Sharon's flip-flop, PNP MP renounces then keeps US citizenship

New information from the United States Embassy in Kingston has led to questions about whether Opposition Member of Parliament for South Central St Catherine Sharon Hay-Webster deliberately set out to mislead the Jamaican people about her dual-nationality status.

In a diplomatic cable, never before made public, the embassy alleges that the People's National Party (PNP) MP visited its offices on July 31, 2009, to renounce her US citizenship only to return four days later to withdraw the renunciation.

"Nevertheless, over a week later, The Gleaner published an article on the MP's renunciation with no mention of its withdrawal, suggesting that the MP intends to leave the public impression of having renounced US citizenship," the embassy claims in a cable dated August 17, 2009.

The article referenced in the cable appeared in The Gleaner on August 2, 2009 and was titled 'I will renounce! Hay-Webster to give up US citizenship'.

In discussion with embassy

At that time she told The Gleaner's Tyrone Reid: "I told my constituency executive on Friday night that I intend to renounce and the party chairman is also aware … . I told them I have been in discussion with the embassy already."

She also denied that she was making this move because the Jamaica Labour Party had decided to take court action against her.

"Whether or not he filed a motion, I would have had to take a decision," Hay-Webster said in the August 2009 article.

While telling The Gleaner that she did not know when the process would be completed, Hay-Webster said: "I have no assets in the United States of America. I really have an intention to continue service to my country … if they (constituents) continue to endorse me."

Hay-Webster, was born in the US in 1961 and has never denied having an American passport, but she has repeatedly argued that her case is different to those that have been adjudicated in the courts

"I have travelled on a Jamaican passport, a diplomatic passport and an official passport, but never used a US passport to leave or enter Jamaica," Hay-Webster declared in a later Gleaner interview.

Strategic dead end

In the meantime, the US Embassy August 17, 2009 cable argued that the decision by the PNP not to contest the North West Clarendon by-election, following defeats in West Portland and North East St Catherine, appeared to reflect a growing awareness in the party that what appeared to be a clever way to regain control of the government through the courts was "a strategic dead end and a public-relations disaster for Portia Simpson Miller and her allies."

"Faced with criticisms of her party leadership both internally and externally, it would seem that Portia Simpson Miller has chosen to reassess and to focus on rebuilding support within the party.

"Although the PNP remains a party in disarray and seemingly without direction, the recognition that its current course was untenable would seem to indicate that the leadership is finally aware of the need for a new political strategy…," the US Embassy said.

It also warned that the JLP has an outside chance of winning the two PNP seats that it intends to take to court on a dual-nationality challenge and might "even strengthen its majority".