Devon DickYESTERDAY, QUEEN Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived in Jamaica as part of Her Majesty's Golden Jubilee celebrations of her reign as Queen of Jamaica and while they are staying at King's House the opportunity ought to be used by the Governor-General and his wife to account to her of our stewardship of this island. The truth is that her viceroy, the Governor-General, will have to tell her that we have been operating with pride and sleaze.
Sir Howard will tell Her Majesty with pride that we have come this far by faith from the days of Crown Colony in 1866 when political control was in the hand of the Governor to political Independence in 1962. Sir Howard will go down memory lane, a talk about the granting of the new Constitution in 1944, when the natives had universal suffrage whereby each adult had the right to vote irrespective of gender, race or financial status, which was a step towards Independence in 1962. He will speak with pride that Jamaica accomplished this feat before the USA did and that the new Constitution allowed for an elected majority in the legislature who were answerable to the nominated Executive Council while Jamaica was answerable to the Colonial Office.
He should remind her that in the first year after her reign, there was a revised Constitution so that Ministers of government had the responsibility to carry out the decisions of the elected legislature with further progress in 1957, when an elected Cabinet, which was presided over by the Chief Minister, replaced the nominated Executive Council and in the following year, Jamaica gained more authority being accountable for all internal affairs while matters relating to defence and international affairs were reserved for her.
Then Sir Howard Felix will jump to his feet and stand at attention and recount midnight August 5, 1962 when in a moving ceremony at the newly built National Stadium, there was the lowering of the Union Jack flag of Great Britain and the hoisting of the black, green and gold flag of Jamaica and with that symbolic act political power was transferred from England to the whole society. Yes, that was a proud moment.
Then the sovereign lady will ask about things since then, and she will be told with all pomp and pride of the accomplishments in education, sports, economic empowerment and political enfranchisement. Then she will ask what is this Operation PRIDE that has international recognition and with face fallen, sagging shoulders and shame in the eyes, the former Cabinet Minister, Sir Howard Cooke, will say that it is a programme of noble ideals to resettle the 600,000 squatters in Jamaica and also to make lands available to persons who would not normally be able to afford conventional housing solutions. In this scheme, beneficiaries would be allocated planned land space and would pay the government for the undeveloped lot, pay for infrastructure work over a number of years and also provide 'sweat equity' and receive titles after receipt of final payment for the land. This was to be community planning, implementation at its best for a basic need of humans.
After which in a handing over ceremony, the Governor-General will present Queen Elizabeth II with a copy of the excellent IDB document, Low-Income Settlement Policy Design and Development Project (1997) which was formulated under the chairmanship of then senior adviser to the Prime Minister, Mrs. Jacqueline DaCosta, now Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Land, and also the document produced in 2000 called Revised PRIDE Implementation Model.
In a short address she will be told that Operation PRIDE was placed under the management of National Housing Development Corporation so as to improve its operations, an audit was done on the Provident Societies in order to access the procedures and management capabilities, 17 PRIDE projects were selected as priority, some projects were deemed unviable, a worker who was found to be wanting in terms of management was relieved of his duties and the operations of the provident societies changed re disbursement of funds.
You see, Madam Queen, all that needs to be done is known already and it is shameful that after recommendations for improving the programme that these problems are still happening. In fact, if a Board comprising Michael Vaccianna a lawyer, Rev. Wellesley Blair and NHT managing director Earl Samuels, among others, do not know about a simple thing as natural justice in dismissing a worker then they should resign. The Munro Board resigned when the Minister pointed out a procedural error and this Board should go if it couldn't get natural justice right or monitor the project.
But it seems, however, that there was natural justice because it is claimed that one worker admitted to negligence in not visiting the site so there had to be a hearing. Why did the Minister's intervention lead to that worker's dismissal being overturned?
In response the monarch will say to her subjects, 'we have a similar problem in Britain'. In Britain, 63 per cent of the people dubbed the Conservative government sleazy in a poll carried out in April 1997, weeks before the Conservatives suffered a landslide defeat. And in a recent poll, the Tony Blair government, which campaigned under the banner that they were going to be whiter than snow and the party that replaced the Conservatives was seen as sleazy by 60 per cent of the population.
Then they all sighed, cried and said, 'we are living in a world operating with pride and sleaze'!
Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church.
