Human rights groups join the fray – JFJ, FAST say Golding has wronged the people

Human rights groups have lashed out at Prime Minister Bruce Golding, saying he has wronged Jamaicans.

The local human rights agitators unleashed their venom on Golding, joining the thunderous demands for Prime Minister Bruce Golding to resign.

“I believe Golding is his own problem and that he should leave before his reputation disintegrates any further,” declared Yvonne McCalla Sobers, convenor of Families Against State Terrorism.

“The fitness to lead of the prime minister and members of his Government has been irretrievably compromised,” asserted the Carolyn Gomes-led Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ).

McCalla Sobers argued that the issue was more fundamental than getting rid of Golding.

“This will not solve our problem any more than getting rid of any of our past leader-messiahs has benefited us over the past half-century,” she contended.

“This present crisis provides us with a chance to exercise the powers we have in a democracy, and that goes beyond voting in this or that party every five years,” argued McCalla Sobers.

The JFJ characterised Golding’s decision to involve the Jamaica Labour Party in a state matter as unconscionable.

“This resulted in the hijacking of the process of negotiations on treaty matters being conducted by the Office of the Attorney General on behalf of the people of Jamaica.”

Compromised by decision

The lobby said Golding’s decision had compromised State Minister Ronald Robinson, Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne and Solicitor General Douglas Leys.

“Each succeeding statement or disclosure, or lack thereof, on the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair is more disturbing and raises more questions than it answers,” the JFJ said.

The JFJ also said the appointment of Karl Samuda to investigate the matter was another attempt to mislead Parliament and the media.

The JFJ complained that Golding knew the full truth of the situation and said the initial attempts to make Harold Brady a scapegoat was also an indication of the loss of a moral compass and an abdication of personal integrity and responsibility.

“The prime minister’s behaviour and pronouncements since the admission in Parliament of his complicity in the misleading of the people make clear that he fails to understand the enormity of the wrong that he has done to Jamaica,” the JFJ said.

The group asserted that Golding had abused the trust of the citizens and compromised Jamaica’s standing in the international community.