Opportunistic kettles
Published:Thursday | August 26, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Editor, Sir:
The Opposition leader's objection to the Jamaica Labour Party's involvement in government business stirs up memories and reminds that it was the People's National Party (PNP) that introduced this questionable mix in the making of official decisions. In March 1980 when the party's National Executive Council dictated that the Govern-ment should break with the International Monetary Fund, the minister of finance, Eric Bell, and the minister of state, Richard Fletcher, resigned.
Should not be held hostage
In the midst of the controversy that followed, The Gleaner published a front-page editorial protesting " ... It is neither in the letter nor the spirit of our Constitution that our elected ministers and our sovereign Parliament should be held hostages by a party's National Executive Council."
To this and other like criticism, Prime Minister Michael Manley issued the following statement:
"Let me, therefore, pause, Mr Speaker, to explain that since its inception, issues of policy in our movement are decided by our annual conference and by our National Executive Council, which acts on behalf of the annual conference at all other times.
"We are a democratic organisation. We are so by constitution and by practice. That is how we were established by our founder and colleagues at that time. This is an iron and immutable principle of our party. This principle which governs the operations of our movement is known and has always been known to the Jamaican people."
It seems relevant to ask if the present PNP leadership now rejects this position or is merely being an opportunistic kettle cursing the soot on a pot it hopes to replace.
I am, etc.,
KEN JONES