The PM on the Independent Commission of Investigation’s Bill Debate

While on his feet yesterday February 10, 2010 in the House of Parliament the Prime Minster Honourable Bruce Orette Golding said words to the effect that:...............

If the rights of others are breached then his own rights cannot be sacrosanct and therefore the state must ensure that the rights of all are secure.

One wonders where this thinking was during the Sexual Offences Bill Debate and is it only for police extra judicial killings being investigated that where rights are to be recognised under this another new independent investigatory arm.

Obviously LGBT people therefore are not seen or to be recognised then even during allegations of abuse by police to gays and lesbians, the lack of proper police records and reports of abuse is a glaring example of the callousness and disregard for us as LGBT people. Michael Petrelis another blogger from San Francisco has been trying to get proper documentation from the respective offices of government including the Office of The Prime Minister under the Access to Information Act with very little success which is not surprising but to hear the words of the Prime Minister on his feet during the current debate is almost blasphemous as it is a turn around from the position he took on the invented gay marriage smoke screen used to justify the exclusion of gender based rights from the Charter of Rights Bill and from the Sexual Offences Bill recently passed.

(see Charter of Rights Bill and Sexual Offences Bill Tabs on GLBTQ JA and GJW blogs)

Suddenly rights are important for purposes to sell to the public an independent investigation unit when as we have seen in last few weeks the not surprisingly high levels of corruption within the ranks of the police force taking into account the large ammunition find and one of their own held for it at Mountain View area recently, refreshingly however it was a set of young cops who pointed out the infraction and they are to be commended for it, some of whom have since been promoted or received some form of commendation, I only hope their lives aren’t in any danger due to this dent made in the illegal guns trade.

So the trick is to avoid supposed rights that are unpleasant to the religious elite but champion the ones carried by other human rights bodies so as to get their support it seems, its has been some time that Jamaicans for Justice and many others have been asking for a totally independent body to investigate alleged infractions and crimes committed by agents of the state and rightly so but this seems like the Bruce Golding led Jamaica Labour Party administration is pandering to the gallery yet again on selected issues while gays can forget it in as far as basic recognition as human beings.

It’s tiresome now to see how politicians use so called interest in rights issues to gain popularity when convenient, when are we going to get real leaders who are bold enough to make the unpopular decisions without having to worry about the political fallout? It is well known that in private circles many of the politicians who publicly hit out at issues like homosexuality hum a different tune but they are aware of how explosive and manipulative this issue is and that they can be employed to their advantage.

Will the real leaders please stand up and speak out.

Stop using rights when it’s convenient to look as if you are doing something good.

We are not fools out here.

Will the real advocates please stand up and demand justice.

A wah wi a go do lawd?

Peace and tolerance

H