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NEWS IN BRIEF
FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
Top News in the Print Media: The JIS, The Gleaner & The Observer
From the Overseas Department, Jamaica Information Service
Tuesday September 09, 2003
TWO-DAY CABINET RETREAT
The Gleaner: A two-day Cabinet retreat, convened in Ocho Rios by Prime P.J. Patterson, began yesterday with discussions on the performance in the bauxite/alumina sector this year, the progress of Highway 2000 and the implementation programme for several development projects related to the Port Authority of Jamaica, Information Technology and the tourism industry.
A release from the Office of the Prime Minister last night said that it emerged at the meeting that the country's bauxite sector was projected to earn some US$760 million in 2003, US$19 million more than the sector earned last year.
Minister of Development, Dr. Paul Robertson, who made the disclosure, also said that for the seven months between January and July, alumina production increased by seven per cent, while bauxite output grew by just over four per cent.
JOBS ON TOP OF AGENDA
The Observer: Prime Minister P. J. Patterson yesterday told Development Minister, Paul Robertson, to convene an inter-agency group to begin drafting a programme for the systematic development of land along Highway 2000 as the administration scrambles to find solutions to the country's unyielding problem of joblessness.
Mr. Patterson, his Cabinet and key government technical staff are meeting at the Sans Souci Lido hotel in the tourist town [of Ocho Rios] to review the state of the island's economy, with a clear emphasis, according to administration officials, on job creation.
"The Prime Minister has expressed much concern about job creation separate from the issue of economic growth, as not all growth necessarily results in increased jobs," the Information Minister, Burchell Whiteman said.
But Whiteman stressed that the emphasis would be on real jobs, rather than unproductive government-supported schemes of the past.
SPOT MARKET WEIGHTED AVERAGE RATE
CURRENCY______BUY________SELL
__US$_______59.2107_____59.4632
__CAN$______42.3305_____43.2021
__GB£_______92.3022_____93.7503
JAMAICA WOOING INVESTORS
The Observer: A five-member delegation from Jamaica, hoping to drum up investor support for projects including the Kingston commercial freezone, an expansion of the Spring Plains vegetable project and a duty-free shopping mall in Montego Bay, is among the Caribbean participants at the seventh annual China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT).
The delegation, led by permanent secretary in the commerce ministry, Dr Jean Dixon, also includes Jampro executive director, Michael McMorris; and the Port Authority's Robert Stephens.
"We felt that this was the arena to bring investment projects in Jamaica to exposure in China," said McMorris.
"The two prime projects are the Kingston commercial freezone hub, for which Mr Stephens is here, and also Jamaica High Tech Farms, which is a pilot farm in Spring Plains that is using Chinese technology currently to produce vegetables for the export market."
CONTRACT TO PAVE MOBAY TERMINAL
The Observer: A contract valued at $64.2 million was awarded to Tankweld Construction Company Limited for the paving of 27,000 square metres of the Montego Bay Terminal.
Work is expected to start in the next two weeks and end in six months.
According to Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, this represents the first phase of a project that will ultimately see the paving of the entire 100,000 square metres of the terminal, operated by the Ports Authority of Jamaica.
KAISER BIDDERS START DUE DILIGENCE
The Gleaner: Management representatives from Glencore & Century, the Swiss investors which had acquired Alcan Jamaica (now West Indies Alumina Company /WINDALCO), are currently in the island observing the operations of the two Kaiser Aluminum entities Alumina Partners (Alpart) and Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite Company (KJBC).
The Glencore & Century team arrived in the island last Saturday for the due diligence process.
Century Aluminium is one of six companies which have shown interest in Kaiser's local investments. There are eight bidders in all, but two have no interest in the Jamaican operations.
HAITI DRUG LINK
The Gleaner: Local narcotics detectives are probing what they say seems to be an expanding drugs, arms and alien-smuggling ring between Jamaica and Haiti, its Caribbean neighbour to the north-east.
The drug agents say that boats loaded with ganja, and possibly cocaine, are leaving the fishing beaches of Old Harbour Bay, south-west St. Catherine, and Port Antonio in east Portland, regularly for Haiti.
"Persons claiming to be fishermen are making these trips, taking ganja and in return are given illegal guns; plus, aliens are allowed to travel back with them," Senior Superintendent Carl Williams, head of the Police Narcotics Division, told The Gleaner.
SSP Williams described the illegal aliens as persons seeking to escape economic hardships in Haiti. Intelligence suggested that "guns are coming and drugs are leaving," he said.
JIS NEWS
Tuesday September 09, 2003
BUSINESS FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT
Through a number of initiatives under the Regulations, Legislation and Process Improvement Project (Regs & Legs), government is well on the way to creating a business friendly environment that is conducive to increased investment, productivity and economic growth.
Cabinet Secretary and Chairman of the Regs and Legs Advisory Committee, Dr. Carlton Davis gave this assurance recently at a press briefing on the establishment and operations to date of the project.
He remarked that government had been “undertaking a sweeping series of reforms across the public sector, despite fiscal constraints under which we have had to operate”. Dr. Davis added that despite these constraints, government had been able to do much more than it would have been otherwise able to do, due to the support and financial assistance of agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Department of International Development (DFID), the Japanese government, the European Union, and the World Bank.
FTC RESOLVES OVER 500 CASES
The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) has said that out of 1,100 cases investigated last year, 583 were resolved.
Reporting on the performance of the FTC, at a media breakfast at the Knutsford Court Hotel on September 8, Executive Director, Barbara Lee said that of the cases investigated last year, 602 related to complaints received that year.
The highest volume of complaints in 2002, related to motor vehicles and bikes, accounting for 25 per cent of the total number of cases investigated; appliances recorded 14 per cent; computers and telecommunications each accounting for seven per cent; and professional service and furniture each accounting for five per cent.
SEGMENT TWO ON TARGET
Desmond Malcolm, National Works Agency (NWA) Project Director, has called on citizens in St. Ann to bear with the agency as it worked to complete Segment 2 of the Northern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (NCHIP), which runs from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios.
He said the project was going well with some 30 per cent of the work already completed. Mr. Malcolm was updating residents on the road project at a town meeting held at the Runaway Bay All-age School on September 4. The meeting was the second in a series being organised in the parish to inform the public about the work, as well as to listen to concerns.
COMPETITION STATUTE FOR CARICOM
Executive Director of the Fair Trading Commission (FTC), Barbara Lee has said that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was currently in the process of designing a CARICOM Competition Statute in preparation for the establishment of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
She pointed out that Attorneys General of CARICOM member states along with representatives from competition agencies, such as the FTC, have been meeting “to discuss the statute and to examine it to see the extent to which it will be efficacious in competition enforcement in the region”.
Speaking with JIS News, the Executive Director pointed out that the statute would seek to address “uncompetitive conduct within the region and to regulate cross border issues between countries in CARICOM”.
ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT HINGED ON S&T
Interim Director for the Malvern Science Research Centre (MSRC), Monica Myers, has said that for the country to achieve sustainable levels of economic prosperity, the promulgation of science and technology should be at the heart of any long-term programme being advanced by the education sector.
Commenting on a 1991 study conducted by Dr. Ethley London, Mrs. Myers said that the research indicated that at the present rate, for Jamaica to have one person per hundred employed in a science-related job, it would take 40 years, given the current thrust in education.
PROJECT TO DOCUMENT MIGRATION
A project to record and document the stories and experiences of Jamaicans who migrated to the United States and Britain is currently under way.
Funded by the University of the West Indies (UWI) under its initiative grant programme, the project is the brainchild of Susan Mains, Lecturer in Human Geography at the UWI.
Ms. Mains, who focussed on the experiences of Jamaican migrants to New York and London, said the aim of the project was to reflect the personal stories of the migration experience.
BUS-TAKING DRIVE NOW ON
Public Defender Howard Hamilton, Q.C., on Friday (September 5) launched a bus-taking drive to encourage motorists to take the bus to work, rather than drive, in a bid to reduce vehicular congestion on Kingston’s streets. The Public Defender who will be leading by example, will be taking the bus to work every morning, provided he has no out-of-office engagements during the day.
The initiative, he explained, was targeted primarily at persons who live uptown and in various parts of the Corporate Area, “who only drive to work, park their cars for the entire day, and drive home,” he said.
Contact: Celia Lindsay For further information about any of these news items,contact the Overseas Department at
[email protected]
The Jamaica Information Service web page address is
www.jis.gov.jm
Telephone: (876) 926-3740-8 / 926-3590-8, Fax: (876) 926-6715
COMMENTARY
Tuesday September 09, 2003
THE OBSERVER
RIDE THE BUSES, MR PICKERSGILL
MR Robert Pickersgill, the transport minister, has been speaking recently about the efforts to reorganise the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) in order to stem its losses and ensure its viability.
Also of concern to Mr Pickersgill is the growth of unregulated taxis operating on bus routes, siphoning potential passengers from the JUTC, further weakening the capacity of the state-owned bus company to achieve profitability.
Mr Pickersgill and his advisors have been stressing the need to restore order to the public transport system to ensure that it is of a quality comparable to international standards. The minister wants to ensure an economic and social return from an asset into which taxpayers' money has been heavily invested.
One of the things that is implicit in the policy initiatives that have been undertaken by Mr Pickersgill and his advisors is a call for Jamaicans to use the bus service more. Which makes sense.
For the fact is that low utilisation of the bus service will translate into a demand for greater subsidy for the JUTC from the Government. But in the current fiscal environment, the administration will be unable to meet the call of the JUTC. The upshot will be an under-funded bus service which will soon return to the ramshackle nastiness of the free-for-all of years ago before Dr Peter Phillips began a concerted effort of reform.
So we support Mr Pickersgill's programme of adjustment and egging of Jamaicans to use the buses. As we also support the initiative launched on Friday by the public defender, Mr Howard Hamilton, for Jamaicans to use the buses. Mr Hamilton has taken his symbolic bus ride. That is a start.
It is now for Mr Pickersgill to follow with action where his mouth has been. Mr Pickersgill should ride the buses.
Where are not talking here of Mr Pickersgill's showpiece, public relations bus rides. But the real thing. That is, Mr Pickersgill should be at the forefront of a genuine and sustained campaign by Kingstonians to use the buses and to protect their investment.
For the next six months, for instance, Mr Pickersgill should, symbolically, take the bus from his home, wherever that is, and assuming that it is on a bus route, to his offices. He should encourage his fellow ministers to do likewise.
This initiative should be supported by a strong media campaign promoting the use of the bus service as well as other forms of public transportation and underpinned by facts about the savings to individuals and the country because of less demand on infrastructure and vehicles.
There is, of course, a security concern among many middle-class Jamaicans which now prevents them from riding the buses. Mr Hamilton has offered some useful solutions. But the truth be told, hundreds of thousands of decent Jamaicans ride the buses everyday. The more of these kinds of commuters there are, the more isolated will be the miscreant few.
The fact, too, is that this security fear among ministers is, in part, a self-induced psychosis that has no basis in reality. Another part of it is that tooling around in a dark-tinted SUV trailed by a phalanx of bodyguards adds to people's sense of importance.
But should Mr Pickersgill ride the buses, with its occasional physical discomforts -- at times he will also face political unease -- he will soon make a substantial discovery: that he is human like the rest of us and that there is a real world out there in which his constituents live.
So he will not have only set an example, but likely learn things that will make him a better minister as well as help to improve the quality of national governance. Come to think of it, it might be rather good politics.
===========================================
THE GLEANER
JAMAICA’S POLITICAL REALITIES
THE SWEEPING of the Local Government polls by the JLP has created the situation where all but one Parish Council is controlled by that party while Central Government is in the hands of the PNP. Tensions are to be expected, considering the dominance of Central Government over a weak and dependent Local Government.
Mayor of Montego Bay, Noel Donaldson, is accusing senior PNP political functionaries in St. James of attempting to undermine the work of the Council. In a written release, not an off-the-cuff speech in the heat of the moment, which hopefully would have been the result of careful thought and calculation, the Mayor has accused the political functionaries of bringing pressure to bear on the Council to provide benefits to them without proper procedure and with little or no returns to the coffers of the Council.
In a specific instance, Mayor Donaldson said Providence Beach, the Parish Council's prime beach property, has become "a target of senior political hacks" seeking to obtain a lease on the property without the process of public tender and who have sought the intervention of senior government officials on their behalf. A number of other Parish Council properties have already been leased to well-known political persons at pepper corn rates, the Mayor says he has discovered since taking office.
After the euphoria of election victory and elevation to the office of Mayor, Noel Donaldson is waking up to the harsh realities of Jamaican politics on the inside. We have keen interest in monitoring the progress of his declaration that "the Council will not cower to undue political pressure."
Mayor Donaldson is blowing the whistle on widely established patterns of corruption in political administration. We cannot at this point vouchsafe the accuracy of his specific charges. Derrick Kellier, Chairman of Region VI of the PNP, which includes St. James, is pleading ignorance. But the problem is sufficiently widespread and entrenched to lend credence to the mayoral release.
The Mayor will soon discover, if he has not already done so, that the political pressure from his side for special favours and scarce benefits from assets held in trust for all the people will be more intense and unrelenting. His principled protest against "undue political pressure" suggests that the voice of Local Government need not remain weak and dependent but should reflect the current realities, harsh and otherwise.
FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
Top News in the Print Media: The JIS, The Gleaner & The Observer
From the Overseas Department, Jamaica Information Service
Tuesday September 09, 2003
TWO-DAY CABINET RETREAT
The Gleaner: A two-day Cabinet retreat, convened in Ocho Rios by Prime P.J. Patterson, began yesterday with discussions on the performance in the bauxite/alumina sector this year, the progress of Highway 2000 and the implementation programme for several development projects related to the Port Authority of Jamaica, Information Technology and the tourism industry.
A release from the Office of the Prime Minister last night said that it emerged at the meeting that the country's bauxite sector was projected to earn some US$760 million in 2003, US$19 million more than the sector earned last year.
Minister of Development, Dr. Paul Robertson, who made the disclosure, also said that for the seven months between January and July, alumina production increased by seven per cent, while bauxite output grew by just over four per cent.
JOBS ON TOP OF AGENDA
The Observer: Prime Minister P. J. Patterson yesterday told Development Minister, Paul Robertson, to convene an inter-agency group to begin drafting a programme for the systematic development of land along Highway 2000 as the administration scrambles to find solutions to the country's unyielding problem of joblessness.
Mr. Patterson, his Cabinet and key government technical staff are meeting at the Sans Souci Lido hotel in the tourist town [of Ocho Rios] to review the state of the island's economy, with a clear emphasis, according to administration officials, on job creation.
"The Prime Minister has expressed much concern about job creation separate from the issue of economic growth, as not all growth necessarily results in increased jobs," the Information Minister, Burchell Whiteman said.
But Whiteman stressed that the emphasis would be on real jobs, rather than unproductive government-supported schemes of the past.
SPOT MARKET WEIGHTED AVERAGE RATE
CURRENCY______BUY________SELL
__US$_______59.2107_____59.4632
__CAN$______42.3305_____43.2021
__GB£_______92.3022_____93.7503
JAMAICA WOOING INVESTORS
The Observer: A five-member delegation from Jamaica, hoping to drum up investor support for projects including the Kingston commercial freezone, an expansion of the Spring Plains vegetable project and a duty-free shopping mall in Montego Bay, is among the Caribbean participants at the seventh annual China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT).
The delegation, led by permanent secretary in the commerce ministry, Dr Jean Dixon, also includes Jampro executive director, Michael McMorris; and the Port Authority's Robert Stephens.
"We felt that this was the arena to bring investment projects in Jamaica to exposure in China," said McMorris.
"The two prime projects are the Kingston commercial freezone hub, for which Mr Stephens is here, and also Jamaica High Tech Farms, which is a pilot farm in Spring Plains that is using Chinese technology currently to produce vegetables for the export market."
CONTRACT TO PAVE MOBAY TERMINAL
The Observer: A contract valued at $64.2 million was awarded to Tankweld Construction Company Limited for the paving of 27,000 square metres of the Montego Bay Terminal.
Work is expected to start in the next two weeks and end in six months.
According to Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, this represents the first phase of a project that will ultimately see the paving of the entire 100,000 square metres of the terminal, operated by the Ports Authority of Jamaica.
KAISER BIDDERS START DUE DILIGENCE
The Gleaner: Management representatives from Glencore & Century, the Swiss investors which had acquired Alcan Jamaica (now West Indies Alumina Company /WINDALCO), are currently in the island observing the operations of the two Kaiser Aluminum entities Alumina Partners (Alpart) and Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite Company (KJBC).
The Glencore & Century team arrived in the island last Saturday for the due diligence process.
Century Aluminium is one of six companies which have shown interest in Kaiser's local investments. There are eight bidders in all, but two have no interest in the Jamaican operations.
HAITI DRUG LINK
The Gleaner: Local narcotics detectives are probing what they say seems to be an expanding drugs, arms and alien-smuggling ring between Jamaica and Haiti, its Caribbean neighbour to the north-east.
The drug agents say that boats loaded with ganja, and possibly cocaine, are leaving the fishing beaches of Old Harbour Bay, south-west St. Catherine, and Port Antonio in east Portland, regularly for Haiti.
"Persons claiming to be fishermen are making these trips, taking ganja and in return are given illegal guns; plus, aliens are allowed to travel back with them," Senior Superintendent Carl Williams, head of the Police Narcotics Division, told The Gleaner.
SSP Williams described the illegal aliens as persons seeking to escape economic hardships in Haiti. Intelligence suggested that "guns are coming and drugs are leaving," he said.
JIS NEWS
Tuesday September 09, 2003
BUSINESS FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT
Through a number of initiatives under the Regulations, Legislation and Process Improvement Project (Regs & Legs), government is well on the way to creating a business friendly environment that is conducive to increased investment, productivity and economic growth.
Cabinet Secretary and Chairman of the Regs and Legs Advisory Committee, Dr. Carlton Davis gave this assurance recently at a press briefing on the establishment and operations to date of the project.
He remarked that government had been “undertaking a sweeping series of reforms across the public sector, despite fiscal constraints under which we have had to operate”. Dr. Davis added that despite these constraints, government had been able to do much more than it would have been otherwise able to do, due to the support and financial assistance of agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Department of International Development (DFID), the Japanese government, the European Union, and the World Bank.
FTC RESOLVES OVER 500 CASES
The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) has said that out of 1,100 cases investigated last year, 583 were resolved.
Reporting on the performance of the FTC, at a media breakfast at the Knutsford Court Hotel on September 8, Executive Director, Barbara Lee said that of the cases investigated last year, 602 related to complaints received that year.
The highest volume of complaints in 2002, related to motor vehicles and bikes, accounting for 25 per cent of the total number of cases investigated; appliances recorded 14 per cent; computers and telecommunications each accounting for seven per cent; and professional service and furniture each accounting for five per cent.
SEGMENT TWO ON TARGET
Desmond Malcolm, National Works Agency (NWA) Project Director, has called on citizens in St. Ann to bear with the agency as it worked to complete Segment 2 of the Northern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (NCHIP), which runs from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios.
He said the project was going well with some 30 per cent of the work already completed. Mr. Malcolm was updating residents on the road project at a town meeting held at the Runaway Bay All-age School on September 4. The meeting was the second in a series being organised in the parish to inform the public about the work, as well as to listen to concerns.
COMPETITION STATUTE FOR CARICOM
Executive Director of the Fair Trading Commission (FTC), Barbara Lee has said that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was currently in the process of designing a CARICOM Competition Statute in preparation for the establishment of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
She pointed out that Attorneys General of CARICOM member states along with representatives from competition agencies, such as the FTC, have been meeting “to discuss the statute and to examine it to see the extent to which it will be efficacious in competition enforcement in the region”.
Speaking with JIS News, the Executive Director pointed out that the statute would seek to address “uncompetitive conduct within the region and to regulate cross border issues between countries in CARICOM”.
ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT HINGED ON S&T
Interim Director for the Malvern Science Research Centre (MSRC), Monica Myers, has said that for the country to achieve sustainable levels of economic prosperity, the promulgation of science and technology should be at the heart of any long-term programme being advanced by the education sector.
Commenting on a 1991 study conducted by Dr. Ethley London, Mrs. Myers said that the research indicated that at the present rate, for Jamaica to have one person per hundred employed in a science-related job, it would take 40 years, given the current thrust in education.
PROJECT TO DOCUMENT MIGRATION
A project to record and document the stories and experiences of Jamaicans who migrated to the United States and Britain is currently under way.
Funded by the University of the West Indies (UWI) under its initiative grant programme, the project is the brainchild of Susan Mains, Lecturer in Human Geography at the UWI.
Ms. Mains, who focussed on the experiences of Jamaican migrants to New York and London, said the aim of the project was to reflect the personal stories of the migration experience.
BUS-TAKING DRIVE NOW ON
Public Defender Howard Hamilton, Q.C., on Friday (September 5) launched a bus-taking drive to encourage motorists to take the bus to work, rather than drive, in a bid to reduce vehicular congestion on Kingston’s streets. The Public Defender who will be leading by example, will be taking the bus to work every morning, provided he has no out-of-office engagements during the day.
The initiative, he explained, was targeted primarily at persons who live uptown and in various parts of the Corporate Area, “who only drive to work, park their cars for the entire day, and drive home,” he said.
Contact: Celia Lindsay For further information about any of these news items,contact the Overseas Department at
[email protected]
The Jamaica Information Service web page address is
www.jis.gov.jm
Telephone: (876) 926-3740-8 / 926-3590-8, Fax: (876) 926-6715
COMMENTARY
Tuesday September 09, 2003
THE OBSERVER
RIDE THE BUSES, MR PICKERSGILL
MR Robert Pickersgill, the transport minister, has been speaking recently about the efforts to reorganise the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) in order to stem its losses and ensure its viability.
Also of concern to Mr Pickersgill is the growth of unregulated taxis operating on bus routes, siphoning potential passengers from the JUTC, further weakening the capacity of the state-owned bus company to achieve profitability.
Mr Pickersgill and his advisors have been stressing the need to restore order to the public transport system to ensure that it is of a quality comparable to international standards. The minister wants to ensure an economic and social return from an asset into which taxpayers' money has been heavily invested.
One of the things that is implicit in the policy initiatives that have been undertaken by Mr Pickersgill and his advisors is a call for Jamaicans to use the bus service more. Which makes sense.
For the fact is that low utilisation of the bus service will translate into a demand for greater subsidy for the JUTC from the Government. But in the current fiscal environment, the administration will be unable to meet the call of the JUTC. The upshot will be an under-funded bus service which will soon return to the ramshackle nastiness of the free-for-all of years ago before Dr Peter Phillips began a concerted effort of reform.
So we support Mr Pickersgill's programme of adjustment and egging of Jamaicans to use the buses. As we also support the initiative launched on Friday by the public defender, Mr Howard Hamilton, for Jamaicans to use the buses. Mr Hamilton has taken his symbolic bus ride. That is a start.
It is now for Mr Pickersgill to follow with action where his mouth has been. Mr Pickersgill should ride the buses.
Where are not talking here of Mr Pickersgill's showpiece, public relations bus rides. But the real thing. That is, Mr Pickersgill should be at the forefront of a genuine and sustained campaign by Kingstonians to use the buses and to protect their investment.
For the next six months, for instance, Mr Pickersgill should, symbolically, take the bus from his home, wherever that is, and assuming that it is on a bus route, to his offices. He should encourage his fellow ministers to do likewise.
This initiative should be supported by a strong media campaign promoting the use of the bus service as well as other forms of public transportation and underpinned by facts about the savings to individuals and the country because of less demand on infrastructure and vehicles.
There is, of course, a security concern among many middle-class Jamaicans which now prevents them from riding the buses. Mr Hamilton has offered some useful solutions. But the truth be told, hundreds of thousands of decent Jamaicans ride the buses everyday. The more of these kinds of commuters there are, the more isolated will be the miscreant few.
The fact, too, is that this security fear among ministers is, in part, a self-induced psychosis that has no basis in reality. Another part of it is that tooling around in a dark-tinted SUV trailed by a phalanx of bodyguards adds to people's sense of importance.
But should Mr Pickersgill ride the buses, with its occasional physical discomforts -- at times he will also face political unease -- he will soon make a substantial discovery: that he is human like the rest of us and that there is a real world out there in which his constituents live.
So he will not have only set an example, but likely learn things that will make him a better minister as well as help to improve the quality of national governance. Come to think of it, it might be rather good politics.
===========================================
THE GLEANER
JAMAICA’S POLITICAL REALITIES
THE SWEEPING of the Local Government polls by the JLP has created the situation where all but one Parish Council is controlled by that party while Central Government is in the hands of the PNP. Tensions are to be expected, considering the dominance of Central Government over a weak and dependent Local Government.
Mayor of Montego Bay, Noel Donaldson, is accusing senior PNP political functionaries in St. James of attempting to undermine the work of the Council. In a written release, not an off-the-cuff speech in the heat of the moment, which hopefully would have been the result of careful thought and calculation, the Mayor has accused the political functionaries of bringing pressure to bear on the Council to provide benefits to them without proper procedure and with little or no returns to the coffers of the Council.
In a specific instance, Mayor Donaldson said Providence Beach, the Parish Council's prime beach property, has become "a target of senior political hacks" seeking to obtain a lease on the property without the process of public tender and who have sought the intervention of senior government officials on their behalf. A number of other Parish Council properties have already been leased to well-known political persons at pepper corn rates, the Mayor says he has discovered since taking office.
After the euphoria of election victory and elevation to the office of Mayor, Noel Donaldson is waking up to the harsh realities of Jamaican politics on the inside. We have keen interest in monitoring the progress of his declaration that "the Council will not cower to undue political pressure."
Mayor Donaldson is blowing the whistle on widely established patterns of corruption in political administration. We cannot at this point vouchsafe the accuracy of his specific charges. Derrick Kellier, Chairman of Region VI of the PNP, which includes St. James, is pleading ignorance. But the problem is sufficiently widespread and entrenched to lend credence to the mayoral release.
The Mayor will soon discover, if he has not already done so, that the political pressure from his side for special favours and scarce benefits from assets held in trust for all the people will be more intense and unrelenting. His principled protest against "undue political pressure" suggests that the voice of Local Government need not remain weak and dependent but should reflect the current realities, harsh and otherwise.