- FILE
A young looking Bruce Golding.
Laura Tanna, Contributor
The following is a continuation of an interview with Bruce Golding, chairman of the Jamaica Labour Party. The first part was carried in yesterday's Sunday Gleaner.
GOLDING SAYS: "It was entrapment, intended to create the justification for a State of Emergency that would enable them to lock up the opposition. We had a retreat planned for Montego Bay, at the Holiday Inn, by which time we were aware of Spy Robinson's role - the fact that he had been given a gun.
The fact that this was something decided at Jamaica House, at a meeting at which Mr. Manley was intermittently present, and I say that because at the point where he was to be given the gun, Mr. Manley found it necessary to go to the bathroom.
SCHEDULED PRESS CONFERENCE
"When we had assembled much of the information, we decided this was a matter that had to be made public. We scheduled a press conference to be held in Montego Bay, to indicate that serious corruption was being perpetrated. The government realised what we were going to do and while we were at the retreat, Mr. Seaga got a letter from Manley to say that he had declared a State of Emergency mid-day, that day. Within an hour, there were police surrounding the hotel.
"They started locking us up one by one. They took a number of people. When they took Ray Miles into Up Park Camp, he called the British high commissioner and said: "I'm a British citizen and I've been locked up." The British Government got hold of the authorities and asked what the hell they thought they were doing? He was released within 24 hours. But people like Pat Stevens, 'Babsy' Grange and Pearnel Charles, Jamaican citizens, they had to spend a year in detention. It still remains the most corrupt use of power that we have seen in Jamaica since slavery was abolished!"
As D.K. Duncan was minister of mobilisation at the time, was he not one of the people who designed this State of Emergency and if so, how could Duncan subsequently be used in the NDM campaign?
CORRUPT USE OF POWER
Golding replied: "Yes, he was. But to his credit, he's one of the very few persons involved in the PNP at that time who subsequently acknowledged that it was wrong; that it was a corrupt use of power. Mr. Patterson has not, to this day, even acknowledged that there were abuses committed by that State of Emergency, let alone to acknowledge the corruption of which he was a part, because he was a part of it. And it was the most blatant display of the corrupt use of power that this country has ever seen. Part of the problem is that we don't write history anymore. This thing happened almost 30 years ago, and there is so little documentation about it for people to read. It was intended to cripple the JLP campaign, and it did significant damage. It's not easy to run a campaign when so many of your significant functionaries are locked up. And you are operating under the fear that any day now you can be locked up.
"For example, Frank Phipps was running for us as a candidate in North East Westmoreland. Now a more harmless person than Karram Josephs I can't think of. Had a bit of a temper, but a gentleman. Karram Phipps' campaign manager -- was locked up seven o'clock on election day because he was considered to be a threat to national security, and released at six o'clock that evening after the polls had closed, because by that time he was no longer a threat to national security!
"Under the law, you can only be detained under an order signed by the minister. One assumes that before the minister signs the order, the minister satisfies himself that there is good reason why you ought to be detained. What ... the minister did was that if he was going on the campaign trail and wasn't going to be around, he would just sign a whole heap of blank detention orders for the police and military to fill in whatever names they wished. And that was established in the enquiry. I mean, corruption! That's what it was."
The Golding family has been affected in a more private way by the consequences of corruption and violence, influencing Golding's views. Daughter Shereen is married to Andrew Ogilvie, son of a leading civil servant murdered in 1978.
POLITICAL PRESSURE
Says Golding: "Ted Ogilvie was the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Construction, during PNP times. Ted Ogilvie was a professional civil servant and a lot of corruption was taking place on the McGregor Gully project. He did an internal investigation to find out that cheques were just being drawn without any certification and he put a stop to it. He virtually froze the project. A lot of political pressure was brought to bear on him and he remained resolute. He ordered that the whole project be audited. He wasn't prepared to authorise one more payment until that audit was completed.
"There were two well-known PNP (activists), Tony Brown and George Flash, who were involved in the project. They apparently went to the ministry and made all sorts of (declarations) about what would happen if they didn't get their payments. Ted Ogilvie remained resolute. He protected his officers because ... he said: 'Let them know you no longer have anything to do with the matter. If they have any questions, I'm the only person who can answer.'
"He went home for lunch as he normally did almost every day, had lunch and was going back to his car. Got to his gate with his little five-year-old son with him. Had just kissed Andrew goodbye and as he turned around to go to the car, men pounced on him and shot him dead.
The police started investigations. Those were stymied and when public pressure was brought, they eventually established that there was a basis for charging George Flash and Tony Brown, but by that time they had been whisked off to Cuba.
STAYED IN CUBA
And there is evidence that they were assisted in doing so through official diplomatic channels. Dudley Thompson was then the minister of foreign affairs. They stayed in Cuba for years. They remained off the island and it wasn't until the PNP came back to power in 1989 that they came back to Jamaica.
"We started putting public pressure again on the fact that they were back in Jamaica and there were warrants out for their arrest. Eventually they were arrested and charged for murder. The matter came up a couple of times, just for mention, and the normal court drag-out until eventually it was discovered that the file was missing. They could find no trace of the file, no trace of the statements that were on the files. The case collapsed and they were acquitted."
