THE DECISION LANDMARKS
published: Friday | January 31, 2003
The following are some of the major decisions and announcements by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and his governing People's National Party (PNP) since winning the October 2002 General Election.
October 25: Appoints 17-member Cabinet, naming Aloun Assamba as
the new Minister of Industry and Tourism. She was the only newcomer to the
Cabinet which saw the return of Maxine Henry-Wilson who was given the education
portfolio. Dr. Paul Robertson, former Foreign Affairs Minister, also made
a return to the executive. A new Ministry of Development was created to facilitate
him, who, like Mrs. Henry-Wilson, had quit his Cabinet post a year earlier
to concentrate on campaigning for the general election.
November 1: First Vale Royal Summit with the Opposition Jamaica
Labour Party (JLP) to discuss matters of national importance. Constitutional
reform topped the agenda.
December 1: New anti-crime plan unveiled, 11 months after an earlier
initiative had failed to contain a spiralling crime wave which left more than
1,000 Jamaicans dead last year. The new effort involves the long-term deployment
of the security forces in certain volatile inner-city communities where gangs
and illegal weapons are supposedly the main targets.
December 5: Second Vale Royal Summit with Parliamentary Opposition.
The discussions centred on the development of the housing stock. The setting
up of a special fund to facilitate the process was mooted.
December 9: Attorney-General A.J. Nicholson announced that the Cabinet
had instructed the Chief Parliamentary Counsel to prepare legislation related
to the resumption of hanging. Such legislation would make it possible to bypass
recent rulings of the UK-based Privy Council which, the Government claimed,
had prevented the death penalty from being carried out. Entrenched sections
of the Constitution will have to be amended with support from the Opposition.
December 10: Prime Minister Patterson piloted a Bill to amend the
Defence Act. The move was aimed at giving police powers to soldiers, thus
allowing members of the military to search, detain and apprehend, regardless
of whether a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force is present. The matter
is now before a special parliamentary committee after it was shot down by
the Opposition. Human rights groups have also objected the move.
December 17: Government's macroeconomic targets announced as being
off track. Dr. Omar Davies, Finance and Planning Minister, made the admission
while addressing a sitting of Parliament's Standing Finance Committee. "We
are going in the wrong direction (in terms of debt reduction)," he admitted,
while being questioned by the Opposition.
December 17: A round of new taxes aimed at raising $205 million in
revenues to help finance the $13.5 billion increase in the Supplementary Estimates
was announced by Dr. Davies.
November 18: It was reported that Anthony Hylton, former Minister
of Mining and Energy and Foreign Trade, was made an Ambassador for International
Trade and Special Envoy in the Office of the Prime Minister. Hylton, who lost
his St. Thomas Western seat in the October election, was one of three losing
ministers. The others are Arnold Bertram, who held the Local Government portfolio,
and Colin Campbell, who served as Minister of Information.
December 30: Reports surfaced that Arnold Bertram had been taken
on as consultant and special adviser to Water and Housing Minister, Donald
Buchanan. The former Member of Parliament for St. Ann North West was beaten
by the JLP's Verna Parchment, a nurse who is a virtual newcomer to representational
politics.
