Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN on Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Karl Samuda, yesterday accused the Government of compromising the integrity of the country by entering into an agreement with the Chinese Government for it to fund some of the cost of the Jamaican mission in Beijing, China.
Mr. Samuda made the accusations after newly-appointed Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Senator Anthony Hylton, disclosed that not only was the Port Authority of Jamaica helping to finance that mission, but that the Chinese Government was also underwriting some of the expenses of the embassy.
DECIDING VOTES
"You are called upon from time to time in international forum to cast deciding votes, those that may be on very important issues," Samuda said.
"What will likely be your disposition in the event that you will have to cast a vote against those who are paying your rent. Don't you see the compromise there?" he asked.
But Senator Hylton said he didn't.
"You don't see it because you have no shame! You have no shame. As a sovereign state we are having handouts given to us by foreign governments," he said.
But Senator Hylton said there was nothing wrong with this arrangement.
"Nothing in the arrangement, that I am aware of, goes to the undermining or the integrity of our practices of foreign policy," the minister stated.
