'I was not tipped for AG position' - Hugh Small says he is not interested in post
Published:Friday | July 1, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW HUGH Small who represented Prime Minister Bruce Golding at the Manatt/Dudus Commission of Enquiry on Wednesday insisted that he has no interest in filling the vacant position of attorney general.
"That is not so, It is not true ... I know nothing at all about it," declared Small to The Gleaner.
"I do not know where the press gets its imagination from."
Small's denial was vehement, as he moved to stave off claims which rapidly circulated hours after the prime minister reshuffled his Cabinet, that he had been approached to take over the attorney general's position in keeping with a recommendation from the report of the Commission of Enquiry.
The commission recommended that the office must be separated from that of the justice portfolio.
Asked whether he was approached, Small responded, "Nobody has approached me, I am unapproachable."
Time for private life
When pressed, Small asserted: "I am an accomplished person who gives public service where I think I can. I have given enough public service, now is the time for me to enjoy my time in my private life. I have no desire to be engaged in anything like that."
Both the attorney general and justice ministry portfolios as well as the the position of leader of government business in the Upper House were taken from Light-bourne, whose people skills and handling of the Christopher 'Dudus' Coke extradition were brought into question.
In response to a suggestion that the information originated in the political domain, Small quipped: "The PNP is a very creative party when it comes to making up rumours and Hugh Small is a good subject for a rumour."
Even as Small spoke, the rumours kept drifting from the political to the public domain that he had been approached by Golding, much to the dismay of JLP senior members.
As his former colleagues seethed at the Manatt/Dudus Commission of Enquiry, Small told The Gleaner he was merely Golding's attorney.
Small was a former minister of finance in the Michael Manley administration and P.J. Patterson administrations of the 1970s and 1990s.
He also served as minister of industry and commerce, as well as mining and energy minister, among other ministerial capacities.