EDITORIAL - PM might have been bolder, but ...

Given his immediate talent pool, Prime Minister Bruce Golding will be credited for doing a reasonable job in restructuring his Cabinet, although this newspaper believes that there was room for the PM to be far bolder and more creative.

As we have argued in these columns before, which Mr Golding's party recognised when it campaigned for the last general election, the lack of jobs is perhaps the most pressing problem facing Jamaicans. Unfortunately, in the more than three years that the Jamaica Labour Party has been in office, though not entirely of its own doing, nearly 100,000 jobs have been lost in the economy.

Job creation, by and large, rests on economic growth, which is affected by economic policy, which, we will be advised, is being attended to by the Government, including the finance minister, Mr Audley Shaw. But it also demands investment and sector confidence, bolstered by ministerial acumen that brings support to, rather than suspicion of, those who are engaged in enterprise.

Nationalist sentiment

This is where we believe the prime minister might have been bolder in bringing into the Cabinet a senior private-sector person with a proven record of performance and known for his or her nationalist, rather than partisan, sentiment. That person, who would be expected to have the ear of the PM, would have the job of driving investment, identifying bureaucratic muddle and other logjams, and helping to push them out of the way. Indeed, it is some of what Mr Golding clearly felt that his former industry and investment minister, Mr Karl Samuda, failed to deliver, which now falls to Mr Samuda's successor, Dr Christopher Tufton.

While Dr Tufton does not bring to the job the credentials that we would have liked, he possesses the energy, intellect and ambition to make a good attempt at the job and to achieve at least reasonable success.

Dr Tufton, if he is as perceptive as we presume him to be, will make close partners of two of his new Cabinet colleagues, the recycled Clive Mullings at energy, and Arthur Williams, who will operate from the Cabinet office with responsibility for the public service.

Potential game-changer

There is deepening consensus that energy is the potential game-changer for the Jamaican economy. It is difficult for Jamaican firms to be efficient and competitive with electricity at around US$.30 per kilowatt-hour. Mr Mullings' job will be to bring that down.

The Government is committed to transitioning from oil to liquefied natural gas as the fuel of choice, which no one opposes, except for the fact that it can't be the whole story. The good thing, therefore, is that in his previous stint in this portfolio, Mullings seemed to have an open mind.

He has to again adopt this position, ruling in all possible energy sources, including coal and nuclear power, and efforts to deliver energy to Jamaica at the cheapest cost. That would be good for Dr Tufton's efforts.

With regard to Mr Williams, it will be in Dr Tufton's interest to remind him that his concentration can't be only on negotiating wages. He will also have to drive the much-talked-of reform of the public sector, of which not much, in terms of implementation, has been achieved.

Dr Tufton, therefore, should want Mr Williams to get on with the job of creating an efficient bureaucracy and removing humbug.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.