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Tonight I will try to up load a link to the audio!
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Gong as I said earlier, I never doubted your words, so there is no need to go through all that trouble just for me. I was just trying to make a point and it's evident you got the point so that is that my yute - everyting is everyting... To be honest, I couldn't care less what these public figures do in their office or anywhere else on public time. Politicians are politicians and I don't trust them farther than I can throw them. Posting a link of a recorded audio tape conversation may have implications for such a public figure and those on tape; who knows where that will lead - I am assuming the recorded tape was done in secret?
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EM: Where would you find the money to afford the police a quantum leap in their compensation?
BG: Where did the PNP government find the money? I think it was just prior to the 1997 election, when the police wages were increased by almost 100 per cent.
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remo's comments
I think this is a stupid reply...How does one answer a question with a question and this man wants to be prime minister,dont get me wrong i am neither a PNP or JLP supporter..... none of them impress me.......
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I think it is a perfect political answer and I hope Mr. Golding continues to giver these kinds of answers.
The PNP and their lackeys have nothing to campaign on what they hope is that the JLP (as they have done numerous times) provide them with fodder.
They know that JLP is likely to cut the size of Government and Civil Service. What the inquistadors don't know is, from where and how deep, hence the depth and tone of the questions from the in-bedded press.
I have never hear these spineless yes-men and women inquire too deeply about where Omar is getting the money from to service a debt load that is at least 135% of our GDP.
BTW.... where did the PNP find the funds to pay the police in the run up to the elections?
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JLP will abolish local gov't ministry to provide free high school tuition
Thursday, September 21, 2006
A future government formed by the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) would abolish the local government ministry as part of a strategy to fund the elimination of tuition fees for high school students, the party's spokesman on education said. Complete Story ...
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[ QUOTE ]
EM: Where would you find the money to afford the police a quantum leap in their compensation?
BG: Where did the PNP government find the money? I think it was just prior to the 1997 election, when the police wages were increased by almost 100 per cent.
----------------------------------------------------------
remo's comments
I think this is a stupid reply...How does one answer a question with a question and this man wants to be prime minister,dont get me wrong i am neither a PNP or JLP supporter..... none of them impress me.......
[/ QUOTE ]
I think it is a perfect political answer and I hope Mr. Golding continues to giver these kinds of answers.
The PNP and their lackeys have nothing to campaign on what they hope is that the JLP (as they have done numerous times) provide them with fodder.
They know that JLP is likely to cut the size of Government and Civil Service. What the inquistadors don't know is, from where and how deep, hence the depth and tone of the questions from the in-bedded press.
I have never hear these spineless yes-men and women inquire too deeply about where Omar is getting the money from to service a debt load that is at least 135% of our GDP.
BTW.... where did the PNP find the funds to pay the police in the run up to the elections?
[/ QUOTE ]
JLP will abolish local gov't ministry to provide free high school tuition
Thursday, September 21, 2006
A future government formed by the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) would abolish the local government ministry as part of a strategy to fund the elimination of tuition fees for high school students, the party's spokesman on education said. Complete Story ...
<u>Dateline:Thu Jul 6, 2006</u> PM hits out at JLP from St. Kitts
Thursday morning Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller blasted the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) over its recent criticism of the latest Voters’ List.
Responding to questions from Jamaican journalists at a breakfast meeting in St. Kitts, Mrs. Simpson-Miller said she could not comment specifically on the issues raised by the JLP about the accuracy of the Voters’ List.
However she said any criticism would not surprise her as the Opposition has been trying several tactics to delay a General Election.
Pointing to the recent criticisms from the Opposition over the government's decision to delay the Local Government Elections, Mrs. Simpson-Miller said the JLP was clutching at straws to get more time to campaign.
The Prime Minister said both major political parties were given time during the re-verification process to raise any objection with the Electoral Office.
<u>#2</u>
Thu Jul 6, 2006 PM plans for General Elections
Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller has given the clearest indication yet that a General Election will be called soon.
Speaking with journalists in St. Kitts Thursday morning, Mrs. Simpson-Miller said when she returns to Jamaica she will be spending more time on the ground preparing supporters for the election.
Mrs. Simpson Miller expressed confidence that whenever the election is called she will be successful.
The Prime Minister added that she can not continue as Prime Minister without receiving her own mandate from the people.
She lamented that her detractors have set the bar for evaluating her performance much higher than that set for any other Prime Minister.
However, the Prime Minister says she welcomes the challenge, which according to her, has improved her performance.
<u>DatelineThu Sep 21, 2006</u>
PM Simpson Miller says she will not be forced into calling elections
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has hinted that talk of an early general election could be just that…talk.
In an exclusive interview with the RJR NEWS Centre, Mrs. Simpson-Miller accused the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) of misleading the public into believing that elections are near.
Speculation about an early general election has swirled since Prime Minister Simpson Miller announced that she wanted to go to the electorate to seek her own mandate.
Since then the two major political parties have indicated that they have moved into an election mode.
But Prime Minister Simpson Miller says she has not given any indication that she is going to call elections at this time.
According to the Prime Minister the JLP will not force her into calling elections before she is ready.
“They have no right to set the stage for an election in this country. They have started their campaign. Portia will campaign at the right time and I will call the election at the right time,” said a fiery Mrs. Simpson Miller.
“Elections are due next year yet I hear people running up their mouths about election. I did not tell anyone I was calling election. I said to my party that you are to put me in a position that I’ll have the option at the right time and so no one can force me to call election before I want to call election,” she continued.
Mrs. Simpson Miller says her party is now on a fundraising drive to acquire money to finance its election campaign.
She says the Peoples National Party (PNP) does not have the money to start an early campaign and it is careful of where it is getting money from.
General elections are constitutionally due by October next year.
In the meantime, chairman of the JLP, Dr. Ken Baugh, has scoffed at Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's claim that the party is misleading the public that a general election is imminent.
Dr. Baugh asserted that Mrs. Simpson Miller's waning political fortunes have forced her to change her tune.
He declared that it was Mrs. Simpson Miller who recently accused the JLP of employing delay tactics in relation to the holding of a general election when it expressed concern about the Voters’ List.
Now the JLP Chairman said the Prime Minister's shameless about face has come at a time when she had to be dancing to a different tune.
He says the JLP is ready for any challenge and is daring Mrs. Simpson Miller to call election soon.
Thu Sep 21, 2006 Family shot and injured in political warfare in Olympic Gardens
Head of the St. Andrew South Police, Superintendent Newton Amos.
The Hunts Bay Police are theorising that politics was at the heart of Thursday morning's shooting incident in Olympic Gardens which left three person including a five year old boy, nursing gunshot wounds.
The police report that a man and his wife and five year old child were asleep at their home along Pelican Parade when the gunmen struck.
Head of the St. Andrew South Police, Superintendent Newton Amos told the RJR News Centre that the shooting is linked to politics.
He said he has spoken to representatives of the two major political parties in an effort to have them cool the political temperature which has been rising in the area over the past several weeks.
“It started down in Cling Cling where two men were shot dead and a couple days after a sister and a brother were shot and seriously injured. There has been sporadic shooting in the area since then and has cresendoed into this incident,” said Superintendent Amos.
“I have visited the location along with my crime officer and operations officer and Mr. Andrew Holness the Member of Parliament was there and I told him in no uncertain way the position the police have taken in regard to this kind of situation. We are seeking to have dialogue between the two groups to see how best it can be resolved from this level,” he continued.
Pelican Parade is a known JLP stronghold and according to Superintendent Amos priority attention will be paid to the area to prevent reprisal attacks.
He said the police high command will also be seeking the intervention of the Political Ombudsman.
“I will be forwarding my reports to my superiors with a view to inform officially the Political Ombudsman. I know that the Commissioner is aware of it and he spoke with me earlier to say that he will be treating the matter with urgency and we hope that at that stage both sides can come together and treat this matter with the urgency it deserves,” he said.
JLP leaving poll commentary to 'armchair' politicians, pundits
BY ERICA VIRTUE Observer writer
Friday, September 22, 2006
THE Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) said yesterday that it was not its policy to comment on poll findings as this was a job reserved for 'armchair' politicians experts and pundits.
"We don't enter into discussion on polls. We leave that to the 'armchair' politicians," JLP general secretary Karl Samuda told the Observer yesterday, in response to the latest Don Anderson/CVM polls that showed a dead heat for party support between the Opposition and the ruling People's National Party (PNP).
Said Samuda: "All the experts we hear every day and the pundits who are talking, we leave it [commentary] to them." Instead, Samuda said the party was "focussed" on a campaign "designed around a work programme".
Unlike Samuda, PNP general secretary Colin Campbell had a lot to say about the recent poll findings, which came two weeks after the completion of poll results published by the Observer and done by the Stone Organisation. The results showed the PNP as the party preferred to form the next government, and the preferred choice among the undecided voters.
"The poll results [Anderson/CVM] are consistent with other polls that have been done," Campbell told the Observer yesterday.
He added: "The results show four things. One, the JLP has been on the road for two months and have gotten no movement; two, the PNP support has declined; three, the uncommitted is swelling and, four, the uncommitted prefers the PNP."
The Anderson/CVM poll showed that among registered voters, 48.5 per cent of respondents would like to see the PNP form the next government, while 44.1 per cent said they would like to see the JLP. Six per cent said they did not know, and 1.3 per cent said none of the parties.
Again, among registered voters, 37.2 per cent said they were likely to vote for the PNP in September 2006, while 36.8 said the JLP.
The figure represents a 2.2 per cent increase over findings in October 2005, when 35 per cent of respondents said they would likely vote PNP and 34 per cent JLP.
But despite the JLP's official position on poll commentary, it uses the results to guide the party.
"Polls are not something that you can ignore," Samuda conceded.
"So, we use them as a guide. Sufficient to say that we are quite confident that the direction in which we are going, we will overtake the PNP and go on to form the next government," Samuda added. But Campbell suggested that the figures would swing after the PNP's campaign hit the road.
"We will be on the road this weekend. When the two of us [PNP and JLP] are on the road, then we will see what we will see," he warned.
Added Campbell: "We have been doing internal things in the meantime, but we will be on the road starting this weekend."
Technique No# 1: Not a favourite with the voters? Facing mutiny within your own party?
Cultivate a hard head and “strong ears”
Technique # 2: Election coming up? Unpopular with the party hierarchy?
Cross the floor and take a seat elsewhere in the House, ignoring Party lines, previous loyalties, your constituents etc……
This technique is generally well understood and has been widely practiced by many politicians including Madame Rose Leon (JLP, PNP, JLP?), Karl Samuda (JLP, PNP, JLP), Bruce Golding (JLP, NDM, JLP), Brascoe Lee (JLP, NDM, PNP)……
Technique # 3: Public demands that you be fired from your Cabinet post ? Destroyed your own credibility by a vanity run for the party leadership?
Continually assert your own brilliance, general public’s stupidity ……and then digress……digress……. ….digress…..
This technique is best employed by politicians, such as the current Minster of Finance, whose natural facial features allow them to adopt a perpetually self-satisfied expression.
Whether explaining that only he is capable of
A. keeping good ship Jamaica afloat despite a mountain of debt, or
B. piling up more debt.
Technique # 4: Have no economic program? No plans except to be in power? Facing tough socioeconomic issues?
Cultivate your personal attractiveness and charisma to the exclusion of all other qualities
The People's National Party (PNP) has established an elaborate campaign machinery to take to the streets immediately after its annual conference, which ends on Sunday.
Campaign director Dr. Paul Robertson says a national campaign committee to be chaired by party President Portia Simpson-Miller has been launched.
He says former PNP President and Prime Minister PJ Patterson will be a key advisor to the campaign committee.
Dr. Robertson says Paul Burke and Donald Buchanan have been appointed his deputies as the party hits the road.
Party General Secretary Colin Campbell will serve as campaign manager.
According to Dr. Robertson, the PNP has established three campaign hubs across the island to support its central committee.
He says the Party has also put in place parish organizations being led by experienced political activists who are not candidates.
Technique No# 1: Not a favourite with the voters? Facing mutiny within your own party?
Cultivate a hard head and “strong ears”
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Yes the old <u>One Don Technique</u>.... worked for a minute but eventually after so much backstabbing, mini-intrigues and defections not too many will take of the light the candle and singing of sanki offer.
[ QUOTE ] Technique # 2: Election coming up? Unpopular with the party hierarchy?
Cross the floor and take a seat elsewhere in the House, ignoring Party lines, previous loyalties, your constituents etc……
This technique is generally well understood and has been widely practiced by many politicians including Madame Rose Leon (JLP, PNP, JLP?), Karl Samuda (JLP, PNP, JLP), Bruce Golding (JLP, NDM, JLP), Brascoe Lee (JLP, NDM, PNP)……
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aaah the old <u>Winston Churchill Shuffle</u> too bad only Rose Leon, Karl Samuda and Karl Samuda can swish outside the off-stump and lick six. Bruce has had more success staying where his navel string bury. Of course some rats utilize the Churchill Shuffle as well but the Verna Parchment, Brascoe Lee and Abe Dabdoub's of this world are merely going to their rat nest and is not to be confused with a principled position taken by the rest.
[ QUOTE ] Technique # 3: Public demands that you be fired from your Cabinet post ? Destroyed your own credibility by a vanity run for the party leadership?
Continually assert your own brilliance, general public’s stupidity ……and then digress……digress……. ….digress…..
This technique is best employed by politicians, such as the current Minster of Finance, whose natural facial features allow them to adopt a perpetually self-satisfied expression.
Whether explaining that only he is capable of
A. keeping good ship Jamaica afloat despite a mountain of debt, or
B. piling up more debt.
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Yes Omar has got the lock on this one. The man who has piled up a debt as high and as stench filled as the tally of bodies from the hidden wars in his constituency.
[ QUOTE ] Technique # 4: Have no economic program? No plans except to be in power? Facing tough socioeconomic issues?
Cultivate your personal attractiveness and charisma to the exclusion of all other qualities
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This ooman is puzzling me?
I knew she was bad, but not that bad. She is at once trying to play a mini-Michael with the destructiveness of a PJoke Patterson. She might yet beat PJoke into second place for the worst Prime Minister of Jamaica, even if she loses the next election. If not she would be the one to have squandered the largest political capital this side of the universe.
Thursday she was caught on tape worrying about how her name was been pronounced. She also declared that JLP stands for Jamaica Loves Portia. One wag agreed but explained that PNP means Portia Neglects Poor
.
People's National Party (PNP) President Portia Simpson Miller presides over her first annual conference of the party this weekend with elections on everyone's mind. It is a time for the party to put itself on show as an organisation, not just one preparing for elections but, more importantly, one prepared with the ideas and organisation to lead the country to the quality society it has promised. It took the party 17 years to win its first general elections. It has now reversed this by governing for 17 consecutive years.
It will need to show that it is not just the same old party. In fact, this has been a year of renewal. The party has a new president and has now elected three new vice-presidents. About half of its parliamentary candidates are new. This weekend the party has begun to set its new direction by studying reports from party organs and officers as to the state of the organisation, discussed ideas for its election manifesto, introduced its candidates to the gathering, begin to set the tone for its election message and to pump up its campaign organisation and general party spirit. The party has already selected its campaign team. The president now only wants the party to tell her when it is ready for elections.
It has been a very good year for the PNP. It goes into this conference leading the JLP in recent polls, and Portia Simpson Miller is leading Bruce Golding head-to-head on a number of leadership criteria. The most recent Don Anderson poll of last week confirmed that the PNP is ahead among both the decided and undecided voters. It leads the JLP by 48.8 per cent to 41.7 per cent even after the JLP has started campaigning and it has not. The party is also attracting more former JLP and NDM members than the other way around. This has happened at all levels with Verna Parchment in the House, Norman Horne in the Senate, and Benny White on the Portland Parish Council. The PNP has attracted at least two former independent parish councilors and even the Independent Member of Parliament, Abe Dabdoub, is leaning heavily towards the party.
Social and economic conditions The PNP also goes into the conference able to report that murders have gone down by more than 20 per cent for the year, much better than the police themselves had anticipated. The Minister of National Security does not want to say that we have turned the corner on crime but the party can at least be less defensive on this issue. Recent reports from international credit rating agencies and the IMF have given sympathetic reports on the economy, with commendations for disciplined fiscal management, and one could even see some cautious optimism, but certainly no doom and gloom.
The inflation rate was reported at 4.7 per cent for the year up to August, well below the 8.7 per cent for the same period last year. The IMF seems to believe that economic growth, which it suspects is underreported anyway, might turn out even higher than the Finance Ministry has projected. The Agriculture Minister reported a strong recovery in the sector and we have been spared a hurricane so far, which gives the sector badly needed breathing space. At Denbigh, Minister Clarke reported that agriculture had led economic growth with 24 per cent in the first quarter and 30 per cent in the second. The IMF accepts that the poverty rate was halved between 1990 and 2005. The recent World Travel Awards effectively said that the tourism industry was to the world and the Caribbean what Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson are to athletics - world-beaters. We topped the awards as a world cruise destination. Air Jamaica was the leading Caribbean airline, the Jamaica Tourist Board was the leading tourism agency, Sandals Resorts was the top hotel brand, and Ocho Rios was named Jamaica's leading resort. New records for visitor arrivals confirm this.
A year of difference Last year this time things were not good. Hurricanes struck frequently. Gloom and doom surrounded the sugar industry. Portmore organisers were fussing over their highway. Crime was on the way to a record year. Bad weather was throwing economic targets off track. Oil prices were spiralling to new heights. The PNP was quietly separating into different campaign teams. But we made it through.
Now investors are lining up to bid for the sugar estates and sugar prices are at a 25-year high. The Portmore Highway is open and we have money from Venezuela to move ahead with the Highway through St. Catherine to Ocho Rios. Oil prices are still way too high but our own exploration for oil and natural gas is under way and the Brazilians are optimistic enough to have joined the hunt. Murder is down and the new finger- print machine will help to push it down even further. We have been spared the seven named weather systems so far. The PNP completed its presidential elections and has settled down again.
International credit agencies do not expect an election to harm the economy, which is also a way of saying they do not believe any special political spending in the election season will throw the economy off. Even the major economic setback of the year - the cement crisis - has been resolved with new supplies now coming on the market.
Doing the Right Thing Still, there are many uncommitted voters who, though leaning to the PNP, must be convinced. Some people feel the Prime Minister has not been vocal enough. The MoU is holding but under some strain. Crime fighting still has a far way to go. Carnal abuse has increased by 30 per cent this year. The cement crisis has hurt the economy and we must build another factory. We should not discard Air Jamaica but we must turn it around quickly. We must absorb the lessons of Whitehouse and study the request of the Contractor General for greater powers. We need to continue to bring down the public debt and interest rates, and make investments translate into stronger growth.
The Prime Minister has made many new international friends at the recent Non-Aligned Summit where she said that governments must find the will and the ways to 'do the right thing'. Her speech was one of the best received and important leaders made it a point to meet her personally.
She took her domestic message to the Non-Aligned Movement. She spoke of the need for people's empowerment; the need to balance people's lives; to treat women's issues as a priority; to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals by attacking poverty; and rallied the 118 members through the voice of Marcus Garvey, quoting him, 'Up you mighty nations, you can accomplish what you will'.
This is a good message to resound in Jamaica as well. Her theme at the NAM was for governments to 'do the right thing'. The PNP conference and election campaign will need to convince those undecided Jamaicans that it can do the right thing to make community governance work, ensure that the political process is more open and accountable; see to it that international trade is right for local businesses; and convince voters that the party is the right one for providing more effective representation at all levels.
Robert Buddan is a lecturer in the department of government at the University of the West Indies. Email Robert.Buddan@uwimona .edu.jm
As the next general election season kicks into gear, our politicians need to keep in mind that there are key issues which the electors are pondering as they decide which politician and which party they are likely to vote for to form the next government.
People are tired of the old-style politics where politicians abuse each other and each other's family. Unfortunately, this type of behaviour has started to raise its head already. What many fail to realise is that some of our electors take their cue from those whom they support, and abuse each other and sometimes act violently towards each other.
What we must not forget is that many of our citizens have lost interest in the political process and no doubt, behaviour of this kind has contributed to the loss of interest. We, all of us, deserve more - more than hearing who has knock knees and and who has bow legs. We are not interested in who leaves which party to join the other, or who has returned to which party. In the process of campaigning, it would be a great tribute to those who seek office if they try to educate the not-so-well-informed by telling the truth and nothing but the truth about the issues which are of concern.
Democratic institutions Some of the issues which people expect the campaign will be run on include education, health and safety, human rights, the economy and jobs, energy and the environment, crime and public safety, accountability and justice.
The health of a free society can be measured by the willingness of ordinary people to take an active role in the nation's democratic institutions. Campaigning on issues could very well be one way of helping to re-establish the essential connection between citizens and their government and renew the Jamaican tradition of meaningful, active citizen participation in the nation's civic life... More
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