Will Holness take a stand against Spencer?

THE EDITOR, Sir:
Prime Minister Andrew Holness said, on March 21, that he was expecting Minister Rudyard Spencer to make a fulsome withdrawal of the inappropriate and unfortunate statement he made regarding the Rural Agricultural Development Authority and would do everything in his power to ensure that no such utterance is made again.
My concern is that if a government representative has to be prompted, or coerced, in order to apologise or to retract a statement, the effect of the retraction/apology would be insubstantial, and there would be no moral
ascendancy gained from such an action.
Now, what if Minister Spencer does not comply with the expectation of the PM? Will this be just another nine-day wonder, or will there be a comeuppance for Minister Spencer' intransigence? Dissension from Mr Spencer at this juncture could be construed as a sign of arrogance on his part, or disrespect to the PM.
Also, the interpretation could be that the PM has little or no control over his ministers. Considering that the PM's political capital has risen since his Cabinet reshuffle, to allow Mr Spencer's RADA pronouncement to dissipate with the passage of time, without any sanctions, will set a bad precedent.
That may just give licence to the other members of the Cabinet to do and say whatever they want, as seemingly at the helm would be an impuissant leader.
NURVILLE MCLEOD
nurvillegeorgemcleod@gmail.com