Grading the government ministries

As Prime Minister Holness decides whether or not he will reshuffle his Cabinet, he must do a critical analysis of all the ministries. There are several issues as it relates to Education, Agriculture, Security, Labour and others which need immediate attention but the question stands - does he have the talent to solve the issues? 

If Mr Holness reshuffles

Jamaica Gleaner/4 May 2023

IF PRIME Minister Andrew Holness does indeed reshape his Cabinet, it must be more than a cosmetic exercise to assuage critics. The intention must be to enhance the efficiency of the Government, several bits of which appear to be adrift.

Mr Holness has himself downplayed speculation of his plans, but his administration’s approach of the halfway mark of its second term and opinion polls showing the long-trailing Opposition now in a deadheat for public support, give some credence to the expectation.

Additionally, the Government is likely to be uneasy with the frequent outbreaks of protests over issues from the poor state of roads to the lack of water, or delays in public servants receiving back pay.

Given the situation, argues Kevin O’Brien Chang, a frequent commentator on politics, the prime minister has to “respond in some way, if only to show that you are doing something”.

BAND-AID APPROACH

While there are political considerations in his party which Mr Holness has to weigh, there are real issues relating to management of the country that have to be addressed, and for which a Band-Aid approach won’t suffice.

For instance, when Fayval Williams was appointed education minister 15 months after the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) landslide election victory, no one expected her to work miracles to fix a sector that was long in crisis. It won’t be easy turning around a system in which half of the students enter high school not yet literate, (and) having serious problems with comprehension in English. Or that only 28 per cent of Jamaican students who sit the Caribbean Examination Council’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams, pass five subjects, including mathematics and English, at a single sitting.

The problem, critics say, is that they don’t feel Ms Williams. Put another way, she hasn’t brought a sense of mission to the job.

It is more than 18 months since the Orlando Patterson Commission presented its report on the transformation of the education system. A committee was named to lead the implementation of its findings. However, the public doesn’t know what is to be implemented, how or when.

There has been no widespread, public debate of the report and neither has it been tabled in Parliament, or made subject to a review of a committee of the House.

That these shortfalls are noted isn’t nitpicking. The Patterson report is important in the context of Jamaica preparing a workforce capable of competing in a 21st century economy, and of transforming the macroeconomic stability of the past dozen years into robust growth and sustained economic development.

Further, the emerging global economy is being built on a foundation of science and technology. While this starts with good quality education it has to have good supporting systems, not least of which is an environment conducive to research and innovation.

SUFFICIENT TALENT

Daryl Vaz has many talents and is gifted with great energy, but he hasn’t proved a natural fit in the science and technology portfolio. Neither does he appear to have mastered the necessary relationship between his portfolio and the requirements of the education system and the needs of the labour labour market.

Competing in the 21st century will require flexible labour markets that easily adapt to rapidly changing environments driven by technological advances. In that sense, the labour ministry can no longer be primarily a dispute resolution centre, or social welfare enterprise – as important as those responsibilities may be.

It must also be a key economic ministry, working with other key ministries and policy research agencies to shape labour market policies to facilitate Jamaica’s participation in the new global economy.

Mr Holness has to ask himself whether the incumbent labour minister, Karl Samuda, a robust 80-year-old, is best-suited to deliver on this reshaped mandate.

Similar questions arise about Audley Shaw, who once was a man of great energy and voice. Mr Shaw would hardly dispute that his powers have obviously waned and that the transportation and mining sectors, for which he has responsibility, appear to be adrift.

The bauxite and alumina sector remains in a slump, without clear policy direction from the minister. At the same time, public transportation, critical to the functioning of the national economy, continues to operate in the fashion of the Wild West, despite the introduction of a much ballyhooed new Traffic Act.

Another critical pillar of social and economic stability is security – in fact and perception. The Government says that great gains are being made in reducing crime and modernising the police force, even if the national security minister, Horace Chang, has been unable to convince Jamaicans of these achievements. Perhaps Mr Holness will take the pressure off Dr Chang, allowing him more time to concentrate on his role as general secretary of the JLP and preparing the party for the next general election.

After his party’s big victory in the 2020 election, Mr Holness has a heavily populated back-bench. The issue is if among them there is sufficient talent to fill vacated slots.

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