PM defends $635-million clean-up project
OCHO RIOS, St Ann – Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has defended the government’s decision to spend $635 million to employ 12,000 workers in cleaning up the country in preparation for Cricket World Cup 2007, saying that in addition to providing work for the unemployed, the jobs programme could lead to peace.
“I hope some people understand; to put some people to work can lead to peace,” Simpson Miller told a Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) long service awards ceremony at the Sunset Jamaica Grande in this tourist resort town Friday night.
“No one is going to stop any programme of my administration to address the poor,” Simpson Miller told the awards ceremony.
Critics of the jobs programme, announced by the prime minister at the recent annual conference of her ruling People’s National Party (PNP), have likened it to the ‘crash programme’ of the 1970s, where persons were employed to do menial tasks, with the emphasis being on earning an income.
But while referring to the work programme as “necessary work” in light of the need to prepare the country for CWC 2007, Simpson Miller also blasted critics of the programme, saying people who criticise should think about the parents who cannot afford to send their children to school.
The prime minister reiterated that workers employed under the announced programme will be paid above the national minimum wage.
At the same time, Simpson Miller has appealed for peace during the election campaign.
“I hope people thinking of election do not spoil what we have going for us in Jamaica. which is the unity, which is the peace and the love,” said the prime minister.
Jamaica is big enough to accommodate all of us who want to campaign, but all of us must do so with peace, and with dignity,” the prime minister said.
She said there were a large numbers of persons who did not support any of the political parties and they should be allowed to go about their business without interference or fear.
The long service award recognised workers who have given long and exemplary service to the 10 year-old TPDCo.
The main awardees, representing the TPDCo’s branch offices, were Jacqueline Walters (Montego Bay); Kameel Bryan (Ocho Rios); and Ruth Lambert (Kingston). Hugh Shim and Mary Helen Reece were presented with special awards.
Acting executive director of the TPDCo Barrington Payne announced the establishment of a staff development scholarship, valued at $120,000 per annum, to pursue a course of study in tourism and hospitality management.