Sparks from the fire of hope and a concerted approach to the handling of public affairs that has been kindled in these times by President Barack Obama must be allowed to settle and burst into flames here in Jamaica in 2009.

These are not ordinary times, as the most powerful leader on the planet has acknowledged. He has chosen to act in accordance with what is required to meet the challenges of an agreed rocky state of the road along the journey of mankind.

Here in Jamaica, generalised or piecemeal attempts at assurances are not the answer; nor is marking time, an exercise which the present leadership appears to have brought to the business of governance.

Lot's wife

Looking back, like Lot's wife, and harping on the People's National Party's 18 years at the helm, is not likely to assist in giving hope and commending to our people that concerted approach, particularly in these times of uncertainty and tenseness.

It cannot be any shame or lack of originality on the part of our present leadership to follow the path that has been set by President Obama. In truth, it is not an 'Obama path'. History has taught that it is the only meaningful route to be taken to emerge from a state of crisis, strengthened by the power and experience of lessons learnt.

President Obama is an attorney-at-law who has already shown to the world that he has a burning desire for the protection and enhancement of human rights. He has already proceeded to have the stain of Guantanamo Bay removed from the human rights landscape of the United States.

Our own heroes

For a sizeable number of the peoples of the world, that act alone would have caused the president to be acknowledged as a hero. As we contemplate that initiative on the part of the new president, we would do well to recognise that, here in Jamaica, we have our own heroes in many fields, including in the area of human rights. Sadly, too many of them remain largely unsung.

Any consideration of the contribution by any person or citizen in our land since independence to the protection of our rights, in particular the protection and defence of the rights of the poor, must inevitably lead to the name of Dennis Daly.

I posed the question to four seasoned attorneys who have themselves played their part in the protection of the rights of our people, over time, and the immediate answer has been that no human rights activist has managed to equal the contribution that Dennis Daly has made on that landscape.

For those of us who are not aware of Daly's signal involvement, or have chosen to forget, let some part of the story be told.

It can hardly be doubted that Dennis Daly's input has to be recognised as an indelible part of Jamaica's human rights history over the past 40 years and more. No barrister of attorney-at-law, bar none, has made the kind of sacrifice that he has made in the legal defence of the poor in Jamaica.

He has not trumpeted his contribution, nor has enough been spoken about it by those who know. Since independence, to be sure, the name Dennis Daly is to be seen as appearing more than any other as the legal representative on behalf of the less privileged of our society. And the road has not been easy.

Confiscated

As a young barrister in the late 1960s, he was deprived of the right to hold a passport after it had been confiscated by the then government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Hugh Shearer. The reason given for such action on the part of the government was that he had attended a conference in our neighbour, Cuba, which had, only a few years before, become the centrepiece of the cold war in these parts.

Those were heady days, filled with tension and fear and suspicion in every nook and cranny, including in the corridors of government. Dennis Daly found himself caught up in the tragedy of the times, but his mission was the enhancement of the rights of his fellow citizens, armed with the tool at his disposal - advocacy in the courts of law.

He was the heart of the Jamaica Council for Human Rights for decades, even after he lost his fellow traveller and colleague at the bar, Dennis Sloley, who died at such an early age. Daly and the human rights movement had to face the challenges that had been presented by the declaration of a state of emergency locally in sections of the Corporate Area, during the 1960s, and nationally, during the mid-1970s.

In such circumstances, the antenna of the human rights activist has to be especially active, focused and receptive. And what is more, in those days, human rights activism was certainly not as sexy as it has become over time. Contributors to the movement, such as Daly and Flo O'Connor, will attest to the fact of funding being at a premium, whether the source be local or foreign.

Less privileged

For those of us who have practised in the criminal courts over these many years, Dennis Daly became the embodiment of the protection of the rights of the citizen. For decades, he complained about the treatment meted out to the less privileged at the hands of the security forces. Several judges and many others in authority simply refused to believe that such a phenomenon was present in the system of the administration of justice in Jamaica.

For Daly and his colleagues, the Gun Court legislation of the 1970s and its progeny, the Suppression of Crime Act, were 'tribulations' in the way of the protection of the civil rights of the people. He attacked the Gun Court legislation even before it had seen the light of day, for he was convinced of the damage that it could cause.

He and the then human rights fraternity soon succeeded in having the force of that piece of legislation seriously dented by our courts right up to the highest level.

For years he struggled against the provisions of the Suppression of Crime Act, for he maintained that the power that those provisions placed in the hands of the security forces led to an untoward approach to policing in Jamaica. He was sure that the measure attacked several hallowed principles, including the standard that a person's home is not to be invaded on a mere whim or impulse.

That piece of legislation endured until it was repealed early in the decade of the 1990s and, even though Daly must perhaps have breathed a welcome sigh of relief, he would certainly have concluded that it had served to cement a culture of brute force in the approach to policing which is going to be extremely difficult to exorcise from our security landscape.

Daly's enduring role in the enhancement and protection of the rights of our people must certainly be his activities in the preservation of life. He was never in favour of the death penalty as a punishment, but he was never a zealot. His arena was the court of law, struggling always to save condemned men from the ultimate punishment.

There are several persons, including me, who, though respectful of the momentous Pratt and Morgan ruling of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, have publicly declared our disagreement with their Lordships' conclusions. For Daly and his allies in the cause, however, that victory served to save the lives of hundreds of condemned men in the region and beyond.

Such endeavours serve to take Dennis Daly out of the ranks of the ordinary; for, to him and his travelling companions, the preservation of life would be their ultimate goal in the human rights arena. The decision in Pratt and Morgan, therefore, stands as a jewel in the crown of Daly's efforts throughout the years.

His work stands as an example to young legal professionals and others who would struggle in the human rights vineyard. His work in that field is unmatched in the Commonwealth Caribbean and the law reports are replete with examples of his stentorian efforts.

His public journey along that road perhaps started with a trip to Cuba. President Obama's public journey after his inauguration began with a mental trip to Cuba at Guantanamo Bay. The president is now in the morning of his career as the leader of the free world. Dennis Daly is in the evening of his professional career as our foremost human rights activist since independence.

Unlike the president, Daly perhaps remains an unsung hero. There are several unsung heroes in our midst. If I had been asked to make a recommendation for an international accolade to be presented to a Jamaican for his efforts over the years in the advancement and protection of the rights of our people, there are several thousands who would have immediately agreed with me that Dennis Daly has no equal.

And if such a recommendation had been accepted, the younger ones among us would perhaps have asked: who is Dennis Daly and what has he done? Then, of course, the full story of the growth of the tree of the protection of human rights in Jamaica would come to be told.

A.J. Nicholson is opposition spokesman on justice. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.