Wise up Dudus

While the Government of Jamaica continues to pussyfoot around the extradition of West Kingston don Christopher “Dudus” Coke to the United States, Jamaica is getting a bad rap on the international scene -causing many Jamaicans at home and abroad to hang their heads in shame. Their beloved country -already beset by a high crime/murder rate- is now approaching the status of rogue nation as Libya once was.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has taken the noble stance that he is protecting a citizen -Mr Coke’s- constitutional right; he shold not be extradited on the basis of illegally obtained evidence on which Mr Golding says the US government is basing its extradition request. As a Jamaican citizen, I commend Mr Golding for that stance. The trouble is that, as a Jamaican citizen, it is the Courts that I want to defend that right for me, for the simple reason that I might not be in the favour of the Prime Minister (or any other politician for that matter), as Dudus obviously is. He is an influential member of the PM’s West Kingston constituency, which is the political command and control centre of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). So influential is Mr Coke to the ruling JLP, that it is alleged that senior members of the party have contracted -at great cost- a US-based law firm to lobby the US Government on Coke’s behalf regarding the extradition request.

If this allegation is true, then it shows that members of the governing JLP, are as eager as Coke himself to ensure that he is NOT extradited to the US.

This means that even if Coke is pursuaded to waive his right to contest the extradition request in the local courts and freely hand himself over to the US authorities for trial, he likely could be opposed by powerful people in the JLP.

My friendly advice to Dudus is to get an independent lawyer or perhaps the Jamaican human rights council and turn himself over to the US diplomatic representatives in Jamaica.

Dudus, take my advice: get yourself a good American lawyer, enter a plea bargain; take a light sentence and come back home. Despite all the hype, many Jamaicans know you are not the big fish; so stop taking licks for other people. Remember what happended to your Daddy!

Wise up Dudus.