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The PNP seems to be running a poor campaign...
Some projects possible if ...
Ken Chaplin
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
One of the biggest problems that the government will have to try to overcome in the election campaign is the view among a significant number of Jamaicans that the government apparently believes it will be in power for generations to come - it is invincible at the polls and therefore can do as it likes.
Ken Chaplin
That could be the only reason for government proceeding with highways, for example, while people throughout the country are protesting against the awful condition of the parochial and farm roads. I have been told the price of donkeys is now at a premium for only donkeys can traverse some of the roads.
The latest highway project announced, construction of a $7-billion Mount Rosser bypass road in St Ann will take place, like Highway 2000 and the North Coast Highway, against the background that most of the feeder roads - parochial and farm roads - in the country are in such a bad state that farmers have tremendous difficulty taking their produce to the market and travelling to hospitals and police stations. In certain areas, people have to sling their dead to highways and secondary roads because no vehicles will come into the districts.
People have suffered injuries walking on pothole-filled roads. Building another highway should not be a priority. Having good, secondary, parochial and farm roads is the priority at this time. The Mount Rosser highway could have waited as the road from Kingston to Ocho Rios via Mount Rosser was recently widened at some corners and is generally in good condition.
Many PNP supporters are expressing disappointment that the party and government seem to be walking behind the Jamaica Labour Party and partially adopting two of its plans in the field of health care and education. That is to say that the PNP showed no initiative in its election campaign in these areas until after the JLP announced that it would end high school tuition fees which would effectively conclude the government's cost-sharing programme.
The immediate response of the government was that it would pay the tuition fees for students whose parents are unable to pay, beginning with the new school year in September. The JLP also announced it would abolish hospital fees. The government's response was that there will be no change of hospital fees for children below the age of 18. All this strategy by the PNP is new. In the past, the party would put out its programmes first. It did not have to wait and see what the JLP was going to do. As a result, the JLP is afraid to publicise its manifesto first, fearing that the PNP may copy from it. It was not even a case of "anything you can do I can do better" because the government offered less than what the JLP offered.
Some people say that the country cannot afford free tuition and health care at this time. But the country has to afford it. It could be done if the government had stopped corruption and waste, prioritised its programmes and ran a tight administration. It is because the government has not given serious attention to education over the years that the country is in social upheaval with crime and violence affecting progress.
The fundamental aim of liberal education is to enable a citizen to live in harmony with his or her fellow citizens, earn a livelihood and make a meaningful contribution to the society. There are too many of our people who have not completed primary education. Some have never been to school and end up as illiterates because of poverty. There are others who complete primary education who cannot enter high school and still others who gain entry to high school and are unable to continue because they cannot afford the tuition fees.
That is why we have so many teenagers at street corners and village squares. Many of them end up as criminals. What the country needs most of all is compulsory education. The manner in which governments have treated education amounts to negligence. One expected the PNP government to make a change, having been in power for more than 18 years, but they have failed.
The JLP is making too much argument over the six-week period between the announcement of the election date and election day. The party should try to consolidate its position, instead of criticising the prime minister.
Death threats against journalists.
We must condemn the death threat against Cliff Hughes and Emily Crooks of Nationwide News, and the threat to firebomb the station because it published the results of an opinion poll showing the JLP with a constituency-by-constituency lead against the PNP. It is a blatant threat against freedom of the press.
Years ago Cliff had a close association with the party, but officials should understand that an independent journalist cannot push a party line. His loyalty must be to the people. The death threats followed a provocative statement by Buchanan at a PNP rally in Lacovia, St Elizabeth. Earlier this column expressed reservation about the suitability of Buchanan as minister of information. The expectations have come to pass. The prime minister should find another minister of information if the government is returned.
Some projects possible if ...
Ken Chaplin
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
One of the biggest problems that the government will have to try to overcome in the election campaign is the view among a significant number of Jamaicans that the government apparently believes it will be in power for generations to come - it is invincible at the polls and therefore can do as it likes.
Ken ChaplinThat could be the only reason for government proceeding with highways, for example, while people throughout the country are protesting against the awful condition of the parochial and farm roads. I have been told the price of donkeys is now at a premium for only donkeys can traverse some of the roads.
The latest highway project announced, construction of a $7-billion Mount Rosser bypass road in St Ann will take place, like Highway 2000 and the North Coast Highway, against the background that most of the feeder roads - parochial and farm roads - in the country are in such a bad state that farmers have tremendous difficulty taking their produce to the market and travelling to hospitals and police stations. In certain areas, people have to sling their dead to highways and secondary roads because no vehicles will come into the districts.
People have suffered injuries walking on pothole-filled roads. Building another highway should not be a priority. Having good, secondary, parochial and farm roads is the priority at this time. The Mount Rosser highway could have waited as the road from Kingston to Ocho Rios via Mount Rosser was recently widened at some corners and is generally in good condition.
Many PNP supporters are expressing disappointment that the party and government seem to be walking behind the Jamaica Labour Party and partially adopting two of its plans in the field of health care and education. That is to say that the PNP showed no initiative in its election campaign in these areas until after the JLP announced that it would end high school tuition fees which would effectively conclude the government's cost-sharing programme.
The immediate response of the government was that it would pay the tuition fees for students whose parents are unable to pay, beginning with the new school year in September. The JLP also announced it would abolish hospital fees. The government's response was that there will be no change of hospital fees for children below the age of 18. All this strategy by the PNP is new. In the past, the party would put out its programmes first. It did not have to wait and see what the JLP was going to do. As a result, the JLP is afraid to publicise its manifesto first, fearing that the PNP may copy from it. It was not even a case of "anything you can do I can do better" because the government offered less than what the JLP offered.
Some people say that the country cannot afford free tuition and health care at this time. But the country has to afford it. It could be done if the government had stopped corruption and waste, prioritised its programmes and ran a tight administration. It is because the government has not given serious attention to education over the years that the country is in social upheaval with crime and violence affecting progress.
The fundamental aim of liberal education is to enable a citizen to live in harmony with his or her fellow citizens, earn a livelihood and make a meaningful contribution to the society. There are too many of our people who have not completed primary education. Some have never been to school and end up as illiterates because of poverty. There are others who complete primary education who cannot enter high school and still others who gain entry to high school and are unable to continue because they cannot afford the tuition fees.
That is why we have so many teenagers at street corners and village squares. Many of them end up as criminals. What the country needs most of all is compulsory education. The manner in which governments have treated education amounts to negligence. One expected the PNP government to make a change, having been in power for more than 18 years, but they have failed.
The JLP is making too much argument over the six-week period between the announcement of the election date and election day. The party should try to consolidate its position, instead of criticising the prime minister.
Death threats against journalists.
We must condemn the death threat against Cliff Hughes and Emily Crooks of Nationwide News, and the threat to firebomb the station because it published the results of an opinion poll showing the JLP with a constituency-by-constituency lead against the PNP. It is a blatant threat against freedom of the press.
Years ago Cliff had a close association with the party, but officials should understand that an independent journalist cannot push a party line. His loyalty must be to the people. The death threats followed a provocative statement by Buchanan at a PNP rally in Lacovia, St Elizabeth. Earlier this column expressed reservation about the suitability of Buchanan as minister of information. The expectations have come to pass. The prime minister should find another minister of information if the government is returned.
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