THE GOVERNMENT, and all the Cabinet members, have full confidence in the Governor," said Dr. Karl Blythe. That being the case, the ordinary citizens of this country have just suffered a major, and serious defeat.

Once the fat cats and the bureaucrats permit the politicians to dictate what public servants are to be paid, the citizens of this country would have lost control. If all the Cabinet Ministers, and a few others can now decide the salary which should be paid to the Governor, we are going to be in dead trouble. If the Governor's remuneration is $9 million dollars a year today, it could be $10 million tomorrow, and $11 million the day after.

The small group of public servants strongly supported by their political friends have decided to run the country as they think fit. Accordingly, it now seems pointless for anyone to try to keep the salaries of the fat cats under control.

If the PNP Cabinet allows the fat cats to win their battle, the chances are that before long they will find that they have lost a rather nasty war. And incidentally, what is Dr. Blythe doing in this brouhaha? I would have expected him to have water on his mind not on his brain.

Street people

This street people business puzzles me greatly, and the sequence of events up to now seems a trifle odd.

Let us cast our minds back for a moment. At the start of it all when we first learnt about it, most of us were horrified, and we were told by the Prime Minister that there was going to be an immediate investigation and suitable punishment would be handed out to those who were guilty.

And then for weeks came a dead silence, particularly from the Prime Minister. Eventually, however, "Jamaicans for Justice" arose, and they, and other good people started to kick up a major fuss. Eventually, the Prime Minister himself came down from cloud nine and a full investigation was promised. As far as I know, this investigation now continues, and one hopes that something will come of it.

The good Dr. Gomes, and others, then decided that the matter should be dramatised, and this led to a re-enactment of the mud lake journey. The point of this seems obscure. Various worthy middle-class people undertook a symbolic truck journey, an event which strangely enough caused a good deal of amusement with people making jokes as they went along.

I am still unable to understand the point of the play acting. Only one thing is necessary, and that is to track down all those guilty of that terrible performance in St. Elizabeth. The Observer tells me that the cost of all this comes to $1.3 million monthly.

I suppose that one of these days a few people will be found guilty, but I have a terrible feeling that the majority of those who were responsible for the saga of the street people will never be known. Maybe that $1.3 million expenditure will indicate the real cost of ensuring guilty silence.

Lent

A good deal of repentance seems to be in the air. Lent, I suppose, is a good time to show it, but I cannot help noticing that a very large amount of mea culpa is being demonstrated by those two admirable men, the Reverend Peter Espeut, and the Reverend Martin Henry. Both for the moment have abandoned their columns for sermons devoted to Ash Wednesday. Both these splendid men are decorating themselves with sackcloth and ashes. I do not mean to imply any criticism of them for this. After all, we are all doing our best. I, for instance, have given up one less Vodka Martini a day for Lent, and that is no mean sacrifice.

Rev. Martin Henry charges me with the belief that the Lord made the heavens and the Earth in six days, a feat of enormous industry. But as I look around me and consider our universal degradation, including the appalling filth of our prisons, I am beginning to believe more and more in the punishment that awaits us in hell fire.

I suppose that even those in the General Penitentiary, who so neatly parcel up their faeces in scandal bags each week, are making their contribution to Lenten sacrifices. But I must confess that as a hardened unbeliever, I feel that a good deal more of hell fire, and bolts of lightning would be a better way of dealing with repentance. However, who am I to start laying down the law?

End Piece

I was very pleased to read that the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament had confirmed that Derick Latibeaudiere will be required to repay salary paid to him in lieu of leave amounting to $900,000.

I note that attorney Michael Hylton Q.C. has argued that Mr. Latibeaudiere is entitled to keep the money. Well, I suppose that the job of all good lawyers is to defend the indefensible.