Orville W. Taylor
If his batteries were as charged as he is now, Member of Parliament (MP) Kern Spencer would need no electricity to light the thousands of light bulbs that have placed him in this deep pickle. In so much trouble that a toddler's chemise might fit him, Kern is looking at such a long stretch of prison time that his three nights in the Central Kingston Hotel, will indeed seem like a short vacation if he is found guilty.
Independent of any ruling of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Kern, Coleen Wright and businessman Rodney Chin, were hit with nine, six and five charges respectively. The charges are fraud, corruption and money laundering. In Black History Month, Chin could not complain of being treated 'like a Chiney man' because he posted bail and on Thursday left his two 'colleagues' with a night to spare.
It must be stated, categorically here, that none of the three is guilty in law and although the tearful Kern is penitent, he might not even be guilty of conscience, if he has any at all. However, as in the murder cases against Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, when we decried, tried and fried him, he is innocent until proven guilty. They all must have their days in court, without prejudice to their cases.
Nevertheless, it is Kern who causes the greatest amount of concern because he demonstrated all that is wrong with our society and patterns of governance. On the day of his arrest the police declared that he would be given no special treatment. Really? What does special treatment mean? Let us not be hypocritical here, Spencer is not an ordinary accused. He is a former Senator, minister of government and a current MP. That is no chicken, although it is alleged that he has run 'a fowl' of the law.
Party deliberation
From all appearances, he is being treated just like a common inner-city accused, who normally faces the court with little support. None of his 'family' members from the People's National Party (PNP) were there in solidarity.
Interestingly, without a guilty verdict, there is now party deliberation regarding his resignation. Perhaps they 'know' that he is guilty. His 'father,' always Bucking for the party, is standing aside expressing surprise, while his 'mother' is a silent 'P'. His older brother is in his customary place in the background when crises arise and is missing in action. After all, he thought "Kern could handle it," and he must be appalled as well. Clearly Kern learned nothing from him.
Indeed, the ordinariness of Spencer is evidenced by a court officer being reportedly unwilling to go the extra mile to work a few minutes beyond the call of duty, thus making him sleep the extra night. Actually, little sleeping goes on in jail cells unless one has someone to watch one's back.
By the way, what does special mean? Doesn't it also imply that the accused must not be treated more harshly because of who or what he is? If Spencer were just another privileged middle-class youth charged with fraud, would he have languished so long in jail? The police routinely accord 'special treatment' to certain accused persons. Let us ask whether there never has been any case where the legal system appeared to work overtime to allow the release of other high profile accused? For others, there are special custodial arrangements. As an example; no policeman facing corruption or murder charges would be put in the same cell as his former 'charges.' Similarly, suspected homosexuals are not made to mingle in the general population.
Take a bow, Roberts
Happy for Kern, Patrick Roberts, who is not even a PNP back-bencher, managed to come up with property to secure his release. At a time when his party seems to be abandoning him like ballast water from a sinking ship, Roberts, for his zeal in standing behind him, must take a bow.
What is sad about this whole debacle is not that a government official (a parliamentarian is) has been suspected of and charged for corruption and fraud. This would not be the first time.
After a few months in opposition former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) minister, J.A.G. Smith, was before the court in 1990 for misappropriating farm workers' money. He was convicted and did time. Similarly, two other names of the 1940 to 1950s; J.Z. Malcolm and Hugh Simmonds, come up in the research. Apart from these convicts, there are countless examples of comrades and labourites appointing their friends, sweethearts and political cronies to sinecure positions.
Politicians and activists have ghost projects and politically-awarded contracts. Money is regularly misspent or improperly distributed as they 'run with it!' in the face of an election, give water in exchange of votes for Kern, withhold hurricane relief for non-labourites or give parish councillors money proportionate to the amount of green pigment they possess.
The distressing thing is that he is representative of the next generation of politicians, who obviously is a junior 'colleague' as described by PNP MP Dean 'Patwaman' Peart. We are just not honest enough as a society because we know that corruption takes place in government and just as the gunmen, who learnt their gun-addiction from politically-fed thugs, we are reaping what we sowed.
Whatever Kern did, even if not criminal, is still plain wrong. However, he did what he did simply because he exists in a political system that allows people like him to escape with it.
Kern is not the problem. He is a symptom.
Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, Mona.
