Tweet
Prime Minister Bruce Golding yesterday increased his eight-month-old Cabinet to 20 members by confirming that former police commissioner and soldier Colonel Trevor MacMillan will be made minister of national security, an appointment the Administration hopes will deflect heavy flak it has been taking for failing to confront crime head-on.
But in a swift reaction, Opposition spokesman on national security, Dr Peter Phillips, labelled the appointment a panic-stricken response to the worsening crime situation that, he argued, requires clear vision rather than a shuffling of the deck.
"This response seems to be the Government's effort to disguise the fact that there is no clear strategic plan to deal with the causes of crime and the enhancement of the country's security environment," Phillips, who held the national security portfolio in the previous People's National Party administration, said in a statement.
"What we need from the Government is not so much a shuffling of the deck, but a clear, strategic vision that can give the country some assurance that there is a design and a road map to enhance the nation's security," Phillips added.
The decision to appoint MacMillan was first reported by this week's Sunday Observer after the matter was finalised at a meeting chaired by Golding on Saturday.
A highly placed Government source had told the Sunday Observer that a Government senator would be asked to resign in order to facilitate MacMillan's appointment.
Yesterday, Golding announced that that senator was Ian Murray, a former executive of the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP's) young professional arm, Generation 2000. The prime minister also said that MacMillan would be sworn in as a senator and Cabinet minister at King's House this morning.
Golding also announced that Derrick Smith, who held the national security portfolio since the new Government came to office last September and who has been recuperating from surgery, will assume the portfolio of minister of mining and telecommunications, while Clive Mullings, the current minister of mining, energy and telecommunications, will be responsible for the energy portfolio only.
However, Mullings will continue to oversee the mining and telecommunications portfolios until Smith can return to work when he will also resume his substantive responsibilities as Leader of the House and the minister responsible for electoral matters.
Yesterday, however, it remained unclear who will speak on matters of national security in the Lower House, as MacMillan will join his junior minister, Senator Arthur Williams, in the Upper House.
MacMillan's appointment comes as the country is reeling from another spike in the murder toll with well over 500 homicides reported since the start of the year.
In fact, a few hours before the prime minister's announcement, Kingston witnessed one of its most brazen murders to date when 25-year-old cosmetologist, Sushania Young of Jacks Hill in St Andrew was gunned down in a crowded shopping plaza in Half-Way-Tree.
Since Sunday, political analysts have been arguing that MacMillan was chosen for the job because of his detailed knowledge of police/military operations and his more than two decades of knowledge and expertise in the area of crime management and security.
After a career in the Jamaica Defence Force, MacMillan was appointed police commissioner in 1993, a move that broke with tradition, given that he had no formal police training prior to the appointment.
However, his tenure ended in 1996 amidst differences with then prime minister P J Patterson.
MacMillan, who before last September's election, served as a JLP senator, was, in 2006, put in charge of a JLP-commissioned committee which produced a Roadmap for a Safe and Secure Jamaica. At the time, Golding asked the committee to come up with recommendations to stem crime.
Aspects of the Roadmap were incorporated in the JLP's manifesto, but the party, since becoming Government, has been criticised for failing to implement any of the recommended measures.
Yesterday, Phillips said the Government's response to the present situation "has given rise to concerns as to whether there will be a knee-jerk reaction to every point of crises in the future".
The prime minister, he said, "needs to give us all a sense of his overall strategy in combating this evil and rescuing Jamaica".
Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller also took the Government to task on the appointment, saying that the security portfolio is critical to the nation's democracy and the minister should face the same kind of scrutiny as elected representatives.
"The representatives of the people should have a colleague in that House to ask questions and to whom direct representation can be made, and who faces the same kind of challenges as they do, in their own constituencies," Simpson Miller said.
But in a swift reaction, Opposition spokesman on national security, Dr Peter Phillips, labelled the appointment a panic-stricken response to the worsening crime situation that, he argued, requires clear vision rather than a shuffling of the deck.
"This response seems to be the Government's effort to disguise the fact that there is no clear strategic plan to deal with the causes of crime and the enhancement of the country's security environment," Phillips, who held the national security portfolio in the previous People's National Party administration, said in a statement.
"What we need from the Government is not so much a shuffling of the deck, but a clear, strategic vision that can give the country some assurance that there is a design and a road map to enhance the nation's security," Phillips added.
The decision to appoint MacMillan was first reported by this week's Sunday Observer after the matter was finalised at a meeting chaired by Golding on Saturday.
A highly placed Government source had told the Sunday Observer that a Government senator would be asked to resign in order to facilitate MacMillan's appointment.
Yesterday, Golding announced that that senator was Ian Murray, a former executive of the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP's) young professional arm, Generation 2000. The prime minister also said that MacMillan would be sworn in as a senator and Cabinet minister at King's House this morning.
Golding also announced that Derrick Smith, who held the national security portfolio since the new Government came to office last September and who has been recuperating from surgery, will assume the portfolio of minister of mining and telecommunications, while Clive Mullings, the current minister of mining, energy and telecommunications, will be responsible for the energy portfolio only.
However, Mullings will continue to oversee the mining and telecommunications portfolios until Smith can return to work when he will also resume his substantive responsibilities as Leader of the House and the minister responsible for electoral matters.
Yesterday, however, it remained unclear who will speak on matters of national security in the Lower House, as MacMillan will join his junior minister, Senator Arthur Williams, in the Upper House.
MacMillan's appointment comes as the country is reeling from another spike in the murder toll with well over 500 homicides reported since the start of the year.
In fact, a few hours before the prime minister's announcement, Kingston witnessed one of its most brazen murders to date when 25-year-old cosmetologist, Sushania Young of Jacks Hill in St Andrew was gunned down in a crowded shopping plaza in Half-Way-Tree.
Since Sunday, political analysts have been arguing that MacMillan was chosen for the job because of his detailed knowledge of police/military operations and his more than two decades of knowledge and expertise in the area of crime management and security.
After a career in the Jamaica Defence Force, MacMillan was appointed police commissioner in 1993, a move that broke with tradition, given that he had no formal police training prior to the appointment.
However, his tenure ended in 1996 amidst differences with then prime minister P J Patterson.
MacMillan, who before last September's election, served as a JLP senator, was, in 2006, put in charge of a JLP-commissioned committee which produced a Roadmap for a Safe and Secure Jamaica. At the time, Golding asked the committee to come up with recommendations to stem crime.
Aspects of the Roadmap were incorporated in the JLP's manifesto, but the party, since becoming Government, has been criticised for failing to implement any of the recommended measures.
Yesterday, Phillips said the Government's response to the present situation "has given rise to concerns as to whether there will be a knee-jerk reaction to every point of crises in the future".
The prime minister, he said, "needs to give us all a sense of his overall strategy in combating this evil and rescuing Jamaica".
Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller also took the Government to task on the appointment, saying that the security portfolio is critical to the nation's democracy and the minister should face the same kind of scrutiny as elected representatives.
"The representatives of the people should have a colleague in that House to ask questions and to whom direct representation can be made, and who faces the same kind of challenges as they do, in their own constituencies," Simpson Miller said.
Comment