What is Mike Henry saying?

The extremely costly Palisadoes Shoreline Protection and Rehabilitation Programme has caused quite a stir since its conception and inception.

Long before the project became a dream, my contention was that nature once protected that roadway with a palisade (traditionally defined as a defensive barrier of stakes). Evidently, the name of the roadway was inspired by the lush, thick and strong protective vegetation and mangroves that once flourished, especially along the eastern border of the peninsula. This natural protective fence was so effective that when Hurricane Gilbert, a Category Three system, struck Jamaica 23 years ago, the Palisadoes road suffered minor problems.

Several political directorates allowed untreated effluent to flow freely from the non-functioning Harbour View sewage-treatment plant for many years. It seems to me that this atrocity and affront to nature persisted for so long that it helped to kill off the protective plants.

Having lost its palisade, the roadway became so susceptible to wind-blown sand and storm surges that it is repeatedly rendered impassable by relatively minor weather phenomena. The frequent isolation of an entire community, Port Royal, and the essential Norman Manley International Airport spawned much discussion about relocating the airport or raising/ rehabilitating the access roadway.

Eventually, the Palisadoes Shoreline Protection and Rehabilitation Programme became a reality. Notwithstanding the transport and works minister's futuristic and grand ideas of freely flowing traffic, parking areas and boardwalks; it was thought to be overkill - an overly ambitious project, especially given our financial resources and the level of utilisation of the thoroughfare.

Nevertheless, the minister who speaks in paragraphs - as one little five-year-old girl remarked to me while watching him on the news - persevered.

And now we have this confusing, conflicting and vexing state of affairs of accusations and/or allegations of: underemployment of Jamaican workers, the employment of too many Chinese expatriates, subcontractors failing to pay over money to bona fide workers and extortionists, a multimillion-dollar 'anomaly' that caused the China Harbour Engineering Company to withhold payments to Y.P. Seaton, threats to the Chinese expatriates, threats to "fire shots" and disconnect the electricity, the demanding of subcontract work, threats from extortionists, physical abuse, threats of sabotage, the withdrawal of services, psychological and physical intimidation, and the highly publicised grouses of a union representative.

PNP thuggery

Amid all the verbiage on the situation, what caught my attention was the fiery salvo launched by an angry and peeved Mike Henry. He asserted that political thugs aligned to the People's National Party (PNP) were creating mayhem on the Palisadoes Shoreline Protection and Rehabilitation Programme.

It was further reported that he called on PNP Chairman Robert Pickersgill to "rein in those who are bent on wreaking havoc on the ambitious project". He also reportedly said that it was the PNP's leadership in the constituency of East Kingston and Port Royal that "allowed open intimidation from political thugs".

I was under the impression that, although politicians introduced thuggery as a means of controlling inner-city votes, their direct control had waned significantly with the advent of the dons (who filled the power vacuum created when politicians ceded their responsibilities to the dependent individuals that they created). I thought that the various dons expanded their areas of interest beyond mere politics, hence the purported collaborative efforts of PNP/JLP-affiliated dons.

Is the minister saying that he knows for certain that PNP thugs controlled by the leadership are jeopardising the project? Are we, therefore, to deduce from his statements that PNP/JLP-aligned thugs are still controlled by the political directorates? What exactly is the honourable minister revealing about our decent and upstanding politicians? Why have his assertions gone without demands for proof or clarification?

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.