In some circles, it is often said that ‘a week is an eternity in politics,’ and it surely has been for Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) campaign manager Dr Christopher Tufton.

As a messy contact sport of theatre and intrigue, ‘nothing is off-limits’ is supposedly a gospel in politics, and in many respects that is true. Indeed, in that quest for power and influence, this field is not for the faint of heart.

At the time of writing, five hours had passed since Tufton’s Friday (August 15) deadline to retract and apologise for a sound bite of People’s National Party (PNP) stalwart KD Knight came and fell on deaf ears.

Just a day before, the health minister and St Catherine West Central MP since 2016, declared at a JLP media conference that he would not be backing down from any legal threat by the outspoken veteran attorney and vowed to countersue.

This week of “charges and countercharges”, as Tufton encapsulates, started on Sunday, where at the JLP Mass Rally in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew, he played the now-infamous clip of Knight that suggested Opposition Leader Mark Golding “must never become Prime Minister of Jamaica”.

Delivered to a rousing reception among JLP candidates and supporters gathered to hear the impending general election announcement by leader Andrew Holness, the audio immediately drew the ire of KD Knight, who insisted the sound bite was doctored against its original format.

A letter, purportedly from law firm Knight, Junor and Samuels, to Tufton on Wednesday, raised temperatures somewhat, but the minister defiantly insists the words are Knight’s—so here we are, six days later in the usual ‘nine-day wonder’ cycle…Or are we?

Later that same afternoon, in an appearance on Dionne Jackson Miller’s ‘Beyond the Headlines‘ programme, Tutfon doubled down on the audio’s so-called ‘authenticity’, counterarguing “Are they not his words?” when he was questioned if he knew of the doctored clip as it and the original played live on radio.

Now, (thankfully) I have no horse in this race, but the optics are rather disappointing, and I’m not even sure why, since my expectations were abysmally low. In some respects, I suppose the overt gaslighting is giving me a severe case of whiplash.

In which reality could you tell a man that splicing his words to fit a false narrative—then playing it for tens of thousands to hear—only to reply, ‘Oops, oh well, that’s a YOU problem‘ be okay?

Have we lost the plot?

I cringe in shame for every act of political brain rot we have to sit through and suffer with as a country.

Mental gymnastics and semantics aside, the ‘wrong and strong’ mentality is a horrible approach, minister. And let’s be real, whether or not the sound bite was ‘doctored’ with a personal touch (which, to be fair, you have denied), the fact remains that judged against its original version, the message and its delivery are not the same.

Admitting it was one step too far does not de-legitimise the effectiveness of the clip, since the desired—to get the masses revved up and stir up conversation—was achieved. The proof, they say, is in the pudding, and social media is the perfect litmus test, usually. The volume of comments claiming Tufton did nothing wrong is alarming.

I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Jamaica doesn’t have one of the most culturally interwoven political theatres anywhere in the world. Politics season equally serves up (if not more) entertainment and spectacle just as much as it does policy and self-determination. As a media practitioner, you also know it to mean lawsuit season—a minefield you have to carefully navigate.

For good measure, both political parties have a history of using their opponents’ words against them in paid radio and television ads in previous election campaigns.

That is not the issue here.

This misstep by Tufton harbours several bad implications, particularly at a time when artificial intelligence (AI) and deep-fake technology make it so easy to impersonate and implicate people.

Alas, from your perspective as JLP campaign manager, it makes (twisted) sense.

When I was younger, my grandmother would often warn me, ‘If fowl nuh hear shi, ‘im wi hear pam‘, so let’s hope the war chest is hefty enough to handle a lawsuit that could derail the three-term train.

Hoping morality and common sense would prevail over tribalism is asking for too much, I suppose.