Delano Franklyn | Jamaica is drifting – needs proper leadership

Jamaica has been suffering from a lack of proper and convincing leadership over the last few months. Things are falling apart; the centre cannot hold. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the current leadership of Jamaica cannot manage serious matters, instead, it makes matters worse.

When the prime inister, on what evidence, no one knows, reopened the country by giving several groups, including organisers of Dream Weekend, permission to amass thousands of persons in the western part of Jamaica, it was clear that the path was being cleared for COVID-19 to come back, with a vengeance, to haunt us.

INCREASE IN COVID-19 CASES

The signs were clear. Medical personnel said that they never had sufficient resources to man the protocols that the organisers said they would put in place. Professor Peter Figueroa and Dr Andrew Manning, president of the Jamaica Medical Association, both medical practitioners who know what they are about, predicted that COVID-19 cases would increase in a few weeks as these mass gatherings would become superspreaders of the virus.

The minister of local government claims that there was over 50 per cent adherence to the protocols. How he arrived at this figure, no one knows, but then, it does not matter. If there was over fifty per cent adherence, it means that there was near 50 per cent non-adherence. No wonder the western part of the country is now under siege from COVID-19.

The minister of health, from as far back as early July, in giving what he described as his opinion, as if a minister of government has the luxury of giving a personal opinion, said that he was of the view that the Delta variant was in Jamaica. Yet the country was given the green light to be opened.

Now that the Delta variant is here, the minister, by way of a social media note, as if competing for a prize, announced that the Delta variant is now in Jamaica. This would be a big joke if the issue was not so serious.

The response by the Government to this calamity, created largely by its own doing, is to lock down the country for selected days, without any explanation whatsoever as to why Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays have been chosen.

The truth is that there is no explanation as to why these days have been chosen. They were randomly selected. The application of ‘‘latto’’ methodology. As one businessman said publicly, the Government has brought back to the fore the youthful game of ‘one, two, three, red light’. Today, it would appear that governance is by ‘bat up and catch’.

Our hospitals are bursting at the seams with COVID-19 patients. Our front-line health workers are stretched to the limit. The Government says that there are limited resources to adequately deal with COVID-19-related issues. In May 2020, the International Monetary Fund granted the approval of US$520 million, and in March 2021, the World Bank approved US$150 million, a total of US$670 million, to assist with COVID-19-related issues. What has happened to these funds? The country needs to know.

How can we sit back and allow the Government to run rough shod over us as they bungle, and have from from day one, the handling of the COVID-19 crisis? They open and close the country as they have a mind while allowing tourists to come and go as they like. Why the preferential treatment? Why have they failed, to date, to set up a broad-based national committee, consisting of the right persons, to lead the charge against COVID-19?

The establishment of this committee would help to restore confidence in the campaign to get more people vaccinated. At the rate at which the Government is losing credibility, more and more persons are distrusting its request to get vaccinated.

DEVALUATION OF THE DOLLAR

The national leadership has shown absolutely no form of coherent leadership in the management of the Jamaican dollar.

The Jamaican dollar, vis-à-vis the US dollar, is like a runaway train, pushing up the cost of goods and services to astronomical levels. As an example, the cost of petroleum is at its highest ever in Jamaica. People of all social classes are feeling the sting of the devaluing dollar but none more so than those who are unable to make ends meet.

The sale of two slices of bread is not new, but its proliferation is new. The sale of a squeeze of toothpaste is not new, but the sale of two sticks of matches is. The gathering of youngsters at traffic lights to clean windshields is not new, but the number of youngsters gathering by the day is on the upswing, indicating that poverty levels are going through the roof.

The minister of finance, who created a record by how quickly he was parachuted into that office, has created his own record by being the first and only minister to break the 150-1 barrier for the exchange rate of the dollar. Our West Indies team would do well with him as an opening batsman.

GOVERNMENT CAUGHT OFF GUARD

Then there is the recent passage of Tropical Storm Grace, which the minister of local government said caught him off guard, resulting in Jamaicans hightailing it from their place of work to their homes, during a raging Grace.

The Government was caught off guard because the agency that has responsibility to keep the country on its toes in matters such as these, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), has been literally gutted of its responsibilities. Why? Only the minister and the PM know. We, the non-considered, have not been offered an explanation.

NATIONAL AWARD

Then there is the issue of the national award to be given to Reverend Merrick ‘Al’ Miller. Miller has been toiling in the vineyard and preaching the gospel for many years. He has also, over the years, hitched his wagon to a few national events. The Reggae Boyz of yester-years come readily to mind when Miller assumed the role of their pastor in chief.

However, Miller is now the holder of two criminal convictions. He was found guilty in 2011 of negligently leaving his licensed firearm in his parked vehicle to go and pick plums. While picking plums, his gun was stolen from the vehicle.

What brought Miller to real national recognition, however, was when he took on the role of being the driver of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, who, at the time, was being hunted by the police to be extradited to the United States. Miller’s vehicle, in 2010, in the height of a national security operation to find Dudus, was pulled over by the police, with Miller as driver, and a wigged Dudus, also donning glasses, disguising his real appearance, in the passenger seat. As a result, Miller, in 2016, was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice and fined $1 million by the court.

The judge concluded that Miller was trying to evade the local authorities. Miller has since said that he was providing a service to his country and that what he did, he would do again. The members of the National Selection Committee that recommends persons for national awards seem to agree with Miller’s position, so, too, the prime minister, who has accepted the recommendation.

This decision by the Government has, regrettably, brought the national awards into serious disrepute. The award to Miller should be withdrawn to maintain the reputation and seriousness of our national awards.

Jamaica is drifting. It is crying out for credible, believable, trustworthy, and enlightened leadership.

Delano Franklyn is attorney-at-law, a former People’s National Party senator, and former minister of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. Send feedback to delanofranklyn@gmail.com.