Does Reverend Miller have any choice other than to resign? Is he still at work?

Reverend Al Miller has now been formally charged for harbouring a fugitive and perverting the course of justice.

Up to that point, and since then, he has retained the post of Director of the National Transformation Programme in the Office of the Prime Minister, at Jamaica House, the ultimate seat of political power in the country.

The programme is intended to influence transformation in Jamaica through heightened values and attitudes being infused in national life and being done through the highest political office in the land.

Rev. Miller is operating out of the OPM, which is the same office that Prime Minister Bruce Golding recently apologised for not acting in the country’s best interest in how he handled the Mannat, Phelps and Phillips matter, as it relates to the lobby effort to try to resolve the Christopher “Dudus” Coke matter, without the original extradition request being approved.

If as we now know the PM has accepted that the manner in which the administration dealt with the matter was poor, and a commitment has been made not to bring the office or the country into such confusion or disrepute, then what is the implication for the head of the Transformation Programme in the Prime Minister’s Office?

It seems appropriate if not mandatory that Reverend Miller has to request leave from his duties at Jamaica House or to resign until the court matter is decided.  It also seems appropriate that if he is found guilty on any of those charges, then he could not retake that position, no matter if the sentence is community service driven or custodial.

If he does not, then there would be nothing transformational in his actions and one could not expect him to have much success in persuading anyone to be transformational in their conduct.

If he does not offer to step down, then the Prime Minister, if he is to be different, accountable and transformational, must require his resignation – which is going one step further than the leave that the director could seek until the matter is decided.

Who will act first – Rev. Miller, the Prime Minister or Civil Society?