Garwin Davis, Staff Reporter 
Melville
MEMBER OF Parliament for North East St. Ann, Danny Melville, who was reported to have changed his mind about leaving representational politics, has said definitively that he will not be seeking re-election at the end of his current tenure.
Mr. Melville had indicated to his constituency late last year, that he would be resigning as MP effective January 2000 as he had become disillusioned with representational politics.
He went public with his intentions at the None Such Horse-of the-Year Awards at the Le Meridian Pegasus Hotel, earlier this year, where as guest speaker, he spoke about his disillusionment with politics and his need to do something else with his life.
However, after a recent meeting of the PNP's National Executive Council it was reported that Mr. Melville was having a change of heart and was on the verge of announcing this to his constituents. Comments by the party's general secretary, Senator Maxine Henry-Wilson, helped to fuel the speculation when, on a radio programme earlier this month, she said the PNP was trying to convince Mr. Melville to remain in politics on a representational level and was optimistic that he would agree to do so.
Mr. Melville, however, put to rest all the speculations last week when he told the executives of his constituency that they should begin their search for a replacement as he would not be seeking a second term.
In a telephone conversation with The Gleaner, he confirmed the report and said he "was more certain than ever that it was time for me to go". "It is only right that I make my intentions known early so that the party will have sufficient time to find a replacement," Mr. Melville said. "Maybe 20 years ago I could have stuck it out but there are presently other interests I would like to pursue."
Mr. Melville noted that too often the government is seen as what he called "the Almighty provider and a latter day version of a monarch who owes his subjects everything and rules them with an iron hand.
"The great provider is there to be blamed for every ill, even for the things that we should be correcting ourselves,' Mr. Melville said.
He added that too often the MP for an area was simply targeted as the "corner don" who must provide hand-outs, a belief Mr. Melville described as counter-productive.
"As MP for North East St. Ann, I feel it is my duty to mobilise every initiative and resource necessary to help us power the engine of tourism that must drive our economy and our progress," he continued. "But it is not my job to answer every individual need that arises. It is not my job to ensure that people behave in a civil and mannerly way towards one another and our visitors."
He added: "it is obvious that I have failed to be what constituents traditionally expect a Member of Parliament to be. Further, I have failed to cope with a system of representational politics that I had considered capable of delivering opportunity to all but which I now realise involves more ingrained and stubborn complexities and obstacles than I ever imagined. For this failure and any others I may have neglected to mention, I want to offer my constituents my most sincere, humble and reserved apology."
According to PNP sources, Councillor for the Ocho Rios division, Carol Jackson, is most likely to be Mr. Melville's replacement.
