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He has proven to be so ineffective that he is now seen as the prime non-performer in the Bruce Golding led government. He keeps referring back to “the good old days” of the previous JLP government, led by Mr. Edward Seaga, of the 1980s when crime was low. He has yet to grow up - intellectually speaking. As our murder rate continues to spiral out of control - all the man can tell us is “have faith” and “don’t panic”. I, for one, thinks that the less of him we see, the more comfortable we will all be.
Then there is our minister of education, Mr. Andrew Holness. I still cannot forget the ridiculous statements he made while he was opposition spokesman on education - supporting reparations for slavery. According to the man, Jamaica was due about fifty billion dollars, which, if we get it, should be used, at least in part, to modernize Jamaica’s education system.
It is no wonder then that this is the same man who recently ordered that a textbook that was explaining the different family structures around the world should be banned. The book, which devoted about one paragraph to the issue of homosexual unions, was banned because, in the eyes of the minister, and others, it was promoting homosexuality. According to the minister, one of the reasons why the book was banned was because it was dangerous to expose our children to information “from any and everywhere”. And then we wonder why over 70% of our high school students fail to get a pass in a single subject!
Recently, there has been a lot of controversy about the appointment of Jamaica’s next solicitor general. The last one resigned and the organization that is constitutionally charged with recommending a replacement, the Public Service Commission (PSC) recommended a deputy to be the new one. The JLP government, however, would have none of it. Following the persistence of the PSC, Prime Minister Bruce Golding, being the “servant of the people” and a man who respects the constitution, has demanded that all the members of the PSC be fired.
However, there is more. The ongoing trafigura scandal, in which it is alleged that some high- ranking members of the former PNP government were bribed, was being discussed in the senate. Reading out a recommendation from the Solicitor General’s Department (SGD), attorney general, Ms. Dorothy Lightbourne, announced that one of the reasons why the investigations into the scandal could not proceed was because the same person that the JLP doesn’t was to be the new solicitor general, being a member of the SGD, recommended that the investigations should not proceed.
Now, as the opposition spokesperson on Justice, Mr. Nicholson, rightly said, the fact that Mrs. Lightbourne named the official who made the recommendation was wrong. The official did not make a personal recommendation - he was acting for the SGD. As such, the recommendation is that of the SGC, not the official. Mrs. Lightboourne, in naming the official, acted very irresponsibly.
I have always said that the only person with any amount of sense is Mr. Bruce Golding himself. The rest of them have proven themselves to be not too smart. Mr. Golding himself is starting to show some of his true colours. This “servant of the people” is doing the same thing that he condemned the PNP for - staffing government departments with unqualified and inexperienced “consultants”. The JLP is increasingly proving itself to be no different than the PNP it likes to curse so much.
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