Dionne Rose, Parliamentary Reporter

Bruce Golding (left), Leader of the Opposition, and Colonel Trevor MacMillan, former commissioner of police, examine the report put together by the Special Task Force on Crime (STFC), at a press conference held recently at the Jamaica Pegasus, New Kingston. The STFC, headed by Col. MacMillan, was convened by Mr. Golding last December. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Opposition Leader Bruce Golding will appoint former Com-missioner of Police, Colonel Trevor MacMillan, to the Senate seat recently vacated by Norman Horne, well-placed sources said last night.

Golding himself was coy on the issue, saying that he had not yet advised Governor-General Professor Kenneth Hall of his decision and declined to confirm or deny whether MacMillan was the man.

When pressed on the issue, he said: "I will not comment at this time."

In a telephone interview from Miami, Florida, MacMillan was similarly elusive on whether he was invited to take the seat.

"Ask the person who is making that decision," he told The Gleaner.

The Senate is the Upper Chamber of the Jamaican legislature with 21 unelected members, 13 of whom are appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Prime Minister and eight by the Leader of the Opposition.

Revoking appointments

The Constitution, however, is silent on whether appointments can be revoked, an issue that came to the fore recently when Horne, appointed by Golding's predecessor, Edward Seaga, resigned from the JLP a year ago but refused to give up his seat.

He recently relented in the face of Opposition threats to take the issue to court and public question about the morality of his retention of the seat after he joined the ruling People's National Party (PNP).

It was not clear whether MacMillan, if Golding goes through with his plan, will sit in the House as an 'independent', an image he has sought to cultivate in Jamaican public life, or as clear appointee of the JLP, carrying the party's mandate.

Although the former Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) officer served for three years as police chief, between 1993 and 1996, under the present Government, his bitter departure from the post and his frequent criticism of administration policy have cast him in the view of government sympathisers as anti-PNP.

That view was reinforced in Government circles when MacMillan was last December appointed by Golding to head a Task Force on Crime, on which also sat a number of independent-minded professionals.