While we believe that his position is driven more by the potential for partisan political gain than the broader issue of governance and public trust, we agree with the conclusion of Delroy Chuck, the parliamentarian and shadow justice minister, who also writes a column in this newspaper.

Colin Campbell, appointed by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, should resign from the Senate. It is a position that we have taken before. Mr. Campbell is the central figure in the Trafigura Beheer affair, the case in which a Dutch commodity trader, which does business on behalf of the Jamaican government, allegedly made a 'gift' of approximately J$31 million to the ruling People's National Party (PNP).

The money was channelled through an account controlled by Mr. Campbell, the former Information Minister and general secretary of the PNP, and from which he made substantial withdrawals, ostensibly to fund party activities. But when Trafigura, Mr. Campbell and his party were caught out, Trafigura declared that the money was actually payment for work done or to be done on its behalf by a consulting firm named as holder of the account. Then it implied that it knew that the cash would go to political activities.

The clear implication of the latter position was that Trafigura, aware that it was breaking European Union rules on foreign political contributions or bribes, was covering its tracks. Mr. Campbell apparently obliged by issuing invoices for the alleged work.

In the midst of this messy affair, in which he admitted that he had misled his party colleagues or kept them in the dark on pertinent facts in the affair, Mr. Campbell resigned as a minister and PNP general secretary. But by some stretch of the imagination he assumes himself worthy of staying in the Senate. And nobody in his party appears to be telling Mr. Campbell otherwise.

Yet, the Senate is perhaps the first place, once he felt an impulse to resign, from which Mr. Campbell should have gone. We might have understood if he attempted to tough it out as general secretary of the PNP where, primarily, he serves narrow political interests. It would not be the same as a Cabinet minister where his remit is to all Jamaicans in pursuance of the national interest. Most Jamaicans would suggest that the threshold for trust and integrity is even higher in the Senate.

Of course, the members of the Upper House are representatives of political parties, but the assumption is that by tradition and aim there is a higher order of discourse in this arm of the legislature, avoiding the most bitter and partisan posturing. It is a standard not always achieved, but within reach often enough for Jamaicans to see the possibility of it achieving the status of a chamber of thought and studied review.

By staying in the Senate with the dark clouds of Trafigura hovering over him, Mr. Campbell will be incapable of evincing that sense of trust necessary to make him a credible member of the chamber. Every time he rises to speak, his colleague members, and the wider community, would see and think scandal rather than the real merit of his contribution.

Also, we are at a loss to think of why Mr. Campbell would wish to subject his party to the indignity of a slow, downward dribble.