There is nothing diplomatic about the recent brouhaha over the non-return or late return of diplomatic passports issued to officials from the previous People’s National Party (PNP) Government.
In fact, had someone in the Opposition party not tried to score cheap political points, we might not have heard about the potentially abusive situation affecting a national resource – which a diplomatic passport represents – being used by persons who are no longer officials.
The unsavoury matter started when a PNP smart aleck complained that Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) West Portland candidate Mr Daryl Vaz was still in possession of the diplomatic passport issued to him while he was a member of parliament and minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister.
A small, if technical, point can be made that Mr Vaz should have returned the passport, and we say small, because so little time had elapsed between his stepping down as MP and the beginning of his political campaign to regain the seat that he could have been forgiven an oversight. That is, of course, if he has not travelled on the passport since.
But we might well owe a debt of gratitude to that smart aleck, when the situation is examined in the context of the bigger picture. Because it came as a big shock to hear that a significant number of former officials and their spouses had not turned over their diplomatic passports after vacating their positions, following the September 2007 general elections.
Up to Monday, the diplomatic passports held by nine members of the former PNP administration were unaccounted for at the Passport, Immigration & Citizenship Agency (PICA), three days after the deadline for their return had elapsed, and 16 months after the end of the Portia Simpson Miller-led Government.
Here again, the oversight might be due, in some or all cases, to people not being sure what to do and who might have overlooked it during the period of ‘mourning’ after a life-changing electoral loss. We certainly hope that no one travelled on the passports during that period.
What is even worse, is whether the passports, in the wrong hands, could be tampered with for use by imposters, with the potential to tarnish the good name of Jamaica.
But quite apart from the PNP being forcibly reminded that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, the disclosure provides us an opportunity to address the matter of how we treat with diplomatic passports.
The real danger in this issue is the possibility of devaluing the diplomatic passports, to the point where foreign countries might not look upon it anymore as a tool to facilitate easier travel by our officials.
We suggest that the Ministry of National Security makes it a point to inform the country about the policy governing the issuance of such passports, who is entitled to one, under what circumstances are they to be used and what steps are taken to retrieve them when necessary.
Source: OBSERVER
