Lambert Brown, Contributor

"Justice, Truth be ours forever" is a line taken from our national anthem. This is taught to our children from basic school. An anthem is one of the unique national features that bind a people together. Our anthem is also a fervent prayer that as a people we will be granted, indeed enjoy, not just justice, but truth at all times.

Our parents inculcated in us a reverence for truth. Maxims like 'the truth may be an offence but not a sin', 'speak the truth and speak it ever, cost it what it will' were reinforced by school and the Church. Our socialisation also included the commandment that 'lying lips were an abomination unto the Lord'. Sunday school, Sabbath school, and regular school used memory gems to shape our appreciation of truth telling.

Basis for justice

Recent events in our country involving national leaders have brought into stark focus the issue of truth telling. Truth is the essential currency of relationships. It matters not whether the relationship is personal, professional, or political in nature. Truth is the guarantee against dishonesty and it allows for certainty in transactions among people. Truth is the basis from which justice and fairness spring. This is why allegations against our prime minister and other members of his Cabinet that they lied to the nation are so egregious and damaging to the national interest.

Allegations of perjury made by Office of the Contractor General (OCG) against Minister Christopher Tufton and other officials in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries fall into the same categories. In the case of Dr Tufton, the falsehood alleged was contained in a written statement made to the OCG. There is no dispute that Tufton's representation was not the truth. He told the OCG that the approximately $2 million per month paid to consultant Aubyn Hill for nearly two years was an "employment contract". If Tufton's statement was true, the OCG would have no authority to investigate the scandalous conduct in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

The same position about an 'employment contract' was made by Tufton's permanent secretary as well as Aubyn Hill. The truth is that the OCG discovered that the contract was not an 'employment contract' but instead was a 'consultancy contract'. This consultancy contract gave the OCG authority to investigate the conduct of Minister Tufton and his officials.

This time the OCG scored big. In a report five days ago to Parliament, the OCG wrote: "There is absolutely nothing that was volunteered to the OCG by the Hon Minister. The Hon Minister provided an admission of his 'error' - shifting the blame to the permanent secretary - only after he was compelled, by the OCG on the pain of criminal prosecution, to explain the discrepancy which existed between his earlier sworn statement vs the fact of the contracts being 'consultancy contracts'."

Whether we like it or not, truth seems to have suffered defeat in the original response of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to the OCG. Every time truth loses out, our national anthem is dishonoured and fundamental social values, which are the guarantors of decency and fair play in our society, are undermined.

The imbroglio between attorney Harold Brady and the prime minister is another area where the issue of truth is under threat. It is public knowledge that on September 15, lawyers for Mr Brady wrote the prime minister - not the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party - challenging the veracity of comments made by the prime minister. Based on the letter, it is fair to conclude that at least one of the parties to the imbroglio is not telling the truth.

Public-opinion polls have long established that the majority of the Jamaican people do not believe that the prime minister and his government have been truthful in their handling of the Coke extradition and the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips (MPP) contract. This newspaper recently published a set of emails which illuminated the relations between Harold Brady, the solicitor general and MPP. In one of those emails, Mr Brady told Susan Schmidt from MPP that he would brief the prime minister and the attorney general on that December 17, 2009, meeting in Washington.

Different accounts

In their letter to Prime Minister Golding, Brady's lawyers said: " ... Every single action taken by him was in furtherance of your specific instructions and he has never received any instruction from anyone else. MPP, on your instructions, delivered by our client, facilitated (both in person and in writing) discussions between the State Department and the Government of Jamaica which greatly assisted in trying to resolve the treaty dispute, but the initiative became untenable once these activities were made public and you took a hands-off public stance."

This information is diametrically opposed to much of what the prime minister has told the nation to date. This is not just a legal issue between the prime minister and an attorney to be resolved in court. This is a matter of governance that cannot wait two or more years to be resolved. The country must be told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth now. The credibility of the entire Government is now in question given the letter from Mr Brady's lawyer. Truth is wanted.

Years of litigious activities are not a luxury Jamaica can afford in this matter. The prime minister must either tell the whole truth now, or he and his government must resign now. The national interest demands no less.

Lambert Brown is president of the University and Allied Workers' Union and can be contacted at labpoyh@yahoo.com. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.