Questionable Conduct: The Jamaican Political Reality

The second book review of "Dudus: The Extradition of Jamaica's #1 Drug Don" was by Allan Douglas published in   The Jamaica Observer, Monday, October 01, 2018 entitled 'The extradition of Dudus': "I have just finished reading Dr Paul Ashley's book, Dudus: The Extradition of Jamaica's #1 Drug Don, a seven-chapter, 176-page scholarly work recording a significant event in Jamaica's history. It is very unfortunate the book will not be available for sale at bookstores or other outlets, but will only be accessible from libraries. In my opinion, the author could have spent more time researching the main character, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, and providing more details about him. To understand this character properly he must be placed in context. The book needed greater elaboration of his personal life — his boyhood days, the loves and influences that made him the person he became. One was left to rely on American intelligence reports that lacked substa...

The Tivoli "incursion/siege" was a military-driven operation. That is another way of stating that The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) played the central role in the planning and implementation of the exercise. It follows that any investigation into the armed confrontation between the civilians and members of the Security Forces must involve analysis of the veracity of the information informing the strategies which were considered,the options which were available, the factors informing the decisions taken, as well as the the nuts and bolts of the actual operation carried out.  The need for unbiased military expertise cannot be disputed. What is subject to debate is the formal role to be accorded to such skill set. Our position is that should be accorded the position of Commissioner reflecting the importance and centrality of such to the Commission of Enquiry aimed at unearthing the truth, irrespective of its inconvenience--political and otherwise. Others are of the view that suc...