PM EYES LEGACY

Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Wednesday declared that he has passed the stage of needing to win political popularity and favour.

“It doesn’t matter to me any more. I have to start to think about legacy: What will Jamaica be? Will it be the same as I came and saw it? I can’t let it be the way I came and saw it,” Holness said while delivering the main address at the handover ceremony for 30 detached two-bedroom units in the first phase of the Roseneath Park housing development in St Catherine.

Speaking against the background of the public fallout from last week’s demolition exercise carried out in an illegal settlement on the outskirts of Clifton in the parish, Holness said that the Government has to be very economical with the limited land resource that is available.

“We have to be strategic as well because if you allow development to happen everywhere and then all of a sudden everybody say, ‘We want light, we want water, we want Internet’, Government never budget for it. Government don’t even know about it,” he said.

He said that while the Government has to be reasonable and fair, enforcing the law was a priority, even as it moves to provide a formal, fair, and efficient process to give all Jamaicans the opportunity to own their own home.

“It is not an easy task to communicate this because there are vested interests who want to turn this into a political issue for their political benefit,” Holness said, referring to the furore over the demolition exercise, which saw 10 unfinished structures being levelled last week Thursday.

“There must never be any political compromise about the rule of law. For decades, we have been winking and [have] been duplicitous and equivocal about the enforcement of the rule of law,” the prime minister stated.

The 30 units handed over in Roseneath Park on Wednesday were acquired by the National Housing Trust under the Government’s Guaranteed Purchase Programme.

A total of 140 units in the development have been purchased under the programme, with 40 additional units to be made available in phase one.

Holness said that the development will have paved roads, street names and traffic signs, stormwater drainage, a water distribution network, chain-link fencing, a central sewerage system and streetlights.

He said that lands have also been earmarked for green spaces, a church, and a school as well as recreation and commercial amenities.

“This is a complete community with infrastructure, which my friend with the orange hair would not have, and though she would probably build her house, she would not have these facilities in years,” the prime minister said, referring to Shaniel Francis, the 23-year-old woman who reportedly purchased land for $800,000 from unscrupulous players in the illegal settlement near Clifton and had her unfinished home demolished last week.

Managing director of Roseneath Developers Limited, Malcolm McDonald, was critical of the bureaucracy involved in getting permits from the local municipal corporation, a situation he claimed contributed to a delay in the starting of construction.

One of the units was retrofitted for Police Constable Owen Graham, who was left paralysed from the waist down after an accident while travelling in a service vehicle in 2019.

He was given a house after representation was made by the Welfare Department of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

National Security Minister Horace Chang lauded the establishment of the department, adding that the Government is committed to giving the security forces the necessary resources so that they can perform with maximum ease on the job.

Graham expressed gratitude for the unit, noting the inconvenience he faced where he was living.

“I am grateful for what the police welfare department has done for me behind the scenes,” he said.

Commissioner of Police Anthony Anderson had established the department when he took office and placed Deputy Superintendent of Police Raymond Wilson in charge of its operation.

“This is welfare in action,” noted a satisfied Anderson.

ruddy.mathison@gleanerjm.com