Mark Wignall | An ill wind blowing over to the PNP

Melissa Silvera, wife of former People’s National Party (PNP) member of parliament Jolyan Silvera died on November 10. It was reported in the media that she died in her sleep. By mid-December, a post-mortem had already established that she was shot as three bullet fragments were found in her body, her husband was being questioned by the police and his high-powered attorney was saying that his client was not a suspect in the murder probe.

On January 19, Jolyan Silvera was arrested for murder. Later, the investigators tied his licensed firearm to the bullets found in her body. They later reported that major renovation work had taken place in the room where they suspect Mrs. Silvera met her tragic end. Seriously now. Major renovation?

Let me say here that the Silvera tragedy has unleashed a social media horde of ‘professional’ investigators, journalists, and just nasty people who cannot survive a single day without emptying their bile of nastiness and hate over the heads of those who wish to participate in the bedlam.

While the renovation work would not necessarily indicate that a conspiracy was in the mix, it would be difficult for even a first-year detective recruit not to have as more than a possibility that others existed in addition to just workmen doing their normal jobs.

In an ideal world, the investigation would take place and it would not draw in the loved ones of Mrs Silvera and the campaign politics of the moment. That, however, must take into consideration that the fully blown explosion of social media has begun to tag certain names in the PNP as being attached to this terrible tragedy.

It doesn’t help that soon after KC Peter Champagnie said that Mr Silvera was not a suspect, he was arrested. As a top-class lawyer, we have to assume that the unsaid was attached to Mr Champagnie’s statement. Based on information that I have established so far.

But public doubt began there. Heading into the local government elections ,which have been called for February 26, the PNP, which has been in election campaign mode for well over a year, was in danger of going stale on itself. The very worst thing that could happen to PNP President Mark Golding would be an ill wind from the Silvera tragedy wafting over to the innards of the PNP campaign and getting penned up in there.

ENCOURAGING CORRUPTION

She is 37 years of age, and she has done work that many Jamaican women would consider demeaning. In that time she has travelled the globe and has seen the underbelly of life.

She has struggled to love herself even through the psychological scars she bore. But she made money. She bought a seven-seater Toyota for $3.5 million cash. The idea? Put a car on the road in a regulated taxi route. Insurance premium: $700,000. She paid, plus all the other requirements. And she identified a driver.

But everything else to secure the package? Frustration at every spot. All designed to force her into corruption. Jamaica, yu nice? Not really.

ROYALTY IN DECLINE

Under the old ‘one drop’ racial classification legal principle, Meghan Markle is black.Which means that the melanin in her skin indicates that she has at least one drop of black blood in her biological makeup. Some of the trashy tabloids in the British press are quite uncomfortable that Markle openly seems to have embraced her ‘blackness’ instead of feeling encumbered by it.

Markle’s melanin seems to glow whenever she is beside her pale-skinned husband, Harry. They may be known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but to me at least, they are more interested in each other, in developing a wider interest of the world around them, and in accepting the myriad challenges that they know must come.

They seem to genuinely love each other and at times, for the sake of their own sanity, they must wrap themselves in a protective cocoon like an old love story. Many people all over support this view of them, and they do so silently.

I suspect that Prime Minister Andrew Holness would see them more as Meghan and Harry even as they are royalty attached to an ancient Sussex line. Having long signalled that Jamaica intends to formally sever ties with British royalty, at least one of the tabloids has invoked its outrage machine in seeing the recent Jamaican visit of Meghan and Harry to the première of Bob Marley: One Love on January 23.

In being true to the racial stirrings of a long-gone past, editors at the Daily Mail would want their proximate world to pause because King Charles and Harry’s sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, are battling medical issues. From what we know, the medical issues are not critical at this time, but the première is happening at that very time. How dare Harry and that Meghan go off on that jaunt. Must be Meghan urging him. Tut tut.

The criticism of Jamaica as being anti-royal should be worn as a badge of honour. And if our prime minister, in an election year, can milk the visit, hobnob with the royal youngsters, and play his political game with the class it requires, then go for it.

The US Embassy has issued a troubling travel advisory on Jamaica. We should smile in the likelihood that visitors to Jamaica may see the advisory as another vacation attraction.

The Bob Marley movie and the presence of the internationally accepted Duke and Duchess of Sussex are an advertisement for Jamaica that needs no further packaging. The ball was skied and the PM took an easy catch.

We cannot dictate to Meghan and Harry the menu of rules they should adopt in their relationship with the British royalty. As they return home, we would hope that the trashy tabloids allow them to live in peace this time and not be knotted in the knickers because of good, old-fashioned jealousy. But that will not happen.

Vultures need something to tear at.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.