THE PRIVILEGES OF POWER

For years I have been wondering what drives the addiction of most Jamaican politicians to power, an addiction that causes some to commit murder, arson and even drives some to threaten to create “nightmares” for the entire population in the name of power.

Could it be the money that they are able to siphon off, the privileges of going to cocktail parties every day and being treated in superior fashion to persons who are smarter than they are or born into greater privilege than they did? Is it all part of the “great house syndrome" that Mutty Perkins often refers to?

After torturing myself with the question for about forty years, I never expected it to take a simple little by-election in Portland to give me the answer.

Arising from the by-election called after Daryl Vaz (the Jamaica Labour Party.... JLP ) was removed by the courts on the ground that he was US citizen at the time of his nomination, the PNP (People's National Party) went into the constituency firing on all cylinders to try and grab the seat. One of the salvos they fired was that after Daryl Vaz was removed as Member of Parliament, he continued to keep his Diplomatic Passport.

Hmm. I said to myself, that’s bad. Then all hell broke loose since if every there were a case of "those who live in glass houses" being careful not to throw stones, this was it.

For within days it was disclosed that it was not one or two of those PNP stalwarts who had ceased to hold government positions almost two years ago, (some were given diplomatic passports although they were not entitled to it) who were still holding on to them for dear life, but a whopping 20! Also, according to one radio station, one former junior minister had used his some five times to travel overseas, although he had no such authority. (Isn’t this some kind of fraud based on one impersonating a government official? Or are such laws involving impersonation only to be applied to "ordinary" people?)

Anyway, I couldn’t believe it had taken me so many years to realize the implications of an important perk like a Diplomatic passport. The privileges begin the minute the decision is taken for one to travel on a diplomatic passport for the first perk is nuff US dollars for the per diem. Then there is no worry about visas, things that we ordinary citizens must line up for hours on end to obtain. Then ordinary citizens travel economy, but persons with diplomatic passports usually travel first class, compliments of the taxpayers .

At the airport, the holder of a Diplomatic passport really starts getting the royal treatment since if they stood in line at the airline desk and immigration like us ordinary folk, there would no work for the "protocol” officers and VIP lounge attendants who work at the airports. It is the duty of these mere peons to whisk the dignitaries into the VIP lounge and take their documents for processing. When that is over, they escort them privately to the plane. Good heavens, we could not expect holders of diplomatic passports to mingle with the masses could we?

The real privileges to die for, comes when one leaves the shores of this Fair Isle.

Take a trip to our closest "foreign,” Miami .
First, there is the “disrespect” the minute a Jamaican arrives in the US of A where there is always a scrawny mongrel appearing to smell not only your luggage, but your body to boot. (I would give anything for a diplomatic passport to eliminate that leg alone!) No such dissing of holders of Diplomatic passports!

Next there are the unfriendly customs and immigration officers who not only make you wait forever in long lines but worse, who would never tolerate any form of smuggling regardless of who you are.

Think too of the privilege of being immune from arrest overseas, simply by virtue of having a Diplomatic passport. This served Mrs. Mugabe well in March this year, when according to the “Mail On Line” she wounded a British photographer but was granted diplomatic immunity. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1163710/Robert-Mugabes-wife-given-diplomatic-immunity-alleged-street-attack-Briton.html) What a super privilege, enough to kill and die for!

Anyway, back home, on the return to good old Ja, the VIP treatment again gets into gear at the airport where the overworked protocol officer does the leg work while the holder of the Diplomatic passport sips wine in the VIP lounge. More importantly, they can bring whatever they wish into the island for anyone who questions or even thinks of charging duty on anything that these “diplomats” are bringing in, would be jobless in a minute’.

These my friends are not only the privileges to die for but to kill for as far as some politicians are concerned.

Pathetic, isn't?