To shuffle or not to shuffle?
One of the challenges that will face Prime Minister Bruce Golding in the new year is a Cabinet reshuffle. With or without an International Monetary Fund agreement in place, the chief servant must keep his promise of honing his administration into a lean and mean machine. And with the impending cuts in the civil service, he will have to lead by example.
It is no secret that were it not for the slim majority which the Jamaica Labour Party has in Parliament, Mr Golding would have acted long ago in fashioning a Cabinet that is in tandem with the JLP’s election manifesto. But he had the not-so-enviable task as party leader to satisfy the Old Guard while appeasing the Young Turks, which meant he eventually ended up with a bloated Cabinet. Well, with the IMF breathing down his neck as well as a multi-billion dollar public sector wage bill that hangs over his head like the Sword of Damocles, he has no choice but to trim, trim, trim. And charity, after all, should begin at home.
In the eyes of the public, the performers in the Golding Cabinet can be easily singled out. Top of the class are Minister of Education Andrew Holness; Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Dr Christopher Tufton; Minister of Transport and Works Michael Henry and Minister of Tourism Ed Bartlett.
Among the ministers of state, Daryl Vaz, Information, Telecommunications and Special Projects and Robert Montague, Local Government Reform, both operating out of the Office of the Prime Minister, are earning their keep.
All of the above-mentioned ministers should not face the axe and should be made to keep their respective portfolios in any new-look Cabinet. If anything, Mr Golding may want to increase their responsibilities, after he has completed his cutting exercise.
In order to stave off any defections or unnecessary discombobulation in the party, it is felt that the following ministers may well have to be retained: Pearnel Charles, Labour and Social Security; Rudyard Spencer, Health; Senator Dwight Nelson, National Security; James Robertson, Energy and Mining; Audley Shaw, Finance and the Public Service; Dr Kenneth Baugh, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; Karl Samuda, Industry, Commerce and Investment; Dr Horace Chang, Water and Housing; Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, and Olivia Grange, Youth Sports and Culture.
To ask any of these persons to throw in the towel will pose for Mr Golding a tremendous test of his leadership. Indeed, it won’t be an easy task to tell any of them it is time to clear your desk and go home, but some of this will have to be done if the ultimate objective is to be achieved.
As for the ministers of state, do we need so many, and what purpose do some of them serve? Apart from Vaz and Montague, and to a lesser extent Michael Stern, Industry, Investment and Commerce; Andrew Gallimore, Labour and Social Security and Arthur Williams, Finance and the Public Service, the rest seem almost non-existent and are mostly visible at cocktail parties or the occasional international conference. What exactly is Shahine Robinson, OPM (Civic Responsibilities), doing? Not to mention Everald Warmington, Water and Housing; Laurence Broderick, Energy and Mining and Dr Ronald Robinson, Foreign Affarirs and Foreign Trade. Jobs for the boys?
In fairness to Senator Marlene Malahoo-Forte, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, she is the new kid on the block but one is yet to understand fully the prime minister’s rationale in putting her in that ministry. Is it that Dr Baugh is clueless? Meanwhile, of the two parliamentary secretaries, Senator Warren Newby, Youth, Sport and Culture and Senator Aundre Franklin, Health, Newby seems to be the more photogenic.
So let the slashing begin post-haste, Mr Prime Minister. Will you be up to the task, even when your decisions may prove to be unpopular within party circles? For example, there is an increasingly overwhelming view that Olivia “Babsy” Grange should be first in line for the guillotine. In any event, do we really need a Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, especially now that that phenomenal woman Grace Silvera is at the JCDC? Or the prime minister could easily absorb that in the OPM while giving Dr Tufton the Environment. And do we need two ministers of state alongside Dr Baugh who should really be simply deputy leader? And what of Delroy Chuck who is viewed by many as one who is deserving of greater things?
It is not for us lesser mortals to tell the prime minister, the first among equals, what to do but we would want to urge him to use performance as one of the main criteria for retention, promotion or rejection. However, it is important for him to bear in mind that whatever decision he makes, he should strive to put country first. No doubt, there are those in the JLP who would want him to come up with “an election Cabinet”. In other words, selecting those who can effectively preside over the distribution of the spoils of office (pork barrel). Such a move could prove very suicidal, especially in the current context of scarce resources and the imperative of making tough, if not unpopular decisions. Given the demographics of Jamaican politics, for either party to win the next general election, it will have to appeal to persons outside of the fold. In other words, the swing voter and the uncommitted will be the final arbiters and they will not be easily bought or sold.
Frankly, what with the “Dudus Affair” and IMF agreement, I would not want to be in Mr Golding’s shoes, because if those two aforementioned do not ensure that he is a one-term prime minister, then a Cabinet reshuffle may well turn out to be his Achilles heel.
