If Mr Robertson did the right thing, then what about Richard Frederick? And Rufus Bousquet . . .?

 “IT might have been late in coming, but Mr James Robertson did the right thing yesterday by resigning as minister of mining and energy.

“After the United States revoked his visitor's visa, it would have been extremely untenable for the country to have a minister who could not travel on national business to that key ally and valued business partner.

“It has been obvious for sometime that the writing was on the wall for Mr Robertson who, though never found guilty of any of the grievous charges leveled against him, has had his image sullied in the worst way. If his communication consultant had not so advised him and recommended he resign before now, he/she should repay every cent of the fee paid by Mr Robertson.

“We are not going to rehash the accusations and whisperings against the former minister here, especially because no one has provided any evidence of wrongdoing by Mr Robertson. And he is still presumed innocent until proven guilty.

“But we believe that he should have made the decision to resign at the time when the prime minister took the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project under his own wings at Jamaica House, thus essentially relieving Mr Robertson of what appeared to have been his main task as energy minister.

“The action of the United States in canceling his visa was but the final nail in the coffin. No matter what may be Mr Robertson's protestations of innocence, not even the smartest communication consultant can save his image. In fact, he has become what in the industry is called a public relations nightmare which would hang like an albatross around the neck of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government.

“The Opposition People's National Party (PNP) could not ask for a better gift going into a general election. It is not difficult to foresee the firestorm of speculation that would enmesh the minister about the reasons for the visa revocation. The Jamaican imagination is brilliant for that. It is also not difficult to conclude that whatever the reason, it is not because President Barack Obama does not like Mr Robertson.

“The Jamaican political culture rarely sees such a resignation as that of Mr Robertson. As usually, the fallen one has had to be pushed by a mighty force. In this case, that force is the United States. It is perhaps noteworthy that had the US not gone after Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, the former Tivoli Gardens don would still be living in the splendour of his 'presidential' status.

“The point is that it would be nice to see our politicians acting on their own accord and taking responsibility for their action. Until this becomes second nature in our politics, the Jamaican people will never trust their government.

Of course, we are aware that the story is not over, because the country still wants to know why the US would take such a drastic step against a Government minister. We would certainly prefer if Mr Robertson be the first to tell us what went wrong, and not wait until he is prodded by America.”

REFERENCE: ttp://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/Mr-Robertson-did-the-right-thing_8876565?fb_ref=storypage#ixzz1aiCGSmac)

PART 2: THE SEQUEL

The Jamaican Observer wrote that Robertson did the right thing; what do we think?  Furthermore, Is is justified for Richard to resign and for Tucker to stay put? Tucker also had his US visa revoked since 1984 after he was released from prison. He - like Richard –  is also a "persona non grata" in the US. (He was only granted a waiver.) He is serving what the US Immigration Authorities deem "a permanent visa ineligibility ban". Just as Wikileaks leveled allegations of murder against Richard, Rick Wayne (a couple of years ago) also leveled allegations of murder against Tucker. While Richard was charged for customs fraud, Tucker has been convicted for Grand Theft Auto.

Here is a table summarising some of the more serious charges against both ministers. All the charges are in the public domain.

Summary of some of the charges/allegations leveled against two members of government 

 

	Charge/Allegations	Richard Frederick	Bruce Tucker
1	Visa revocation	Yes (in 2011)	Yes (since 1984)
2	Allegations of Narco-trafficking	Yes	unknown
3	Allegations of Murder	Yes	Yes
4	Allegation of Substance Use/Abuse	no	Yes
5	Charged for Customs Motor Vehicle under-invoicing	Yes	No
6	Convicted for grand Theft Auto	No	Yes
7	Convicted for identity fraud	No	Yes
8	Allegations of serious Health Issues	No	Yes
9	Violations of the Constitution & Finance Act	Yes	Yes
10	Implicated in the Tuxedo Villas Affair	Yes	Yes
TOTAL		5	8

Tucker has 8 charges; but there are more egregious charges against him; Richard has 5 (or 3 less than Tucker). The question therefore is:  Why should Tucker be sitting in Cabinet and Richard can’t? Both should have been fired from the Cabinet of Ministers, with Tucker going first.