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Things look bleak for Bruce
published: Sunday | December 16, 2007
Dawn Ritch, Columnist
The situation for Prime Minister Bruce Golding looks bleak. And none of the problems I'm about to point out was created by 18 years of government by the People's National Party .
This new Government and the Public Service Commission (PSC) have been at odds since the latter recommended in October that Professor Stephen Vasciannie be appointed as the new Solicitor General. Governor-General Sir Kenneth Hall, acting on the recommendation of Prime Minister Bruce Golding, last week issued letters of dismissal to the members of the PSC.
As the editorial of this newspaper noted last Thursday, Golding is travelling a dangerous road. It stated: "Under the Jamaican Constitution, appointments and discipline in the public sectors, except in a few, and narrowly defined areas, rest with the PSC, acting through the Governor-General. The Solicitor General is one of the jobs which is in the power of the PSC to make a recommendation on the appointment of the occupant.
"The Constitution does allow the Prime Minister a single request for a review of a proposed appointment, but once the PSC holds fast to its recommendation, that appointment, based on any literate reading of the Constitution, should go through. Which is what is applicable in the case of Professor Vasciannie, a Jamaican of high academic achievement and a one-time political colleague of Mr. Golding."
Why Golding should wish to pursue a breach of the Jamaican Constitution is beyond me. This is an extreme form of political loutishness, and a harbinger of looming dictatorship.
On collision course
Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller has, therefore, taken Prime Minister Golding to court over his recommendation to Governor-General Sir Kenneth Hall. Golding is on a collision course with the PSC, the courts and the Constitution.
He has plunged the country into a constitutional crisis by his arbitrary and authoritarian abuse of power. None of this was created by 18 years of PNP government, as the middle class are wont to say by way of excuse for the Prime Minister's glaring inadequacies.
He has even managed to offend Everald Warmington and Bobby Montague, uselessly, it seems. These are two young Turks in his own political organisation, and he forced them to apologise publicly. Before the local government elections, they had threatened to cut off the scarce benefits and spoils to their constituents unless they voted for the JLP. Golding kept mum on the matter publicly until after the JLP had won the local government elections. Only then did he demand a public apology for their statements.
Even though both men are junior ministers in his own government, neither Warmington nor Montague responded in the least bit promptly to the Prime Minister's demands. Indeed, the former didn't even bother sign his letter of apology. This open defiance undermines prime ministerial authority.
In Henry's bad books
Golding is also in Mike Henry's bad books. The Prime Minister summarily discharged him from the Air Jamaica portfolio and gave this major responsibility to a young man from the private sector who had never faced an electorate in all his life.
The irony is that Mike Henry is the only person who sounds and acts prime ministerial in the new government. Everything he does or says makes sense, and is necessary. Golding has, therefore, publicly humiliated the only Cabinet member he has who is not an embarrassment to the country. I have no doubt that there is some reason to that rhyme.
After just over three months in office, therefore, Golding has managed to confound the Constitution, the Public Service Commission, the courts, and the stalwarts in his own political party, as well as its young Turks. His partisans say he should be given time to prove himself. But it seems that a bull in a China shop has been unleashed in the highest office in the land.
Bemoaned public indebtedness
Bear in mind that this is the same Prime Minister who, for years, prior to the general elections, bemoaned the reckless and grave public indebtedness of the island. He then proceeded to promise on the campaign trail that he would outspend the PNP on some social services. This is the policy miasma that the people voted for, so no one ought now to be surprised that it stinks to high heaven.
It will be a miracle if Golding is able to spend more on public services than the previous administration. He comes to office at a time when international credit was tightening considerably because of the collapse of the domestic housing market in the developed world. Their own citizens are going to be of much greater interest to them than our own.
We will be lucky to get money to borrow for development, much less social services. And none of this has anything to do with 18 years of PNP government in Jamaica. I think the Jamaican middle class should wake up and realise that.
While they're at it, they should be careful of thes investment schemes, and just learn to tighten their belts. I doubt any of them is going to survive. When they go bust, it's going to blow a brand new hole in the Jamaican economy. Everybody and his wife is invested in these schemes.
Golding needs to take some responsibility in the issue, because every housekeeper, gardener and business executive is going to be turning to him for a bail-out, no matter what he says.
This will make two bail-outs in a decade for the customers of Jamaica's financial entities, which will be some kind of world record.
When th schemes collapse, there is going to be a major economic disaster and considerable political fallout. Golding ignores this at his peril. Certainly, Mrs. Simpson Miller's administration did not.
Any other approach is going to call into question his judgment in general, and his prime ministerial judgment in particular. Golding's electoral majority is down to three, and may be further cut. Nobody on a paper-thin majority can afford any of this.
published: Sunday | December 16, 2007
Dawn Ritch, Columnist
The situation for Prime Minister Bruce Golding looks bleak. And none of the problems I'm about to point out was created by 18 years of government by the People's National Party .
This new Government and the Public Service Commission (PSC) have been at odds since the latter recommended in October that Professor Stephen Vasciannie be appointed as the new Solicitor General. Governor-General Sir Kenneth Hall, acting on the recommendation of Prime Minister Bruce Golding, last week issued letters of dismissal to the members of the PSC.
As the editorial of this newspaper noted last Thursday, Golding is travelling a dangerous road. It stated: "Under the Jamaican Constitution, appointments and discipline in the public sectors, except in a few, and narrowly defined areas, rest with the PSC, acting through the Governor-General. The Solicitor General is one of the jobs which is in the power of the PSC to make a recommendation on the appointment of the occupant.
"The Constitution does allow the Prime Minister a single request for a review of a proposed appointment, but once the PSC holds fast to its recommendation, that appointment, based on any literate reading of the Constitution, should go through. Which is what is applicable in the case of Professor Vasciannie, a Jamaican of high academic achievement and a one-time political colleague of Mr. Golding."
Why Golding should wish to pursue a breach of the Jamaican Constitution is beyond me. This is an extreme form of political loutishness, and a harbinger of looming dictatorship.
On collision course
Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller has, therefore, taken Prime Minister Golding to court over his recommendation to Governor-General Sir Kenneth Hall. Golding is on a collision course with the PSC, the courts and the Constitution.
He has plunged the country into a constitutional crisis by his arbitrary and authoritarian abuse of power. None of this was created by 18 years of PNP government, as the middle class are wont to say by way of excuse for the Prime Minister's glaring inadequacies.
He has even managed to offend Everald Warmington and Bobby Montague, uselessly, it seems. These are two young Turks in his own political organisation, and he forced them to apologise publicly. Before the local government elections, they had threatened to cut off the scarce benefits and spoils to their constituents unless they voted for the JLP. Golding kept mum on the matter publicly until after the JLP had won the local government elections. Only then did he demand a public apology for their statements.
Even though both men are junior ministers in his own government, neither Warmington nor Montague responded in the least bit promptly to the Prime Minister's demands. Indeed, the former didn't even bother sign his letter of apology. This open defiance undermines prime ministerial authority.
In Henry's bad books
Golding is also in Mike Henry's bad books. The Prime Minister summarily discharged him from the Air Jamaica portfolio and gave this major responsibility to a young man from the private sector who had never faced an electorate in all his life.
The irony is that Mike Henry is the only person who sounds and acts prime ministerial in the new government. Everything he does or says makes sense, and is necessary. Golding has, therefore, publicly humiliated the only Cabinet member he has who is not an embarrassment to the country. I have no doubt that there is some reason to that rhyme.
After just over three months in office, therefore, Golding has managed to confound the Constitution, the Public Service Commission, the courts, and the stalwarts in his own political party, as well as its young Turks. His partisans say he should be given time to prove himself. But it seems that a bull in a China shop has been unleashed in the highest office in the land.
Bemoaned public indebtedness
Bear in mind that this is the same Prime Minister who, for years, prior to the general elections, bemoaned the reckless and grave public indebtedness of the island. He then proceeded to promise on the campaign trail that he would outspend the PNP on some social services. This is the policy miasma that the people voted for, so no one ought now to be surprised that it stinks to high heaven.
It will be a miracle if Golding is able to spend more on public services than the previous administration. He comes to office at a time when international credit was tightening considerably because of the collapse of the domestic housing market in the developed world. Their own citizens are going to be of much greater interest to them than our own.
We will be lucky to get money to borrow for development, much less social services. And none of this has anything to do with 18 years of PNP government in Jamaica. I think the Jamaican middle class should wake up and realise that.
While they're at it, they should be careful of thes investment schemes, and just learn to tighten their belts. I doubt any of them is going to survive. When they go bust, it's going to blow a brand new hole in the Jamaican economy. Everybody and his wife is invested in these schemes.
Golding needs to take some responsibility in the issue, because every housekeeper, gardener and business executive is going to be turning to him for a bail-out, no matter what he says.
This will make two bail-outs in a decade for the customers of Jamaica's financial entities, which will be some kind of world record.
When th schemes collapse, there is going to be a major economic disaster and considerable political fallout. Golding ignores this at his peril. Certainly, Mrs. Simpson Miller's administration did not.
Any other approach is going to call into question his judgment in general, and his prime ministerial judgment in particular. Golding's electoral majority is down to three, and may be further cut. Nobody on a paper-thin majority can afford any of this.