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New breeze bringing political change to Ja
Published: Friday | December 9, 2011
Today we bring you an excerpted version of a speech delivered by Oliver Clarke, chairman of The Gleaner Company Ltd, to the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) Pensioners' Association Lunch, held last Wednesday at The Courtleigh Hotel, New Kingston.
I believe there is a new political breeze about ... I do not think it is just a Christmas breeze.
In particular, I commend Andrew Holness on using his political platform to speak about the need to address the country's big problems of debt, the public-sector wage bill, a new taxation system, and I com-mend him for forcing through accountability among his cabinet colleagues and for facing the electorate so early in his term.
In particular, I commend Portia Simpson Miller on using her political platform to express compassion for the needs of those economically challenged, her Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme that should address new employment opportunities, and her willingness to include in party leadership competent persons who have run for leadership against her in the past.
Both of these fine leaders and their supportive team members ... one heading Government, one leading the Opposition ... will soon have to demonstrate their willingness and capability to work together to solve the country's major issues: debt, revenue, expenditure, corruption, incompetence in the delivery of public services, and inability to deliver a satisfactory quality of life (whether in education or employment) for many Jamaicans - be they the young, the workers, the pensioners, those in the diaspora.
Neither of these leaders and their supportive team members can deliver the strong expectations of Jamaica by themselves. Neither party has all the personnel resources needed to transform the country.
Civil society, led by the private sector, is now demanding a new politics - a new politics in which the first priority is the delivery of a better Jamaica, not a better Jamaica Labour Party or People's National Party.
The new breeze we are all now feeling is about to blow a new government into power.
But when I consulted the breeze this very morning, it told me - quietly but firmly - that it was determined to blow the new Government out of power just as quickly ... unless that Government started speedily to deal with the 12 issues of 2012 ... and ... found a way to co-opt the support of the Opposition and civil society.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ws/news96.html
Published: Friday | December 9, 2011
Today we bring you an excerpted version of a speech delivered by Oliver Clarke, chairman of The Gleaner Company Ltd, to the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) Pensioners' Association Lunch, held last Wednesday at The Courtleigh Hotel, New Kingston.
I believe there is a new political breeze about ... I do not think it is just a Christmas breeze.
In particular, I commend Andrew Holness on using his political platform to speak about the need to address the country's big problems of debt, the public-sector wage bill, a new taxation system, and I com-mend him for forcing through accountability among his cabinet colleagues and for facing the electorate so early in his term.
In particular, I commend Portia Simpson Miller on using her political platform to express compassion for the needs of those economically challenged, her Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme that should address new employment opportunities, and her willingness to include in party leadership competent persons who have run for leadership against her in the past.
Both of these fine leaders and their supportive team members ... one heading Government, one leading the Opposition ... will soon have to demonstrate their willingness and capability to work together to solve the country's major issues: debt, revenue, expenditure, corruption, incompetence in the delivery of public services, and inability to deliver a satisfactory quality of life (whether in education or employment) for many Jamaicans - be they the young, the workers, the pensioners, those in the diaspora.
Neither of these leaders and their supportive team members can deliver the strong expectations of Jamaica by themselves. Neither party has all the personnel resources needed to transform the country.
Civil society, led by the private sector, is now demanding a new politics - a new politics in which the first priority is the delivery of a better Jamaica, not a better Jamaica Labour Party or People's National Party.
The new breeze we are all now feeling is about to blow a new government into power.
But when I consulted the breeze this very morning, it told me - quietly but firmly - that it was determined to blow the new Government out of power just as quickly ... unless that Government started speedily to deal with the 12 issues of 2012 ... and ... found a way to co-opt the support of the Opposition and civil society.
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