Intentional distraction
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 08, 2025
Nostalgia led me to the People’s National Movement Manifesto of 1991, the year it defeated the National Alliance for Reconstruction. The PNM returned to government in 1991 but lost power to the United National Congress in 1995. A year later, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow challenged Patrick Manning’s leadership and lost. His rise to national prominence began at that point. The Leader will leave the political scene in a few weeks but will retain his influence on his protégé, Stuart Young.
PNM’s 1991 manifesto read: "During the last five years, our beloved country experienced the trauma of an unprecedented degree of Government insensitivity and incompetence. The result has been the virtual collapse of many of our support systems, the devastation of thousands of lives and the marginalisation and pauperisation of the majority of the population." The UNC should incorporate these words into its 2025 manifesto.
Recently, Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher was arrested for an alleged crime for which Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard refused to order that she be charged. He instead ordered that she be released without charge. The PNM did a lot to advance her career after 2016.
On Wednesday an acting CoP was selected although Ms Harewood-Christopher retains the right to fight her suspension. Her lawyers challenged her suspension, saying "there was no evidence that our client may have committed the offence of misbehaviour in public office or any other office". (Express, February 5.)
The Leader said his Government had nothing to do with this bizarre incident. Yet it comes on the heels of the shameful performance of Douglas Mendes, who represented the Minister of Finance in the recent Privy Council case against the Auditor General, and who, as the British lords contended, was unable to land a "knockout blow" against the latter.
The CoP fiasco occurred when Jamaica was celebrating Petrojam’s capture of its US$90 million fuel deal with T&T. The Jamaica Observer announced triumphantly: "Petrojam Limited, Jamaica’s State-owned refinery, has resumed fuel exports to Trinidad and Tobago, securing a lucrative deal worth around US$90 million in 2025 as the Caribbean nation seeks to expand its energy exports." (February 2.)
Telroy Morgan, general manager of Petrojam Ltd, declared: "What is the ground-breaking aspect of this is the volume, the frequency, and certainly, the sort of revenue and foreign exchange income to the company and Jamaica."
Daryl Vaz, Jamaica’s Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunication and Transport, added: "This is a moment all of us should be proud of. Once again Jamaica has secured greater competitive advantage in the global economy by ideally positioning itself as a regional leader when it comes to non-traditional exports."
Young, co-chairman of the Government Empowered Negotiating Team for Energy before he became Energy Minister in 2021, is proud of his fuel deal with Jamaica. He described those who objected to it as "naysayers" and "mischief makers". He postulated that this deal would foster better "bilateral relations with Jamaica". No one ever makes such a deal to foster better "bilateral relations".
When his government closed Petrotrin in 2018, the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) warned the Government of the devastating effects it would have on our domestic situation and that T&T faced the possibility of losing our leadership position in the region’s energy system. The Government refused to listen.
Today Jamaica is rejoicing. Morgan says: "Petrojam’s export deal with Trinidad and Tobago is a notable irony, given Jamaica’s status as a non-oil-producing nation...Despite the presence of Trinidad and Tobago’s Pitch Lake, a major source of asphalt, Petrojam is still able to export bitumen to Trinidad and Tobago."
OWTU’s chief education and research officer, Ozzi Warwick, sums up the union’s response to our predicament: "The refinery that we operated for over 100 years to ensure our energy independence is now closed. The government abandoned our energy sovereignty when it closed the refinery. As a result, it has returned us to the old colonial structure where we export our natural resources to import refined products."
OWTU president Ancel Roget predicted that "very soon we will be importing fuel from Jamaica. We’ve become the laughing stock of the Caribbean". Miss Lou (Louise Bennett), late Jamaican folklorist, might be saying laughingly: "Jamaica people colonisin’/ [Trinidad] in Reverse./...An turn history upside dung!"
Each day the Government’s weaknesses become more obvious. Therefore, it welcomes any distraction that takes our gaze away from its woefully inept performances.
Now we face the prospect of a political neophyte whose pretensions are larger than his abilities leading us to darker times. He should listen to the "naysayers" and "mischief makers" whose critiques might save the Government from itself.
It will be interesting to see how Young navigates his political inheritance.
—Prof Cudjoe's e-mail address is scudjoe@wellesley.edu. He can be reached @ProfessorCudjoe.
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