SUPERCLUBS hotel chain boss, John Issa, argued yesterday that Jamaican governments have not, in the past, really made education a top priority and insisted that any administration that really wants to, will find the cash to fund the system.

In the same address to the Rotary Club of Kingston, Issa also supported the idea of casino gambling for Jamaica, although he stressed it would be no panacea and lamented the country’s deep problem of crime and violence as the major cause for the lack of sustained economic growth.

Issa’s comment about financing education, during a question and answer period, came against the deepening pre-election debate over free secondary education. It is likely to be warmly welcomed by the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) which is promoting the elimination of the 15 per cent of the cost that parents now pay towards tuition.

Critics of the JLP’s position say that the over $1 billion a year that the elimination would cost was too expensive in the context of Jamaica’s fiscal and debt problems.

But Issa was adamant that if money was required for education, it could be found.

Said he: “No government has ever really been serious about investing in education. All governments have found money when they need it. This Government found the money with Finsac” — the institution responsible for managing failed financial institutions.

Finsac (Financial Sector Adjustment Company) spent an estimated $120 billion to shore-up failed banks and insurance companies in the financial sector meltdown of the mid-1990s.

In the 1980s, Issa added, the administration of Edward Seaga “found the money for Spring Plains” — a reference to the high-tech farm that was supposed to grow winter vegetables for export. The Government sunk millions of dollars into the project, but it turned out that the farm’s principal, Eli Tisona, was an Israeli mobster who is now serving time in the United States for drugs and money laundering. Tisona’s partner, Maurice Safarti, who ran a similar farm in Antigua, was later implicated in gun-running to Colombian rebels.

But these were not the only ventures, Issa pointed out, for which Jamaican governments have found money.

“When we were broke in the ’70s they found the money for the Ministry of Mobilisation,” he said.

That ministry, run by Dr D K Duncan during the democratic socialist administration of the late Michael Manley, was supposed to help drive production in the context of the ideology of the period.

“If we don’t invest in education we won’t have a civilised country,” Issa said.

Issa has long been a supporter of casinos — an issue recently put back on the national agenda by Government senator Aloun N’dombet Assamba when she seemed to go against official Government policy with public support for such structured casinos.

“I have always been of the opinion that correctly introduced, casino gambling could be of benefit to Jamaica,” Issa said. “It will be one other attraction which will make our tourism industry more appealing and productive.”

For Issa, the national benefits outweigh the personal vices of gambling.

In fact, he said, gambling was more ingrained in Jamaica than a country like The Bahamas that allows casinos.

“We have three lottery companies, hundreds of betting shops, slot machines in most hotels, many bars and betting shops,” he said.

Issa also pointed to the contradiction of not allowing standing casinos in Jamaica but allowing cruise ships with onboard casinos to dock in the island’s harbours.

These, he stressed, paid no taxes.

But more fundamentally, Issa argued, if Jamaica wanted to improve the quality of life in the country, it had to defeat crime and violence — that which occurs daily and that associated with politics and elections.

“If these conditions persist, even if we do achieve some level of economic growth, it will be anaemic at best,” he said. “If these conditions persist, we will only achieve growth in tourism arrivals by heavy discounting.”