Government Minister Daryl Vaz - file photo
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Chris Stokes, Daryl Vaz, Lloyd B. Smith and Maxine Henry Wilson
There is a call for Prime Minister Andrew Holness to clear the air regarding the circumstances surrounding the waiver under which Government Minister Daryl Vaz has been granted a one-year US visitor's visa.
Since the matter was made public on Friday, the Parliamentary Opposition has stated that the annotation accompanying the waiver requires an urgent explanation from Mr. Vaz.
Development economist and commentator Chris Stokes says the Prime Minister has a duty to the country to "clear the air".
"If we are to believe and buy into their assertions of transparency and timely responses, I think it would go some way to inform serious-minded people about the situation, how it came about, how it was dealt with and prospects for its ultimate resolution," Mr. Stokes reasoned.
Political commentator Lloyd B. Smith has also encouraged the People's National Party (PNP) to raise the concerns regarding Mr. Vaz's visa in Parliament.
Mr. Smith said this course of action will allow for certain questions to be posed and would also add more pressure on the Government to give a formal response.
"The fact is that he is a minister, a member of the Cabinet, and as such, if what the new visa purports is true, then surely it should be an issue that Parliament would have an interest and should have an interest in," he declared.
Maxine Henry Wilson, Chairman of the PNP's Unity Process, has defended that party's move to publicly demand clarification on the annotation on Mr. Vaz's visa.
"One of the things that the public release has done is to throw the matter into the public sphere.... We can contend whether it should be done there or elsewhere, but I think that the purpose that it has served, it is a matter of public debate."
On Sunday, Mr. Vaz responded to the controversy surrounding the one-year US visa issued to him on Friday.
He recalled that when his visa had been revoked, he "committed to the people of Jamaica that I would keep them informed on the progress of my appeal."
While he did not explain the annotation being questioned, Mr. Vaz suggested he has kept his initial promise, providing "in an open, transparent and honest way" updated information on the type of visa he received.
He also threw jabs at the PNP and other "conspirators", asserting that "badmind can never and will never prosper".
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