The public is likely to be glad to know of the existence of Mr. Patrick Wong and that he has been brought to life by Mr. Desmond McKenzie, the chairman of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) and mayor of the capital. For until Mr. McKenzie's speech on Wednesday to the Rotary Club of downtown Kingston, we would have assumed that the Kingston City Centre Improvement Company (KCCIC) was comatose and perhaps dead.

Now that they have been stirred and Mr. Wong has denied that money earmarked for the improvement of downtown Kingston in time for next year's Cricket World Cup has been diverted, we expect to see action soon. But we are not particularly hopeful, except, perhaps, for some hurried cosmetics near the time for the tournament. Yes, we know that Mayor McKenzie is quick at the lip and that his draw is often ahead of all the facts. But Mr. McKenzie operates largely on the assumption that where there is smoke, there is usually fire. So even when he does not have all the nuances right, when he speaks he is usually on to something.

Moreover, we have learned not to trust the word of this administration too readily. It often pronounces with chest-bellowing volumes and executes in whimpering whines. Indeed, we recall nearly three years ago the harrumping declaration of the former Prime Minister, Mr. P. J. Patterson about the plans for the rehabilitation of downtown Kingston. After the embarrassing still-born promises that had gone before, international cricket would provide a new impetus for renewal. St. William Grant was to have been refurbished. It should have been completed already. It remains untouched. Rank in odour. The home of derelicts.

But, as an aside, it should not have needed international cricket, and the prospect of foreign visitors to Jamaica for us to want to do something about the downtown park, named in honour of an early labour leader. Not by a Government that believes it has, and likes to flaunt, its supposed nationalist credentials.

The fact, though, is that St. William Grant Park has fallen into decrepitude since it was last refurbished in the 1980s under the Seaga administration. Nothing has happened since Mr Patterson's grand announcement. In that there is congruence between that park and the neglect of Race Course, National Heroes Park, National Heroes Circle, or whatever it is called - the place where we claim to honour heroes.

Nothing has happened either with the construction of the new bus park downtown Kingston. There has been some dabbling on Harbour Street, but not the upgrading to flow into the Michael Manley Boulevard as was promised by Patterson. These plans, perhaps, remain somewhere in the Urban Development Corporation.

It is likely that the Government will argue that it has not proceeded because private sector partners in KCCIC are yet to come up with their matching funds. But Mr. Wong says that the money is in place. So maybe it is just too far from the World Cup, in half a year's time, to get started.

But why should we be surprised when this administration lags? We know it is not good at concentrated effort, except haranguing people at election time.