Vernon Daley

Those of us who cherish freedom of speech should be cheering on the Opposition Leader ...

Politicians, seeking electoral advantage, have a way of promising what is not theirs to give. And even if it's within their power to fulfil the promise, they often have no intention of doing so anyway.

Broken political promises in our neck of the woods is as common-place as sand in the desert.

We have had such hard knocks from our political leaders that I find it hard to fight off scepticism when I hear any of them making a commitment to do one thing or the other.

Take, for example, Bruce Golding's recent utterances about the country's defamation laws.

Those of us who cherish the basic human right of freedom of speech shouldbe cheering on the Opposition Leader for his bold assertion that the country's laws need to be reviewed, allowing the media more freedom to report on public officials.

Buried somewhere in Mr. Golding's statements is the implied promise that if he gets his hands on state power these stringent defamation laws would have their days numbered.

Agree with points

But the sceptic inside me is uneasy. Nicer promises have been made. Nicer promises have been broken.

I want to give the Opposition Leader the benefit of the doubt because I agree with the points he makes and would like to see the changes he advocates.

Public officials, he told a Press Association of Jamaica function recently, are to be held to a higher standard than the average citizen and should, therefore, not be subject to the same protection under law.

He added: "I believe that when you hold public trust, you put yourself in a glass bowl and you must be prepared for the public to scrutinise you in everything that you do."

But the sceptic still has to take into account the fact that people say things they think others would like to hear.

The sceptic is forced to wonder whether Mr. Golding would be willing to shed this protection of law, if he finds himself Prime Minister and under even more public scrutiny than he now bears.

There is one thing going for the Opposition Leader in all of this, though. At least he has put himself out there on the issue and the public will be able to judge his performance if he ever gets the chance to do something about it.

I hope the leadership of the governing People's National Party will also let us know their views on the defamation laws sometime soon.

Trouble in the judiciary

Satnarine Sharma, who has been reinstated as Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago, says his first order of business is to heal the wounds which have been torn open in the country's judiciary.

It looks a big task given all that has happened in the twin-island republic over recent months.

On the face ofit, Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls has caused an entire country a great deal of needless problems. The last thing anybody expected was that he would have backed out of testifying against the Chief Justice who was accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

After all, it was McNicolls who started this thing when he accused Sharma of trying to sway his decision in the corruption case involving former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday. The whole business is a classic poppy-show that has stained the image of the judiciary in that country.

Vernon Daley is a journalist. Send comments to vernon.daley@gmail.com