Dawn Ritch, Contributor
THIS was not an elegant Cabinet reshuffle. It is ugly with political motive and gross expediency. All thought for the country has vanished.
K. D. Knight has been handsomely rewarded for 13 years of failure at the Ministry of National Security and Justice, and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade reunited for his delight. He replaces Anthony Hylton in foreign trade whom all are agreed was doing a fairly good job. Mr. Hylton has been given the less demanding portfolio of Mining and Energy.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who is entirely responsible for the Cabinet reshuffle, cannot have been thinking of Jamaica's prospects in the world at the time. The shuffle that would have made the most sense, and welcomed by the country, was a new Prime Minister. It seems however, that we must wait on the electorate for that one.
The People's National Party needs all the seats it can win in the next general election. The party believes it can win K. D. Knight's constituency again. While Mr. Patterson wanted him out of Security and Justice, he couldn't have him to pick up his marbles and leave the political game, as he had threatened. Nor would Mr. Knight accept anything less than a senior ministry.
The Prime Minister therefore took the ridiculous step of making one of the rudest ministers in Government responsible for the country's diplomacy and foreign negotiations. All for the sake of one more PNP seat in the House of Representatives. Anthony Hylton is being spared the ignominy of losing his seat, it is hoped, by allowing him time to concentrate on his shaky constituency in St. Thomas, before the next general election arrives. Mr. Patterson hopes that Mr. Hylton can hang on to his seat by the skin of his teeth when the deluge comes that may even sweep away Mr. Patterson's.
Horse-trading
For Dr. Peter Phillips to have taken over K.D.'s ministry meant a lot of horse-trading had to go on. Dr. Phillips' direct line of succession to Prime Minister P.J. Patterson is based entirely upon his being senior vice-president in the People's National Party, the one with the most votes. Unlike Dr. Phillips' former ministry of Transport and Works however, his new Ministry of National Security and Justice has no contracts to award, and no spoils to give the party faithful. I doubt that Dr. Phillips could persuade either Mrs. Portia Simpson Miller or Dr. Karl Blythe not to challenge him for the most votes of all vice-presidents at the next PNP Conference in September 2002.
Dr. Phillips will need a great deal of money to beat Portia, who traditionally wins most votes for vice-president without spending a cent, except on the last occasion when she was routed by what insiders say was sheer strength of cash. Among certain circles of persons who have long memories however, the appointment of Dr. Phillips to National Security and Justice is disquietening to say the least.
There are those who will remember the now infamous Roderick McGregor, and his covert operation on behalf of the police force in seeking to track down the link between narco gunmen, politicians and Colombian drug dealers.
Perhaps the Prime Minister's problem is that one person whose name has never been linked to any such connections is Mrs. Simpson Miller. Why wasn't she therefore appointed Minister of National Security and Justice? That appointment would certainly have made the country more comfortable, and telegraphed that the Government was at long last serious about solving the crisis of public disorder. Mr. Patterson will not have Mrs. Simpson Miller however, in any other capacity than Tourism, Sports and occasional deputy P.M. Every opportunity is therefore being given to his successor Dr. Phillips, who is unlikely to emerge from National Security with his reputation enhanced, although this remains the political directorate's vain and fondest hope.
Election
It was a political move on Mr. Patterson's part, but it was a dumb one. Now when very little continues to be achieved on the security front, the Jamaican people will be certain that the Government has nothing left to offer. It seems likely therefore, that Mr. Patterson might call the election before the next PNP Annual Conference in September. Since they pin all electoral hopes on Dr. Phillips, his abject ministerial failure must not have time to be allowed to become a matter of record for all.
We must also remember that the Queen is due to visit Jamaica next year March. Mr. Patterson would no doubt prefer that his picture be taken with the Queen and not that of Mr. Seaga. I am convinced that the Prime Minister is a royalist at heart, but professes republicanism purely out of political expediency, however wrong-headed. Mr. Patterson is also unlikely to want to preside over the pain of a post-September 11th budget to be tabled in the House of Parliament next April.
It seems there is a window of opportunity therefore for a general election to be called somewhere between the Budget Debate and the Queen's visit, in order to, it is hoped, hold on to as many PNP parliamentary seats as possible. I'm sure the Prime Minister would also think it nice to give "Foggy" Seymour Mullings a little run as Jamaica's Ambassador to Washington as well. No point in stalling him, and having a general election.
By next March, Mr. Colin Campbell, who made a royal mess of the telecommunications support fund and led astray his Minister of Technology and Industry Mr. Phillip Paulwell, will be running full throttle as the new Minister of Disinformation. At least that will be running full time.
The same cannot be said however, for Mr. Patterson's star Commission of Enquiry into West Kingston. There its chairman Justice Julius Isaac has taken to sleeping on the job. As a matter of fact 'Im draw snore inna de place! His microphone was on, so were the lights of the television cameras, the evidence was being given, the lawyer was on her feet, but there was no one there to keep him awake.
Catastrophe continues unabated at the cost of great loss of life to this beleaguered nation. The Cabinet reshuffle of Prime Minister P. J. Patterson demonstrates, however, that he is indifferent to it, and continues to sleep on the job. Like Justice Isaac, he is not only fast asleep, but is content to remain asleep.
