Delroy Chuck

"The Buck Stops Here,' a simple sign on the desk of former United States President Harry Truman.

That simple statement is a testament of leadership. Someone takes responsibility. Someone can be relied on for answers, to solve problems and to take on the challenge of dealing with the people's business. When things go wrong, a true and good leader steps up to the plate, takes charge, accepts responsibility, restores order and leads.

Which leaders in Jamaica really take responsibility for their utterances, action and followers?

I was pleased to see how quickly and forthright Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leaders know when they are wrong and quickly acknowledged their wayward declaration or behaviour.

I heard Central Manchester JLP candidate Sally Porteous apologise for the violent behaviour of her supporter - she didn't have to do it but she stood tall when she did.

For Andrew Holness, it was painful to apologise for not shaking Bishop Herro Blair's hand but it was the right thing to do. When PAC Chairman, MP Audley Shaw, declared in rather unfortunate, salacious language that he intended to pepper Vin Lawrence with some hard questions, he knew his language was inappropriate and stepped down as chairman for the remainder of the Sandals Whitehouse inquiry.

Compare the behaviour of the People's National Party (PNP) in the Trafigura scandal!

Despite demands to know the truth, to this day, the PNP has failed to tell the people the truth and nothing but the truth. In fact, Danny Buchanan wants the matter to be forgotten and has declared that it is history. Well, it is a sordid history that must not be forgotten.

When things go wrong, as they have in the Trafigura scandal, who takes responsibility? If the payment was a donation, as 'Bobby' Pickersgill initially claimed and repeated in Parliament two weeks later, and the donation was not inappropriate as PM Portia Simpson Miller claims, then why did Colin Campbell resign, the Attorney-General A.J. Nicholson apologise and the PM order the return of the money?

And, since this money was for campaign purposes, is it still in the account of SW Services (Team Jamaica) unused and unaccounted for?

Or, was the money surreptitiously used for the last PNP conference? Who takes responsibility to admit that the money was used, is not currently available and cannot be returned?

Isn't it sad that when Portia Simpson Miller, the PM and president of the PNP, was asked if the Trafigura money had been returned, she brushed aside the question and told the reporter to ask the PNP! So who or what is the PNP, and who speaks for it?

When things go awry, the PM doesn't redress the wrongs, she orders probe after probe. To date, we have not got the probe results for the beating of the woman in Half-Way Tree, of the late GSAT results, of the tailspin in the construction industry from bad cement, of the islandwide JPS blackout, or of any probe.

This is the sort of leadership of which Maxine Henry-Wilson, Horace Dalley, K.D. Knight, Peter Phillips and others warned us - not to take chances. There is obviously a vacuum of leadership at Jamaica House, on the government side in Parliament, and at PNP headquarters at Old Hope Road, as the buck stops nowhere.

Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by email at delchuck@hotmail.com.