Can somebody explain to me why no one seems to know what this out-of-court settlement between the former Blaise directors and the Government of Jamaica is?

This Blaise case had been dragging on for more than 12 years and more than 4000 depositors of the Blaise Group had been put out of their savings to the tune of several hundred million dollars.

Lawyer fees

On top of that, taxpayers, I would presume, had to pay Government attorneys several million dollars perhaps tens of millions of dollars, over those 12 years to prosecute this case, and it ends in a hush-hush settlement?

Nobody knows what kind of settlement was reached or how much money, if any money at all, changed hands? Hell no! For all we know this case could have been settled for an icy mint and nobody would know.

The question I am asking and I am sure a million others are asking is, don't the people have a right to know, especially those people whose money was at risk when Blaise went belly up? That's at least 4,000 people right there who have a right to know how this matter was settled, and if you add their families and dependents you could well be looking at a lot more people, most, if not all, hard-working, tax-paying Jamaicans.

And then the PNP are baffled that they are losing face faster than a paedophile caught with his pants down in a kindergarten classroom? Just in case they're slow, let me enlighten them right here and now. When these things happen, it stinks to high heaven, especially since all these cases involve the very affluent and the very influential. When you come from a certain class in Jamaica, it seems even when your ass is backed into a corner, this Govern-ment through its agencies, will blast away that corner so as to provide a loophole for someone not to be held fully accountable.

Imitate the U.S.

It is ironic that we try so hard to emulate the United States but only when it suits us to because if this Blaise case was being tried under a U.S. jurisdiction, if there was a settlement it would be all over the news and those details would be in the public domain, but not in Jamaica. It is interesting that one of the attorneys said afterwards that the settlement was agreeable to both parties. But how can we know whether to believe him or not when none of us knows anything beyond that fact that the case has been settled?

I hope the JLP jumps on this matter because someone needs to come to the defence of the people and since the ruling party clearly does not get that part of the equation, maybe Bruce and his band of merry men can come to the aid of the nation. They, on our behalf, should demand to know what that settlement is and they should not be asking nicely.

Almost two decades ago, the PNP came to power on the back of a mantra claiming that it put people first; I am beginning to wonder what people they were referring to.

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