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Portmore comes of age
Michael Burke
Thursday, January 17, 2008
In the recent local government elections, Portmore elected a council and mayor for the second time. This time around, the people of Portmore elected a mayor from the Jamaica Labour Party and a council with a majority of members who are of the People's National Party. And I see nothing wrong with that, even if it was the other way around. In my opinion, political parties should not even run in local government elections. This is a view that I have held for the last 34 years and was the subject of one of my first ever letters to the editor of a newspaper.
What is expected from the councils is efficiency, which has nothing to do with any party policies. I am also a realist, however, and I know that the local government elections will always be treated as a tool for the political parties. For one thing, there is the opinion poll effect. For another there is the whole business of giving out jobs and who controls them. And a third reason is the stepping-stone effect for some politicians who wish to advance further.
I was under the impression that the 2003 local government election would be the last one where councils would choose the mayors instead of the electorate. I was led to believe that by the following local government elections all voters would have a say in the choice of mayors. But that did not happen. It appears that the new JLP government was of the view that to put off the local government elections in order to make the changes might not have been beneficial to them. While the JLP won councils, the Opposition PNP might have gained a few more mayoralties.
Had the post of mayor of Kingston been put to the people on December 2007, would Desmond McKenzie have won? I do not know. While Desmond McKenzie is an efficient mayor, his problem is that he is overexuberant and inflexible. McKenzie seems to want everyone to know that he is in charge. Someone ought to tell McKenzie that the greatest leaders know the extent of their power but should not abuse it.
I saw a letter in the papers recently from someone who lives overseas. I imagine that he is what we now call a Jamaican in the diaspora. He was criticising the proposal about Portmore being made into a parish. I like to know that Jamaicans in the diaspora participate in our life because it gives us the feeling of the wider Jamaican family.
But I am annoyed when people do not live here (and God knows how long this person hasn't), but make all sorts of prognostications when they might not be in tune with what is happening today. Did anyone moot the idea of Portmore being made into the 15th parish before Monday, March 18, 1991? Perhaps. But if not, then I can claim to be the first to publish the idea.
When I wrote columns for the now defunct Jamaica Record and later the Jamaica Herald, my pieces appeared on Monday. And the title of my column for March 18, 1991 was, "The fifteenth parish". What Portmore's first and now former mayor George Lee is to be credited for is putting in the much harder footwork to at least make the Portmore Municipal Council a reality. All I can claim is having written it on paper.
But I regard it as an achievement, nevertheless. And to blow my own trumpet a little, I quote from that article in 1991. "A proposal for Portmore to become a separate parish means that Portmore should have its own mayor and its own parish council. It should also have its own hospital. In a spirit of volunteerism, the Portmore residents could come together and build a hospital rather than rely on the government".
"Court could be held in a tent until a proper building is built. Licences for certain types of businesses should be barred in Kingston and such persons redirected there so that they can find employment within their own parish. "Portmore already has more people than (either) the whole of Trelawny or the whole of Hanover."
Of course, I am amused by some of what I wrote nearly 17 years ago when I was "only" 37 (I am now 54 years old). Would I have written today that court could be held in a tent until a proper building could be built? The only reason for a different view today is the unbearable heat that tents generate. And would Kingston residents have liked the idea of trekking to Portmore for any, although not every type of licence? I probably would still write that, and would argue that if Portmore residents have to go to Kingston for other things, why can't Kingston residents go to Portmore for other things too? Indeed, that was my thinking at the time.
Well, whatever your view might be, that is what I wrote. But if by 1991 there were more people in Portmore than in either Trelawny or Hanover when the houses in Greater Portmore were not yet finished, let alone occupied, what do you think is the case now? When did the letter-writer last visit Jamaica, before or after that? I feel much stronger today than ever before that Portmore should become a parish on its own, making it 15 parishes in Jamaica.
Michael Burke
Thursday, January 17, 2008
In the recent local government elections, Portmore elected a council and mayor for the second time. This time around, the people of Portmore elected a mayor from the Jamaica Labour Party and a council with a majority of members who are of the People's National Party. And I see nothing wrong with that, even if it was the other way around. In my opinion, political parties should not even run in local government elections. This is a view that I have held for the last 34 years and was the subject of one of my first ever letters to the editor of a newspaper.
What is expected from the councils is efficiency, which has nothing to do with any party policies. I am also a realist, however, and I know that the local government elections will always be treated as a tool for the political parties. For one thing, there is the opinion poll effect. For another there is the whole business of giving out jobs and who controls them. And a third reason is the stepping-stone effect for some politicians who wish to advance further.
I was under the impression that the 2003 local government election would be the last one where councils would choose the mayors instead of the electorate. I was led to believe that by the following local government elections all voters would have a say in the choice of mayors. But that did not happen. It appears that the new JLP government was of the view that to put off the local government elections in order to make the changes might not have been beneficial to them. While the JLP won councils, the Opposition PNP might have gained a few more mayoralties.
Had the post of mayor of Kingston been put to the people on December 2007, would Desmond McKenzie have won? I do not know. While Desmond McKenzie is an efficient mayor, his problem is that he is overexuberant and inflexible. McKenzie seems to want everyone to know that he is in charge. Someone ought to tell McKenzie that the greatest leaders know the extent of their power but should not abuse it.
I saw a letter in the papers recently from someone who lives overseas. I imagine that he is what we now call a Jamaican in the diaspora. He was criticising the proposal about Portmore being made into a parish. I like to know that Jamaicans in the diaspora participate in our life because it gives us the feeling of the wider Jamaican family.
But I am annoyed when people do not live here (and God knows how long this person hasn't), but make all sorts of prognostications when they might not be in tune with what is happening today. Did anyone moot the idea of Portmore being made into the 15th parish before Monday, March 18, 1991? Perhaps. But if not, then I can claim to be the first to publish the idea.
When I wrote columns for the now defunct Jamaica Record and later the Jamaica Herald, my pieces appeared on Monday. And the title of my column for March 18, 1991 was, "The fifteenth parish". What Portmore's first and now former mayor George Lee is to be credited for is putting in the much harder footwork to at least make the Portmore Municipal Council a reality. All I can claim is having written it on paper.
But I regard it as an achievement, nevertheless. And to blow my own trumpet a little, I quote from that article in 1991. "A proposal for Portmore to become a separate parish means that Portmore should have its own mayor and its own parish council. It should also have its own hospital. In a spirit of volunteerism, the Portmore residents could come together and build a hospital rather than rely on the government".
"Court could be held in a tent until a proper building is built. Licences for certain types of businesses should be barred in Kingston and such persons redirected there so that they can find employment within their own parish. "Portmore already has more people than (either) the whole of Trelawny or the whole of Hanover."
Of course, I am amused by some of what I wrote nearly 17 years ago when I was "only" 37 (I am now 54 years old). Would I have written today that court could be held in a tent until a proper building could be built? The only reason for a different view today is the unbearable heat that tents generate. And would Kingston residents have liked the idea of trekking to Portmore for any, although not every type of licence? I probably would still write that, and would argue that if Portmore residents have to go to Kingston for other things, why can't Kingston residents go to Portmore for other things too? Indeed, that was my thinking at the time.
Well, whatever your view might be, that is what I wrote. But if by 1991 there were more people in Portmore than in either Trelawny or Hanover when the houses in Greater Portmore were not yet finished, let alone occupied, what do you think is the case now? When did the letter-writer last visit Jamaica, before or after that? I feel much stronger today than ever before that Portmore should become a parish on its own, making it 15 parishes in Jamaica.