Perkins
The following are excerpts from the transcript of talk show host Wilmot 'Motty' Perkins' session live on Go Jamaica on June 5.
Q: Who do you think should win the elections?
A: Whomever the Jamaican people want to win the elections.
Q. Motty, when are we going to get an opportunity to listen to your programme over the Internet?
A: Possibly quite soon.
Q: What do you think of the Denham Town and JLP scandal?
A: I am not sure what the scandal is. I read the story carefully and I could not find the scandal in it. They spent $77 million building 1183 housing units, unit cost of $65,000 at today's prices bearing in mind that the Jamaican dollar is today worth roughly one tenth of what it was worth in 1998. $650,000 per unit which does not seem to me scandalous.
Q: I have been away from Jamaica for 10 years but am very interested in the politics of my country. Do you think Antonnette Haughton's party can bring a much needed reform to Jamaican politics.
A: Perhaps a reform of comedy.
Q: Do you believe that this Government is interested in equal rights and justice?
A: I don't see the evidence of it. I get the impression that the Prime Minister, for example, was far more concerned about the police mishandling tourists' luggage in Port Antonio than he was about the brutal murder by the security elements of the security forces of Michael Gayle, a mentally challenged person or the scenes shown on TVJ of Superintendent R. Adams and his men holding high-powered rifles at arms length above their heads and emptying the magazines indiscriminately without aim into an area populated by Jamaican citizens.
Q: Why do you choose to remain on the outskirts of the political arena instead of rolling up your sleeves up and getting in?
A: There is a job for a journalist and a job for a shoemaker, a teacher, a doctor and a politician. I am not a politician.
Q:What strategies would you recommend to bring the Jamaican economy back in line?
A: That is a question requiring a long answer, but essentially try to make Jamaica into a place that is hospitable to investment, among other things, by cultivating a strong work ethic and as far as possible reducing the exorbitant costs of Government by drastically reducing if not altogether eliminating corruption.
Q: Do you think it's possible for us to achieve a kinder, gentler society that the Prime Minister speaks about. Do you remember asking Mr. McMillan if he thinks he could walk on water when he took over the command of the police force?
A: To achieve the kinder, gentler society we would have to begin recognising that the primary purpose of Government is to secure the rights of its citizens, the right to life, to liberty and to the pursuit of happiness. That is where we begin and we are far from recognising it in Jamaica today.
Q: How long have you been in the talk show business. Do you have any other plans e.g. politics?
A: I have been in the talk show business on and off since the late 1960s and I think it a little late to be contemplating a career in politics.
Q: Now that NetServ is back, so says the Minister, was the scandal talk justified?
A: Yes, I think so, I think it was. But I also think that Mr. Paulwell, the Minister, was right when he said in Parliament that Jamaica is not a place that is friendly to investment and the reason why they got into the business of NetServ in the first place is related to that fact. If it was not so, if Jamaica was a place friendly to investment, they would not necessarily be putting up money for companies like NetServ.
Q: Do you think Bobby Pickersgill will be able to patch even half the roads as he promised, even if the flood rains did not come?
A: I do not think so, only unless the Government plans to abandon Jamaica's massive debt.
Q: Do you believe that the Prime Minister should declare a day of restoration?
A: Well it seems to me that restoration is going to require more than a day. But I don't see what harm can be done by it.
Q: When I heard you on the radio when I was in Jamaica I heard a lot of what is really going on in Jamaica compared to what I hear in the news. Do you think that the Government of Jamaica uses flood relief work and providing for the people as a way of campaigning for the upcoming general elections?
A: Well, the flood relief work has barely started, so I do not believe it is fair to say that at this time. But I suppose in the nature of politics they would hope to reap political benefits from whatever they are able to do.
Q: "Reform of comedy" can you elaborate?
A: I get the impression that the UPP is rather a comical group. One of the founders who resigned recently told us that God had commanded her to form the party, but has now told her to come out of it. Implying I supposed He has changed His mind.
Q: What is your perception of reforming Jamaica and do the parties that are there now have the resources to do so?
A: I take it that you mean intellectual resources. I think Jamaica suffers from a serious intellectual deficit arising because of the commitment of people who should be helping the society to think, to the tribalistic politics that the Prime Minister describe as "the fight for scarce benefits and political spoils that has contributed to polarise society in which we operate as hostile tribes that seem to be perpetually at war..." ---
Q: Do you believe that the country is still suffering from the IMF hold that was introduced so many years ago?
A: I don't know that the country ever suffered from an IMF hold, what Jamaica suffers from is mis-government. It was corrupted and incompetent government that created the problems of the 1970s and that similarly has created the problems of 1990s including the massive problem of debt, disinvestment and low productivity and deepening poverty.
Q: We've turned a blind eye to stuff; but do you believe the Jamaican people are the ones to be blame for the injustice and abuse of power carried out by the Government.
A: In a sense yes, because it is they who have permitted it.
