PUBLIC SERVANT. Accountant. Baker. Teacher. Consultant. Director of Elections Danville Walker is a man who believes in results. He is what you might call A Man Who Gets Things Done.
Today, you are being honoured for the incredible effort you exerted to ensure that the historic October 16, 2002 general election, over which you presided as the elections boss, went down as the cleanest in the country's history. Today, we are in your debt. Your tough-talking rhetoric and constancy to purpose helped to nix the demons of our political past, putting an end to a charmless history of widespread stuffing of ballot boxes, voter intimidation and political violence.
We applaud you for your integrity, blunt honesty, and your academic brilliance. You were the midwife who coaxed an idea whose time has come from conception to its birth from womb. And for this, we remain forever in your debt.
We commend your work as a resolute and uncompromising Director of Elections who does not settle for second best. To the public, you are known as a tough-talking director who trumpeted the 'free and fair elections' mantra until it rang in our ears. In a country often rocked by allegations of influence-peddling and corruption, you have remained as stoical as the eagle, a proud solitary figure above the mad fray. You have never been intimidated by politicians or over-awed by their position. In your words, they are merely "Jamaicans offering themselves for service". And for that, we salute you.
We commend your no-nonsense attitude, and for being a stickler for perfection. Your colleagues know you as a man who makes 'no bones' about performance, and the hundreds of persons you have hired and summarily fired during your tenure will attest to that.
We salute you for your academic record. Your commitment to discipline has its beginnings in your involvement in the cadet service during your high school years at Excelsior High, Kingston. You first visited the United States after fifth form in 1976, came back after one year and attended lower sixth form. The only son, after high school, you spent four years working in your father's bakery. You would then spend the next dozen years of your life living and working in the United States.
Having graduated from City University of New York where you did Public Accountancy, becoming a certified accountant, you then went to work for Coopers and Lybrand. There-after, you dabbled in the world of teaching when the state had a difficulty finding minority lecturers at the school of business. Even then, you were a bear for public service.
Thereafter, you started your own business in New York, a tax practice which did fairly well, and did consulting work until the time of your return to Jamaica in 1994. And the rest, as they say, is history.
You took the job of Director, six months before the 1997 election conscious that it was a difficult undertaking as there was no voters' list and the previous Director, Major Winston Sutherland, had demitted office in a cloud of controversy.
We salute you for your fearless leadership, even in difficult times when you were buffeted by criticisms from the media and harangued from political platforms after an ignominous 1997 election where there were several irregularities.
You would dedicate the next four years to getting it right the next time and this you accomplished with flying colours. Among your aces this time around was the recruitment of 20,000 volunteers, dubbed election day workers, who effectively replaced political activists. From all reports, the volunteers performed creditably.
Despite the kudos being heaped on you for a well-run election, you remain true to the belief that there remains tremendous room for improvement in the system. You have already begun to gird your loins for battle in the upcoming Local Government Election. Your contract expires in May, and whatever you decide to do, know this, we salute you, sir.
Jamaica salutes you, and the exemplary service you have provided in the past five years has left an indelible mark in the history of this country.
For these reasons, we present you with pleasure, the 2002 Gleaner Honour Award of Excellence.
