Questionable Conduct: The Jamaican Political Reality

The Tivoli COE was mandated to have its public hearings conducted within a 3-month time period. The Commissioners exceeded this time span and did so without seeking the appropriate extension from the Governor- General. Two concerns come readily to mind:  Having ignored the protocol, what is the legal status of the public hearings conducted after the stipulated time span had expired? and  What were the circumstances that accounted for the overrun and where such unforeseen and/or unavoidable ? i) We are not in a position to state definitively if the overrun has altered the legal status of the public hearings conducted after the stipulated 3-month. Having not sought or obtained the extension, then it would seem that an argument could be made that the public hearings conducted after the expiry of the mandate would have no legal standing. Hence, the Commissioners would be barred from taking into their consideration any evidence given after the expired date. Consequently...

              Date: August 24, 2009 Time Early afternoon Place: Vale Royal Topic: The Extradition of Christopher “Dudus” Coke Participants: Prime Minister, Hon. Bruce Golding                      Chief Defence Staff, Major General Stewart Saunders                     Commissioner of Police, Rear Adm. Hardley Lewin Only PM and the CDS gave testimony at the Tivoli COE. No reason was given for the omission of the COP. A review of the verbatim notes reveal some very interesting anomalies which will have to be resolved in the Commission’s Report. For example: i) Duration: PM Golding testified that the meeting lasted “no more than five minutes" ; whereas the CDS said that “.. we spoke with the PM for about fifteen or twenty minutes”.  Lewin elsewhere has given the impression that the meeting was unexpectedly brief: “So the PM says”...

The Government of Jamaica (GOJ) has announced the establishment of a Commission of Enquiry (COE) to enquire into the circumstances surrounding the armed confrontation between members of the Security Forces and armed civilians primarily in Tivoli Gardens/ Denham Town area on and around May 10, 2010.                                                                               General Concerns The announcement of the Tivoli COE has been accompanied by an admission that there is no budget as yet for the exercise and no scheduled commencement date. However, the Minister of Justice is hoping that the...