Worrying absence of truth

A senior member of the clergy has raised searching questions for the two main political parties about the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair and the Trafigura scandal.

The questions by general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, Karl Johnson, come against the background of what he argued was the absence of "truth speaking" throughout the society. "Do you think we will ever have an honest, truthful dialogue on the extradition request for Christopher Coke and the matters arising from the request?" Johnson asked during an address to the national Christian lifetime award banquet at The Wyndham hotel in New Kingston Tuesday night.

Full disclosure

"Will we ever have full disclosure of the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair? Will we ever hear why Jamaica was put through months of torture and turmoil and agony over this request?" he further queried.

The clergyman also wanted to know whether the country would "ever have a truthful discussion on the matter of that Dutch firm's (Trafigura Beheer) relationship with the PNP".

Johnson charged that, at various levels of the society, the absence of truth has become a worrying and destabilising feature.

The Jamaica Baptist Union general secretary said speaking the truth appears to have been replaced by public-relations gymnastics.

"It is not so much speaking truth, but twisting it, shaving it, skewing it. Indeed, spin is in," he noted.

"It is their message, their ability at good public relations, it is their ability to sanitise themselves that comes across as painting people as paragons of virtue, but we know better," he added.

Johnson said that where there is no commitment to speaking truth, "we open ourselves to making promises which cannot be fulfilled, to defend the indefensible, to exploit the gullible and to promote the plausible over the whole truth".

He said people are worth more than to be deceived, misled and manipulated.

"They deserve to know the truth. The worst thing you can do is tek big man fi fool," he declared.