Editorial | Kartel and the PNP

If you take Angela Brown Burke’s statement to its logical conclusion about Vybz Kartel’s presence on the stage of the People’s National Party’s (PNP) annual conference on Sunday, her party lacks agency.

So, it would seem, the party bends with the wind. Whoever will, may – regardless. No questions asked.

Dr Brown Burke is the PNP’s chairman. Kartel, whose given name is Adidja Palmer, is an exceedingly popular dancehall deejay.

At the end of July, 13 years into a life sentence, Kartel and his fellow-accused were released from prison. The Court of Appeal had decided against their retrial for the murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams, an associate who allegedly could not account for guns given to him for safekeeping. Williams’ body was never recovered.

The UK-based Privy Council, Jamaica’s final court, had remitted the case to the Court of Appeal, having determined that the initial conviction was unsafe. That was because a judge at the original murder trial had allowed the case to continue although one of the jurors was outed for attempting to bribe the others to deliver a ‘not guilty’ verdict.

The Privy Council said that the accused were, on its face, denied a fair trial. The other jurors, knowing of the bribe attempt, might have, unconsciously or otherwise, overcompensated against that behaviour.

STATE THE OBVIOUS

Kartel, who was able to record songs while in prison and has been triumphant in his release, turned up at the PNP conference to a rapturous welcome from the crowd. He made an appearance on the stage with his lawyer, Isat Buchanan, a former chairman of the PNP’s human rights commission.

According to Dr Brown Burke, Mr Buchanan was invited to speak “and he had a couple of persons with him, and he spoke and the others left with him”.

Apparently, recognising the intellectual sogginess of that argument, she pivoted to something about the presence demonstrating the egalitarian nature of the PNP.

That, too, was flaccid, possibly even to Dr Brown Burke’s own ears.

So, the PNP chairman said: “As I know it, Vybz Kartel has been freed. We have a justice system, and we also have to honour the jurisprudence that we have and therefore, we don’t make those kinds of judgements.”

Attending a party’s conference and being in the crowd as a supporter is one thing. Ascending the stage in the presence of the PNP’s leadership is quite another.

Rather than the wearying contortions, Dr Brown Burke should merely have stated the obvious: Vybz Kartel is popular and he might help the PNP win votes among certain demographics. Who cares about high-mindedness?