(Jamaica Gleaner) The People’s National Party (PNP) was on Monday night placed on election alert by its president, Portia Simpson Miller, who suggested that the Sunday Gleaner bombshell, revealing that the Jamaican Government had, in fact, been in bed with a United States law firm, might force the prime minister to quit.
Speaking at a constituency conference for South West Clarendon at Kemps Hill High School, Simpson Miller said Prime Minister Bruce Golding was too compromised to remain in office.
“Be prepared. Be on standby and listen for the sound of the trumpet,” said the PNP president, drawing on biblical imagery. “Wrong is wrong. I say to the prime minister tonight, enough is enough!”
Golding told the country that Manatt, Phelps & Phillips had been retained by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to lobby the US government on the extradition issue involving alleged drug kingpin Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke. He said he sanctioned the move, but gave instructions that it should not be a government matter.
However, emails obtained under the Access to Information Act and published in The Sunday Gleaner indicate that Manatt had acted on the behalf of the Government.
On Monday night, Simpson Miller told PNP supporters that when she read Monday’s newspaper, “Like thousands of Jamaicans, I felt betrayed by the Government of Jamaica.
“Once again we discovered that they lied. But you know something, Comrades, they lied even when they are confessing that they have lied to the country,” she added.
According to Simpson Miller, who is also leader of the opposition, her party has “gotten used to the fact that the prime minister is comfortable, even when seen to be dishonourable.
“With respect to the emails reported in this morning’s Gleaner, it is more evident that the moral authority of the prime minister and his government is compromised,” she said.
The PNP attempted to censure Golding for his about-face in Parliament but failed, as the JLP triumphed with its superior numbers as members voted along party lines.
Then, Golding remarked, “The fate of the resolution rests with the members. My fate rests with God.”
