affair. The old English proverb says, "Speech is silvern but silence is 'Golding'." I know a few Dutch proverbs and one of them is "Spreken is zilver, zwijgen is goud." One does not have to be multilingual to be able to understand that it is saying the same thing but it is uncertain that the response by the ruling People's National Party (PNP) in Parliament last week did enough to make Golding silent.

Opposition Leader Bruce Golding had brought a no-confidence motion in Parliament against the Government over its improper, albeit legal dealings with the above-mentioned company. As the Prime Minister and others correctly pointed out, it was an attempt to cloud the air in the House because a censure motion had been initiated against Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Member of Parliament, Karl Samuda. Samuda had allegedly misled the House in declaring that a report by Noel Hylton had been forwarded to former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.

While the substance of Samuda's revelation in Parliament regarding the 'Scandals' Whitehouse issue was not questioned, he did indeed make a statement that was not correct. Censure motion on not, the bigger question is not whether he said a report was filed when it was not. Rather, did he raise substantive issues about the poor handling of our national resources by the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and its associates? It would be a shame if the motion were only a tool to silence the overly-exuberant man who has looked at Parliament from both sides. Patience is a virtue and "haste makes waste." As the Dutch say, Bezint eer gij begint.

The heat is on

Nevertheless, the JLP smokescreen worked somewhat, as it placed focus on the smoky dealings with this company that has more red marks against it than a dunce's essay. Whatever might have been cooking in the Dutch-pot, one suspects that it's a bit more than Colin's greens, stew Ps and pickled gills from Rio Cobre fish. The cooking created so much heat that at least one has left the kitchen. Although he left the kitchen, he is still with the chickens.

Perhaps "Met de kippen op stok gaan," (the chickens have come home to roost) or it is simply "birds of a feather flocking together." Whatever it is, the Trafigura deal still has a 'fowl' smell.

Smelly or not, the motion was 'out of odour' and the governing PNP used its majority to defeat the unrealistic and pathetic demand by the Opposition Leader for it to resign en bloc.

Thus, although there was a clear foul, there was no penalty because as K.D. Knight demonstrated in his unclear and unconvincing legalese, the referee did not see it. In fact, Bruce might have thought that he had scored a goal or touchdown on this move but was ruled offside.

The truth is, as reiterated by Knight, there was no breaking of Jamaican law by the PNP. Indeed, where there was a breach was that Golding illegally handled the ball and could have been shown a red card. However, the match officials are reviewing the tape (no, not that tape) to see if there should be any sanctions against him.

Still, although no local law was broken by the PNP, the responses by Peter Phillips and Omar Davies admit that there was something fundamentally wrong with the rules or campaign financing and the former suggested that "we have collectively lived a lie about how political funds are raised." I agree with Phillips in that he has admitted the wrongs of the past, including those of the JLP, and pointed us in the direction that we need to go. Perhaps he can enlist Jake in investigating how the party may proceed.

Disappointed

Still, having waited for so long to hear the big lady speak, I was left disappointed. It was bad enough to listen to the details provided by Golding again. Then, K.D. spoke at a word a minute without making much mileage. Afterwards, 'Audible' Shaw was vociferous. Then came a few, including the little one who can't seem to control his temper and Omar with his 'short' and to-the-point speech.

But apart from her denouncement of Golding for his lack of moral authority since he obtained the information impro-perly, and the reiteration that it was a smokescreen to protect Samuda, her pre-sentation had only one bang and it was not in the content of the address. In her opinion, he has no right to point fingers because "Men moet de vuile was niet buiten hangen." (People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones). He is just as morally unsound as those he accuses since he procured the information improperly.

I wanted to hear whether she thought it was morally wrong to accept the $31 million and whether it was really an inappropriate commercial contribution to the source of its contract. Otherwise, was it simply a (solicited) donation to the PNP? In either case, it is against Dutch law and under international conventions. "Vreest de Nederlands ook al brengen zij geschenken." (Beware of the Dutch bearing gifts).

What was her explanation to the faithful as to why she instructed the 'legal' gift to be returned and accepted Colin Campbell's resignation from the Cabinet and the party if nothing was wrong?

Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.