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For decades now, senior Government minister Daryl Vaz has been accused of being a murderer, involved in the drug business, a racketeer, a government operative who demands his cut and all manner of heinous conduct.

He denied them all, but it irreparably damaged his reputation. The poisoned arrows hit their target.

Daryl Vaz takes an unconventional approach to politics, taking a sledgehammer to opponents and telling it like it is. When in power, he prides himself on getting things done. All too often in Jamaica people talk a good game. As they say in Jamaica, “dem mout full of suga”. They have fancy degrees, exultant titles, but are impotent and lack the will and energy to accomplish anything substantive.

Vaz’s bold approach may not win him friends, but one always knows where you stand with him. He doesn’t smile benignly, nod approvingly, make inane promises and on closer inspection you discover nothing got executed.

The school buses, Starlink during Hurricane Melissa, a reassessment of JPS’s licence and the value the electricity company brings to Jamaica, and recalibration of the Traffic Act, demonstrate a proactive minister not fettered by bureaucracy but taking on his mission with a singularity of purpose.

This is rare in politics, let alone Jamaican politics where it is more about the pantomime. 

Despite it all, Daryl Vaz has not been able to shake off his sinister, malignant reputation.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica Donald Tapia this week was unequivocal in debunking the ominous picture painted of Daryl Vaz.

He said when he came to Jamaica, he was told by the PNP Government of the time that Vaz was a menace to Jamaica and had participated in all manner of unsavoury acts unbecoming of a parliamentarian. Ambassador Tapia had no reason to disbelieve them; after all, he was new to Jamaica and, as a top diplomat, would take a government at its word.

What the U.S. administration was told about Daryl Vaz set alarm bells ringing. He was a rogue that had to be censured, shut down. His visa was revoked, so too his wife Ann-Marie. Ann-Marie had no part in political machinations, yet she had to pay a price simply by being Daryl Vaz’s wife.

Daryl Vaz’s political enemies delighted in this punitive action taken by the U.S. Government; his wings were now truly clipped. It sent a frisson of fear into other members of the JLP, and the message was clear-if caught in nefarious activity, the thing you value most-a U.S. visa will be stripped from you. 

From a political standpoint, the U.S. flexed its muscles, demonstrated it had leverage and could reach and hurt any Jamaican notable. Everyone was being watched and their activities monitored. Jamaica was under the auspices of a bigger power.

Donald Tapia is a personable and principled man. Like Daryl Vaz, he gives it to you straight. There can be no doubt about his assertions. 

Daryl Vaz was tarred and feathered, the finger of condemnation was pointed at him, his life sent into a tailspin, but why?

Where was the conclusive evidence? What did Daryl Vaz do that made him such a reprobate? 

A man of circumspection, Tapia began asking questions. He asked Washington if it verify these accusations. He asked for a full report from his Jamaican embassy staff.  The network of spies was put to work.

The outcome? There was nothing on Daryl Vaz. The accusations had no weight. The Jamaican PNP Government had whispered into the U.S. Government’s ear, hoping to destroy a political enemy that was gaining traction and posed a threat.

Daryl Vaz’s visa was reinstated, and that was the right thing to do because it was taken away based on fallacious information. 

The PNP has yet to come out to address Tapia’s assessment of Vaz’s visa revocation and that it sought to destroy Vaz and used the U.S. Government to do so. Mark Golding should not remain silent on this. Following the voice-note imbroglio, many will see the Vaz situation as another dent in its credibility. 

When I was a boy, during the school holidays, a movie called “A Man For All Seasons” would come on TV. It starred Robert Shaw as King Henry VIII, Paul Schofield as Sir Thomas More and also appearing were a young John Hurt, Vanessa Redgrave and Orson Welles.

Back then I didn’t fully understand the political machinations and skulduggery, but I was aware that politics was a dangerous profession and that treachery was everywhere. To be good, principled and to be incorruptible could be one’s undoing.

I have watched that movie many times as a grown man, and it is a study in perfidy, “punic faith”, back-stabbing and deceitfulness. The very qualities that define and shape politics.

Daryl Vaz would have to explain to his family, his friends and colleagues why he was in the crosshairs of the U.S. Government. It would be a major stumbling block to his political career; it made him a pariah for a while.

With Tapia coming out so fulsomely, Daryl Vaz has been vindicated. There is no smoking gun, no evidence. The claims against him are unsubstantiated, yet he has had to pay a terrible price. It was not truth that prevailed but rumours, and as he would put it- “ Bad Mind”.