Commissions of enquiry - used for good or evil?

Suzanne Leslie-Bailey, Guest Columnist

So, another commission of enquiry is slated to take place. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is on record as expressing its willingness to participate in the impending Tivoli commission of enquiry as it wants to get to the truth of what happened during that fateful period in May 2010.

The party also desires for any human-rights abuses that were perpetrated against residents to be brought to public attention.

Any concern that I may have to the calling of an enquiry is the motive behind the Government's acquiescence to the enquiry. The deaths of 77 people - 76 civilians and one soldier - is a travesty. However, the greater travesty is the seeming attempt by this People's National Party (PNP) Government to play politics with these lost lives!

POLITICAL FOOTBALL

The PNP has used past commissions of enquiry as a political football in order to score political goals against the JLP. The Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry in 2011 is a case in point. A parallel can be drawn to South Africa under apartheid, where commissions of enquiry were introduced in order to either give credence to atrocities perpetrated against persons opposing apartheid or to justify actions taken by the government against its detractors.

It is my guess that this imminent Tivoli commission of enquiry will be misused in a similar fashion - to serve the ends of the PNP Government.

I am wary of the fact that the Simpson Miller administration has gone full speed ahead in preparation for the start of a new commission of enquiry, while the FINSAC enquiry remains unconcluded. I think Jamaicans should demand the completion of the FINSAC report! Many lives and businesses were destroyed during the 1990s and beyond as a result of the blatant mismanagement of the Jamaican economy by the PNP Government of the day!

The reluctance by the current administration to pursue truth and justice for the Jamaican people is in stark contrast to a JLP Government. Many persons considered the calling of the Manatt-Dudus enquiry by the JLP Government foolhardy and political suicide. However, there are times when the pursuit of truth must take precedence over political expedience!

PEOPLE BEFORE POLITICS

The JLP took a stand to place people before politics! Is the PNP Government now willing to do this? Will the people of Jamaica ever know what really happened during the financial crisis of the 1990s?

Also of concern to me is Jamaica's practice of impunity for human-rights violations by the security forces. I will draw reference to the Cillie Commission, which enquired into the riots in Soweto and other parts of South Africa in June 1976. The report from the Cillie Commission stated that 575 people died and 2,389 were injured. The Cillie Commission painted the police force in a favourable light and stated that "the police force had acquitted itself well in executing its duties and could find no evidence that police had perpetrated deliberate and impermissible assaults on the protesters, or that they had used their firearms indiscriminately".

Mr Murphy Morobe, one of the student leaders in the Soweto uprising, testified that he believed that "the Cillie Commission was set up to justify the shootings by the police in Soweto and other townships ... [and] that there was direct collusion between the police and the Cillie Commission ... ." I hope that the Tivoli commission of enquiry will be spared similar perceptions.

I am pleased that Ms Velma Hylton has felt moved to recuse herself as a commissioner for the Tivoli enquiry. What befuddles me is the PNP's inability or reluctance to see that Ms Hylton was ill-suited to sit as a commissioner in the first place, given her controversial statement that she could not understand why the security forces could not shoot women and children if they are being used as shields for criminals.

DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE

What is even more astounding is the attorney general, Patrick Atkinson's, attempt in Parliament on March 4, 2014 to defend the indefensible! He stridently stated that he did not think that Ms Hylton should be removed as a commissioner.

Mr Atkinson, one quick question: When you sat on the other side of the political divide in 2002, during the West Kingston enquiry, what were your views on Ms Hylton's controversial statements? I sat in Parliament on March 4 and watched the faces of those on the governing side; some seemed to be experiencing some amount of discomfiture, but did not have the courage to defend the human rights of our vulnerable children and women! It is amazing how political affiliation guides or, more appropriately, misguides our basic values and attitudes!

I am concerned that the truth and delivery of justice for the victims and their families may be lost in the maze of a 'sideshow' that characterised previous enquiries. I appeal to Jamaicans not to be distracted by the soap opera that characterised the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry and what I anticipate will be attempted at the upcoming Tivoli enquiry. I ask the people of Jamaica instead to focus on the real and substantive issues of human rights and justice for their fellow brothers and sisters!

Suzanne Leslie-Bailey is a JLP deputy spokesperson. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and svclb@msn.com.