Tweet
Resign... from what?
Mark Wignall
Thursday, November 15, 2007
WE must not at this moment sing any dirges for ex-super minister Phillip Paulwell, nor should we begin to strum out any sad notes for what is being interpreted as the final farewell for young Kern Spencer, ex-junior minister, in his role playing sheep, with just enough bah-bahs to tug at our heartstrings.
The veterans in the PNP are too savvy to just let the JLP government have its way with them. As it is made up, morality has no space in the PNP as a motivator for any action on its part. It has been that way since sometime in the mid-1990s. It is my view that the big hullabaloo over 'resigning' is nothing more that a politically expedient move.
It hasn't yet formed in my mind what the PNP hopes to salvage from the light bulb mess, but both men have not resigned from any crucial posts. If the immediate plan by the PNP is to remove the men from the firing line, thus lessening the bah-bahs from Kern Spencer, then it is on target. In the wake of the pressure, both Paulwell and Spencer have found that it is safer for them to continue participating in the 'debate' by becoming mere spectators. An unplanned-for sabbatical from Parliament makes some sick sense.
In that, both men will have learned well from the conduct of their leader, Portia Simpson Miller, when Trafigura landed on her head last year October. She knew nothing, saw even less, and not only did her hearing suffer dramatically, her ability to speak became severely impaired for the two weeks during the height of the embarrassing Trafigura scandal.
The man who was a super minister in the last PNP government is exuberant no more, neither is he anymore youthfully misguided. He survived NetServ, and in Solutrea he attempted to throw back mud at us by telling the nation that the critics were 'anti-business'. He has led a charmed life, being the darling of the press when he stepped big time into the Cabinet, when he married, when that briefest of unions ended and when we were asked to accept and dismiss his horrible, costly botches because he was in short pants, overdosed on a sugar high.
The PNP has to be very careful in its internal report on the light bulb scandal. Considering that the Auditor General, the Contractor General and the Fraud Squad have been called in, at some stage later on down the road, the PNP's internal report may be summoned. If it is a butter-scotch, concocted report, those who investigated and reported on it will have to also bear the scrutiny of the AG, the CG and the police. The PNP has to be careful because a glossed-over account of the affair could involve the highest leadership of the PNP in papering over fraud, if indeed fraud is involved.
The PNP told us that there was no wrongdoing in Trafigura. In that connection it has never fully explained why the other ex-superman Colin Campbell resigned. In the light bulb affair, hundreds of thousands of light bulbs donated by Cuba to be distributed free to some Jamaican households as energy-saving devices eventually cost this country around $280 million.
On the face of that, something is obviously wrong. For the last three weeks it has been rumoured in the PNP that Paulwell would be going. Only leaving what and going where were never ever very clear. So, he has resigned as opposition spokesman on energy and he has taken (down) with him the youthful, teary-eyed Kern Spencer. Which would seem to mean that the PNP report did shed some light where only darkness reigned up until recently.
It was never on the PNP's books that an election loss was in the making. Having a leader who was still fully caught in a 1970s' time warp, in so far as it related to her understanding of present politics, the party allowed her to believe that 'Portia' was bigger than the PNP.
Ever since the meltdown of the financial sector in the mid-1990s, the PNP has literally owned this country. Grown men who had struggled against huge social odds to infiltrate the dazzling heights of the financial sector were taken down by a monetary policy driven by Omar Davies' need to relieve pressure on the exchange rate. As interest rates grew to usurious proportions, the businesses toppled and the grown men became mendicants while the government gobbled up their hopes, dreams and business enterprises.
Beyond the smoke lay the ashes of hundreds of small business persons, developers, builders, traders, distributors as they saw the finance ministry pushing them out of their livelihood, their houses and their ability to make further contributions at the national level.
At the time that the control was fully on, grown men kept their mouths shut as the PNP ran roughshod over the business sector. Then the predation began in earnest as every contract overran its budget, in instances by 200 per cent. Some men even made millions by dropping a few loads of sand on an empty lot.
In the last 18 years, the civil service became the fiefdom of the PNP. Today, many senior posts in the civil service are occupied by persons who are more PNP than activists at election time. So even though the PNP is out of power, its infection is still spreading and will indeed affect the new JLP administration as Prime Minister Golding figures out a way to dig out those who were installed by the PNP to carry out the duties of the PNP while being paid by the people.
One gets the sense that someone in the past PNP government deserves to wear short pants - the flour-bag type - and spend some time behind high walls. I can think of three men who are ideal candidates for an eight-by-nine-foot cell.
In the interim, the move by Paulwell and Spencer indicates that all is not glitter, but there is more to the piecemeal move which shatters no new earth, neither does it present us with any immediate light. It is quite likely that at the end of the Trafigura investigation by the Dutch authorities, theirs and other findings may force some of our home-grown politicians to opt for residence in countries other than Jamaica.
Poor guys. How will they ever afford it?
observemark@gmail.com
Mark Wignall
Thursday, November 15, 2007
WE must not at this moment sing any dirges for ex-super minister Phillip Paulwell, nor should we begin to strum out any sad notes for what is being interpreted as the final farewell for young Kern Spencer, ex-junior minister, in his role playing sheep, with just enough bah-bahs to tug at our heartstrings.
The veterans in the PNP are too savvy to just let the JLP government have its way with them. As it is made up, morality has no space in the PNP as a motivator for any action on its part. It has been that way since sometime in the mid-1990s. It is my view that the big hullabaloo over 'resigning' is nothing more that a politically expedient move.
It hasn't yet formed in my mind what the PNP hopes to salvage from the light bulb mess, but both men have not resigned from any crucial posts. If the immediate plan by the PNP is to remove the men from the firing line, thus lessening the bah-bahs from Kern Spencer, then it is on target. In the wake of the pressure, both Paulwell and Spencer have found that it is safer for them to continue participating in the 'debate' by becoming mere spectators. An unplanned-for sabbatical from Parliament makes some sick sense.
In that, both men will have learned well from the conduct of their leader, Portia Simpson Miller, when Trafigura landed on her head last year October. She knew nothing, saw even less, and not only did her hearing suffer dramatically, her ability to speak became severely impaired for the two weeks during the height of the embarrassing Trafigura scandal.
The man who was a super minister in the last PNP government is exuberant no more, neither is he anymore youthfully misguided. He survived NetServ, and in Solutrea he attempted to throw back mud at us by telling the nation that the critics were 'anti-business'. He has led a charmed life, being the darling of the press when he stepped big time into the Cabinet, when he married, when that briefest of unions ended and when we were asked to accept and dismiss his horrible, costly botches because he was in short pants, overdosed on a sugar high.
The PNP has to be very careful in its internal report on the light bulb scandal. Considering that the Auditor General, the Contractor General and the Fraud Squad have been called in, at some stage later on down the road, the PNP's internal report may be summoned. If it is a butter-scotch, concocted report, those who investigated and reported on it will have to also bear the scrutiny of the AG, the CG and the police. The PNP has to be careful because a glossed-over account of the affair could involve the highest leadership of the PNP in papering over fraud, if indeed fraud is involved.
The PNP told us that there was no wrongdoing in Trafigura. In that connection it has never fully explained why the other ex-superman Colin Campbell resigned. In the light bulb affair, hundreds of thousands of light bulbs donated by Cuba to be distributed free to some Jamaican households as energy-saving devices eventually cost this country around $280 million.
On the face of that, something is obviously wrong. For the last three weeks it has been rumoured in the PNP that Paulwell would be going. Only leaving what and going where were never ever very clear. So, he has resigned as opposition spokesman on energy and he has taken (down) with him the youthful, teary-eyed Kern Spencer. Which would seem to mean that the PNP report did shed some light where only darkness reigned up until recently.
It was never on the PNP's books that an election loss was in the making. Having a leader who was still fully caught in a 1970s' time warp, in so far as it related to her understanding of present politics, the party allowed her to believe that 'Portia' was bigger than the PNP.
Ever since the meltdown of the financial sector in the mid-1990s, the PNP has literally owned this country. Grown men who had struggled against huge social odds to infiltrate the dazzling heights of the financial sector were taken down by a monetary policy driven by Omar Davies' need to relieve pressure on the exchange rate. As interest rates grew to usurious proportions, the businesses toppled and the grown men became mendicants while the government gobbled up their hopes, dreams and business enterprises.
Beyond the smoke lay the ashes of hundreds of small business persons, developers, builders, traders, distributors as they saw the finance ministry pushing them out of their livelihood, their houses and their ability to make further contributions at the national level.
At the time that the control was fully on, grown men kept their mouths shut as the PNP ran roughshod over the business sector. Then the predation began in earnest as every contract overran its budget, in instances by 200 per cent. Some men even made millions by dropping a few loads of sand on an empty lot.
In the last 18 years, the civil service became the fiefdom of the PNP. Today, many senior posts in the civil service are occupied by persons who are more PNP than activists at election time. So even though the PNP is out of power, its infection is still spreading and will indeed affect the new JLP administration as Prime Minister Golding figures out a way to dig out those who were installed by the PNP to carry out the duties of the PNP while being paid by the people.
One gets the sense that someone in the past PNP government deserves to wear short pants - the flour-bag type - and spend some time behind high walls. I can think of three men who are ideal candidates for an eight-by-nine-foot cell.
In the interim, the move by Paulwell and Spencer indicates that all is not glitter, but there is more to the piecemeal move which shatters no new earth, neither does it present us with any immediate light. It is quite likely that at the end of the Trafigura investigation by the Dutch authorities, theirs and other findings may force some of our home-grown politicians to opt for residence in countries other than Jamaica.
Poor guys. How will they ever afford it?
observemark@gmail.com