GORDON "BUTCH" Stewart, chairman of the Sandals Group of hotels, yesterday lashed out at the "verandah talk" and "socialism-in-governance" tactics and policies of the present political administration.
"Socialism as a manner of governance does not work. I have not been able to find any Caribbean island run by the philosophy of socialism-in-governance that has resulted in prosperity," Mr. Stewart said, stating that former Prime Minister Michael Manley had admitted publicly that he had made a mistake in pursuing that path in the '70s.
Mr. Stewart was addressing a large gathering of Rotarians yesterday at their weekly meeting at the Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston.
"I can't believe in the year 2000 that we have gone back to crash programmes as an opportunity for people. No wonder the university graduates are not coming home," he said.
"The time has come to call on the political leaders, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Seaga, to come together, to put the country first, and politics last, second, third...it doesn't really matter," Mr. Stewart said, pointing to the escalating crime wave which has claimed 635 lives since the start of 2000.
"We need to start co-operating for the benefit of all the people to get rid of any crime associated with the political system we've created in the last 30 years."
This was the second time in a month that the tourism mogul had publicly chided the government's policies, and its seeming inability to fight crime.
Mr. Stewart urged all political leaders to "declare war on anything that is going to cause crime in a manner that is visible, clear and transparent.
"If they don't, they are heading for a downfall," he added.
He congratulated the press on its recent stance of highlighting the crime problem in a bid to put pressure on the political directorate to effect measures to curb crime. He said that for years, the tourism industry had attempted to cover up the problems the island faced.
"I have been guilty of the same, but the more you bury it, the more it comes up," he said.
"If you believe that the outside world doesn't know that Jamaica is violent ...," he said, "it is like the story of the boss having an affair with his secretary. They are the only two people who believe that the affair is a secret."
In his largely anecdotal address peppered with witticisms, he congratulated Prime Minister Patterson on his latest anti-crime initiative, calling Supt. Reneto Adams a "great crime-fighting officer".
"However, we don't want any more bandaids where when the crime jumps up, we assemble a little team, bring it down a bit, and then it jumps back up. We have the opportunity to deal with this problem, to implement long-term measures to address the root of the problem," he said.
Mr. Stewart said that on August 13, when he made his first speech of outrage at the spiralling crime and murder rates, the murder figure stood at 557 and that now it stood at 635.
He took a potshot at the government's handling of the country's affairs asking to laughter from the Rotarians: "How can you not have known and respected businessman in the Cabinet?
"Some lawyers feel that they are architects and businessmen...that's one of the reasons that for the last six years, we've had negative growth."
