Sell Out

The graffiti has been daubed on strategically selected walls in some urban ghetto areas.  The calls have been echoed in Parliament. Now they have found their way into the legal posturings in the Manatt Commission of Enquiry.  

The accusation is simple: Dr. Peter Phillips as Minister of National Security has sold out the constitutional rights of Jamaicans to the United States. This he has done by signing the mystery MOU's.  The charge is serious and hurtful. Peter Phillips has always been a nationalist at heart. It was reported that he was once a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel - Bungo Peter wore tam and sandals and uttered black conscious lyrics.  Peter Phillips was a social scientist and an ardent follower of Michael Norman Manley. He was once General Secretary of the People's National Party and held ministerial positions both in the Michael Manley and P.J. Patterson led regimes. 

In his testimony, Phillips said that he had obtained the legal opinion of the then Solicitor General Michael Hylton. Later he said that the Solicitor General vetted the MOU's before they were signed. Hugh Small Q.C. in his cross examination of the now Security Minister Dwight Nelson has elicited evidence that the proper course is for the AG based upon the advice of the SG to inform the Minister in respect of legal matters. Well both the then AG A.J. Nicholson QC and the then Solicitor General Michael Hylton are available to the Commission.  The Commissioners are duty bound to call upon them to clarify the situation. In addition as portrayed by Clovis' cartoon, it may be useful if the insights of the then Prime Minister, Most Honourable P.J. Patterson QC be brought to bear on the purported secrecy of the deal.  

Bluntly if Phillips sold out then he was not alone in this venture.  It is very dangerous to leave these accusations hanging out there.