Mark Wignall | Say bye to the JLP, Dr Clarke

So impressed was I with Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke in 2020 that I referred to him, on radio, as a rock star in the Holness Cabinet. In past years, there were too many Jamaican finance ministers who were little more than reverberations of broad government policy. I was instantly drawn to his political skills.

And once per year, they get a chance to extend their voices in a Budget presentation. No Vybz Kartel music is attached to the presentation, so very few young people listened or watched. That said, at some stage of the political proceedings, more of us began to prick up our ears. Once he moved out of his fancy social science mode and dabbled in what made sense near the kitchen table, he allowed us to tie it all to the broader economy.

In his short trip from 2018 when he won the North West St Andrew seat to the moment in 2024 when it has been announced that he will be jetting off to join the IMF as deputy managing director, it was always obvious that Dr Clarke was a cut above the rest.

Many of those people I spoke with last week who had heard of the new appointment were firmly in the corner of heaping multitudes of praise on Dr Clarke. One man said that it could also mean that Dr Clarke is effectively washing his hands of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

“PM Holness will no longer have Dr Clarke’s financial skill and acumen available to him and the Cabinet. There is no current member of Cabinet who is close to as competent as Dr Clarke, though Mr Tufton may fancy himself.”

A man with many years; experience in the government service said, “The budget is around the corner on or about April next year. This is the time of the year when the groundwork for the budget is done. It is a heck of a time to leave, end of October, with the budget looming.”

A nurse who migrated a decade ago emailed me. “I congratulate Dr Clarke. It makes me feel good as a Jamaican. But it is not only ambition driving Dr Clarke. It is also the cascade of problems facing the Government. Maybe this is the perfect storm of happenings, and he can depart before any unpleasantness occurs.”

PM HOLNESS CAN CONGRATULATE HIMSELF

The pending Clarke departure to an office in the sky would earn plaudits for the JLP in the immediate term. Prime Minister Holness knows about the power, the force of mentoring. He was among a set of youngsters who Eddie Seaga mentored in the late 1990s onwards. Included were names like Dr David Panton and Ian Hayles. Now, Holness can say that he was the one who brought Dr Nigel Clarke out into the public space.

Years ago, I used to buy a comedy magazine called MAD. It once carried a section titled ‘You’re nobody if …” You’re nobody if … you come home and your own dog bites you. You’re nobody if … you leave your job and it doesn’t create a vacancy.

A vacancy will definitely be created when Dr Clarke leaves, but of course, with Dr Clarke long seeing himself as a citizen of the globe, the JLP may begin to recede in his mind as his global ambitions soar.

Down the political road, the electoral negatives may start to trip in for the JLP government as people sense that things are running the government instead of the government running things. Jamaican people may love or hate a party in power, but what they certainly dislike is wishy-washy government.

PROFESSIONS OF FRAUD

You can’t pretend to know that you don’t know at least one of them. They feed off the teets of the government services. The one I know drinks a little too much white rum. But poor man. His office is in the inside of a bar. He is about late 60s, and by 11 a.m., he has completed ‘work’ for about five clients.

‘It’s all legit’ you will hear him say to someone. I’m near to him, and the lady turns to me as if seeking confirmation. I go to my phone and speak to a duppy.

He has been ‘selling government services’ to those who desire a shortcut for the better part of 15 years. The documents are ‘legit’, and I happen to know that a few policemen seek his services in their personal matters.

The other one I know is younger, about in his early 50s. He is married, robs his wife’s little vegetable store on a regular basis, and at other times, is always begging her for a loan to replace funds he collected without delivering the ‘legit’ documents. He cries. She doesn’t want the gunmen to kill him, so she folds. Sometimes he has to be in hiding when strange young men with unsmiling faces show up looking for him.

At its simplest, some employed clerical staff in key government offices can conspire to slow down the delivery of certain services. In doing so, it oils the machine of those who work on the outside. The ‘little extra’ adds to the pocket of those in the inside and creates employment for the man on the outside making the final delivery of the ‘legit docs.’

The legitimate system creates those ‘legit docs.’

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.