Peter Espeut | A forced cabinet reshuffle

The unpopularity of the Holness administration has led to calls for a cabinet reshuffle at least since the middle of May last year. Many felt that the appointment of new government senators Dana Morris-Dixon and Abka Fitz-Henley at that time was a prelude to a major reallocation of ministerial portfolios, but it did not happen. One gets the impression that Prime Minister Holness felt that shuffling his Cabinet might be perceived as a sign of weakness, and lack of confidence in his team. Leaving underperforming ministers in place is what erodes public confidence in a government.

The departure of Nigel Clarke from Jamaica and the government has forced the hand of Prime Minister Holness to make a compulsory reshuffle. I doubt there would have been any cabinet changes if Nigel was not leaving.

The transfer of Senator Morris-Dixon from Information to Education is a welcome move, even if it is a year-and-a-half overdue. This leaves the Information portfolio vacant, and one suspects that post will be filled by journalist and long-time government apologist Senator Abka Fitz-Henley. Today – in some respects – we are probably where we could have been in May 2023.

Senator Morris-Dixon was a member of the Jamaica Education Transformation Commission chaired by Harvard Professor Orlando Patterson which made 365 recommendations towards dramatically improving Jamaica’s underperforming education sector. There has been sustained criticism of the Holness administration for failing to seriously engage with the Patterson Commission’s Report in the almost three years since its release. Senator Morris-Dixon is credited as penning much of the report, and clearly knows its contents intimately. It is reasonable to expect substantial progress in its implementation in the few months the new minister will have before the upcoming general election.

One did not get the impression that the previous minister – Fayval Williams – was comfortable in the education portfolio. Her new assignment as finance minister is closer to her field of academic training and expertise, and in any case, there is unlikely to be any shift in economic policy over the next few months.

GAINED APPROVAL

Rhodes Scholar Nigel Clarke gained the approval of the multilateral financial institutions by reducing Jamaica’s national debt (i.e., paying back the money Jamaica borrowed from them); but he failed to engineer the “5 in 4” – the five per cent increase in per capita GDP within four years – which the government promised in 2016. That has not happened even after eight years! (The four years would have been up before the onset of COVID, so the pandemic cannot be used as an excuse).

What Nigel did not do in eight years cannot be achieved by Fayval in a few months. Nevertheless, the election is fast approaching: we await the plans from both sides to attain meaningful economic growth across the next parliamentary term.

On Saturday, February 10, 2024 while in Clark’s Town, Trelawny, on the campaign trail before the February 2024 local government elections, Prime Minister Andrew Holness promised that another version of the J$1.5 million income tax threshold is coming, and he dubbed it “1.5 (2.0)”.

“It is the JLP that will deliver 1.5 (2.0) ... We will deliver the next version of 1.5, and have no fear, workers of Jamaica, it is the Jamaica Labour Party that understands how to increase your wages substantially and how to relieve you of taxes, not the PNP,” Holness said.

“Any time you hear the PNP talk bout tax, run weh from dem, or run dem weh from yuh,” he added.

I guess we will hear more of that promise in the next few months as the 2025 general election approaches; but the mechanics of making good on that and other undertakings falls squarely in Favell’s lap.

SETTING NEW STANDARDS

Donald Trump seems to be setting new standards for political candidacy. If you can be convicted on 34 felony charges, and have other charges of fraud, election subversion, and obstruction pending – and you still run for the highest political office in the US – then wife-beaters, those charged with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act and the Integrity Commission Act – and convicted drug-dealers – can run for political office in Jamaica without any murmur. Jamaica – maybe the world – is at a very low moral ebb.

As I have said before in this space, the choices before the electorate in the US and in Jamaica are not good vs bad, but worse vs worst, or “wus” vs “wus-a-rah”! The complicated moral choices we are forced to make!

One thing is clear, though: the government has broken the law it passed earlier this year by calling the local government by-election in St Thomas later than allowed by law. On August 15 the government used its majority in parliament to give itself a 90-day extension to hold the by-election to replace a deceased councillor, which means that the plebiscite must be held by November 13 the latest. The by-election will actually be held on November 22, which means that we have a government of law-breakers.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for anyone to be held accountable. We don’t do that kind of politics in Jamaica. In 1998 when Jamaica’s football team qualified for the FIFA World Cup Finals in France, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, in a fit of exuberance, illegally declared the following day to be a public holiday, and nothing came of it. History has shown that Jamaican Directors of Public Prosecutions are reluctant to charge politicians for lawbreaking, and to bring the cases to trial.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com