Morris Cargill

IT SEEMS that at last the Prime Minister has descended from cloud nine and is now taking serious steps to cope with the paralysing criminality which is besetting the country. If he really means what he has been saying, then I give the Prime Minister full marks for effort.

There is one good sign. This is that he has not done what he usually does when faced with a problem. He has not, thank God, appointed yet another committee. It appears that the Prime Minister and the Cabinet will be for once acting under their own steam.

Another encouraging sign is that the Prime Minister has indicated that he is preparing to break with the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR). Perhaps this is not quite as positive, as it sounds for he says that the Cabinet will shortly be invited to consider the matter of withdrawal.

This is rather different from deciding to withdraw.

One must hope that "considering withdrawal" will not involve a lot of time-wasting. The fact is that Jamaica should withdraw immediately.

I have no doubt that a lot of bleeding hearts will try to obstruct such a withdrawal. I wonder what role Carl Rattray will play in all this. As I have pointed out before, this very tender-hearted gentleman would prefer to provide murderers with free board and lodging for a very long time at our expense, rather than to hang them.

In any case, we shall doubtless see as we go along whether the Prime Minister and the Government really intend to declare war against the criminals.

I notice that some people have been suggesting that the Minister of Security and Justice K.D. Knight should be replaced. I don't agree with this. I think he has been doing his best under difficult circumstances. In any case, he is a handsome and imposing-looking man, which is more than we can say for some Ministers. He also has a taste for good cigars which puts him on my side in the battle against those who would ban tobacco.

Transparency

A recent headline in the business section of this newspaper, reads "FINSAC responds to call for transparency". It was a strange kind of response, for the statement consisted of a long explanation as to why FINSAC could not be transparent.

The statement admitted that "some commentators have recently said that FINSAC is not a bank and cannot therefore claim to be subject to the provisions of the law". FINSAC points out that these commentators, myself included I suppose, are wrong because other legal limitations, including the Common Law, apply. Maybe so, but in such a case FINSAC should long ago have acted to have those obstacles removed.

After all the taxpayers have been paying heavily in support of FINSAC and they are entitled to know exactly what success FINSAC has been having in connection with the debts it ­ and the taxpayers ­ have taken over. For instance this column has been trying for some time to discover what action has been taken to recover debts owed by Eddie Seaga and by a group of Peoples National Party (PNP) politicians.

There was also a hint in the Press the other day that FINSAC has been brought into the problems created by the undeveloped development created by the Minister of Underdevelopment. FINSAC'S refusal to give information about such matters seems to amount to a conspiracy of silence. There should be a limit upon the extent to which politicians are allowed to keep their indebtedness private.

Whatever the law may say, FINSAC is under a moral obligation to give taxpayers certain information and it should take steps to bring the law into line with morality. I recognise that this is a tall order, but it should be tried.

Young rooster

Daniel Thwaites has only recently been hatched, so as a young rooster he feels, I suppose, that it is necessary to be a bit cocky. He has written sharp words about Mutty Perkins and has recently, in a broadcast discussion, suggested that Dawn Ritch should be "carried to court".

Daniel often writes extremely well and will, I am sure, develop the status which will permit him to make brash remarks about writers and broadcasters who were well established when he was still in short pants.

Until that time comes, he must learn the difference, as an excellent writer, between well considered and witty criticisms of other writers and mere self-opinionated and ill-natured cheekiness to his elders and betters.