Mark Wignall | How I saw it in April 2024

The western border of Waterford (Gaza country) is the eastern border of Gregory Park. By the green flags in Gregory Park, it is safe to say that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has more popularity there, and, of course, the Waterford area has been faithful to the PNP for many years now.

Kartel is not well loved in Gregory Park. But that may not be so in many other JLP areas where people under 40 speak of Kartel as if he occupied special divinity in their lives. To that cohort, any retrial and release of Kartel may be seen as a freeing up of their own spirits and their ability to be great disruptors of the system.

If that happens and Kartel is willing to be used by the PNP to go on political platforms with the party, it could signal the further demise of the JLP. The strategists in the JLP need to bear that in mind. In April, that was how I saw it.

At the recent, September People’s National Party (PNP) conference, no less a celebrity than the man Vybz Kartel was there. On the PNP platform. As I figured would have happened.

Political parties are, basically, devoid of ethics. Which makes them free to attach themselves to any side.

I cannot see the PNP as less than the JLP in being political mercenaries, The PNP is politically desperate. But there can be no excuse for not declaring that the JLP is not also very desperate.

THE PRIME MINISTER AND IC PROBLEMS

It would seem to me that our prime minister may have declared himself free of the problems that have enmeshed him for the last two years. With the Integrity Commission. Were I the prime minister (PM), I would fold myself into the same mould as he has done before. It worked before. It may work again..

But in reading the report, I would be wary of one little matter. If the IC made a decision, at some stage of the investigation, to utilise an outside forensic expert to bring real heft to the final report. why is it that the name and connections of this expert are not featured in the final report?

I sought relevant information from an expert in the field. “Mark, as to your question, can you share with me, or point me to the report you are referring to about an overseas forensic expert being used by the IC? I have not yet been able to review the actual report(s) in detail. I have only short summaries.

“What I can share with you is that financial transactions have become more complex and sophisticated to the point of being highly complex. and investigating agencies are securing the services of experts to unravel the transactions. For example, here in the US, the FBI will, from time to time, use outside expertise in complex financial cases. If they need those experts to testify in court, they will provide the name and CV of those experts to defence counsel.

“But if they do not intend to make a court case, they will keep the consulting source confidential. After I read the report in question, I might be able to share more with you about the question you raise, which is a good one.”

The PM has said he has broken no laws. The Opposition PNP wants to nail his skin to the wall. In politics, that is fair. But how can those who do not like the PM or who have long built up enmity towards him make a fair argument that after so long an investigative period, he has been found wanting.

In reading the report, something tells me that the IC commissioners are not too far off in recommending that the report be forwarded to the local Financial Investigation Division. They have stated it quite plainly. Plus, Tax Administration Jamaica. And, why not?

The reality is that the prime minister must be held to a higher bar, a higher level than the rest of us. He ran for this post, He exposed his political hunger for this post. And once he attained the post of prime minister, he made no bones about it - that he would continue to chase it down and beat up the PNP and render it to political pulp.

PAIN ON TOP OF PAIN

“I feel like every day I am going to die, fust drop dung and dead.” She asked me for a cigarette. “Is like me have weh Kartel have. Me feel like mi face a swell up.”

“So what is causing this,” I asked.

“Is stress. Sometimes I don’t sleep for two days. Mi 18-year-old daughter jus a smoke weed and nah get up out of a di bed. Mi an a man inna pure war.”

“So yu can walk whe and left him?” I asked.

“Mi a live inna him relative house. Di only way is violence. Mi haffi kill him or him haffi kill me.”

I remembered reading about how much many youngsters were stressed out and how not many people were in touch with them.

“How old are you?” I asked.

“I am 27,” she said.

“So when I leave here and you leave here, what happens?” I asked.

She reached into her purse and extracted a knife. “If him **** wid mi a gwine kill him.

“A can hear mi heart a beat inna mi chest. A feel mi pressure rising. Mi too young fi feel so. A so mi feel every day.”

I come across them almost every day. Young people on the waste line. Waiting to explode. Waiting to kill. Or be killed.

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