EDITORIAL - Gov't by dichotomy

There is a dichotomy in the Simpson Miller administration, broadly defined. On the one hand, the Government is taking some of the hard decisions and implementing the kinds of fiscal policies from which previous administrations have resiled, but which are necessary if Jamaica is to have a chance of escaping its long consignment to the economic rut.

The recent passage by the Parliament of a range of tax measures that will lower transaction costs in the economy is a case in point. So, too, is the fiscal discipline being enforced by the finance minister, Peter Phillips, as part of the strategy to bring under control, and eventually lower, the country's debt that is more than 140 per cent of GDP.

But even as it implements these measures, the administration, and by extension the governing People's National Party (PNP), seem to be navigating without a moral compass, while to do otherwise would help in its economic tasks and enhance its achievements.

A case in point is the shameless Scean Barnswell, who, facing criminal charges of lying to the contractor general, clings stubbornly to the post of chairman of the Clarendon Parish Council, with the votes of his PNP colleagues and, we can only assume, the backing of party central. That would mean the endorsement of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, the president of the PNP.

Barnswell has the example of that callow fellow, Richard Azan, his former partner in the Clarendon market affair, who Mrs Simpson Miller snuck back into her administration.

Mr Azan, again a junior minister for transport and works, having been ignorant to compelling arguments of decency and morality, was, for a while, prised from the job by a recommendation by the contractor general that he be charged for conspiracy to defraud the Clarendon Parish Council.

That was because he admitted to having bypassed the Government's procurement rules, 'permitted' a private builder to construct shops at the Spaldings, Clarendon, market and allowed his political constituency office to act as a sort of rent-collection agency.

Bad move

No one accused Mr Azan of benefiting financially from his misbehaviour, but this blatant flouting of regulations, and then digging in his heels, with little to consequence, breed cynicism and weakens support for the broader initiatives the Government needs to undertake. It certainly makes it more difficult to gain buy-in for projects promoting values and attitudes.

There may be attempts, by apologists for the Government, to equate the actions by Mrs Simpson Miller in the Azan affair to the use by Andrew Holness, the opposition leader, of pre-signed but undated letters of resignation to oust contrarian senators who had essentially rejected his leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

That, of course, is a false equivalency. In signing those letters, whatever may be their specific legal efficacy, the signatories accepted a larger principle: The right of a political leader to be reasonably assured of loyalty and the pursuance of his party's policies in what was essentially a political undertaking on behalf of the party.

There is another small matter: of the chairman of the Hanover Parish Council, Bertel Moore, urging the police to shoot first and ask questions later in fighting crime in his parish. The PM remained silent.

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