By Vernon Daley, Staff Reporter
UNIVERSITY LECTURER, Professor Trevor Munroe, who was an Independent Senator in
the last Parliament, is to reverse roles and serve as a Government Senator when
the legislature reconvenes.
According to Gleaner sources, Professor Munroe, 57, has accepted an offer from Prime Minister P.J. Patterson for him to serve on the Government benches.
"Mr. Patterson offered him the appointment over the weekend and he decided to take it up," a senior People's National Party (PNP) source told The Gleaner yesterday.
Another PNP source said the University of the West Indies lecturer would have to take up membership in the party to serve on the Government side. "If you are a Senator of the Government you automatically become a National Executive Council (NEC) member. Our party constitution allows for that," explained the source. The NEC of the party is the highest decision-making body outside its national conference.
Professor Munroe, along with businessman Douglas Orane, were named to the Senate in 1997 after the PNP secured a landslide victory over the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
It was not clear whether the Prime Minister had made a similar offer to Mr. Orane, the Grace, Kennedy and Company CEO. He was off the island yesterday and could not be reached for a comment.
Last week, Mr. Patterson disclosed that he would not name Independent Senators to serve in the Upper House, following his party's marginal victory in the recent election where it picked up 34 seats compared to the JLP's 26.
Instead, the Prime Minister said among his nominees for the Senate would be persons who were not necessarily members of his administration but who would be sympathetic to the Government.
"There will be some inclusion of persons who are not regarded as members of the Government or party but who one would expect to be supportive, certainly in terms of the voting position of the Government, and ensure that we can have a majority in both Houses," the Prime Minister told Gleaner reporters at Jamaica House last week.
Both Munroe and Orane have been received praises from various quarters of the society, including the Prime Minister, for their performance as Independents in the Senate over the last five years.
Professor Munroe, who was the more active of the two, initiated several major debates in the Senate. For example, he was responsible for bringing a resolution to the Upper House calling for the establishment of the Ganja Commission. The Commission, which was set up last year, recommended the decriminalisation of marijuana for personal, private use.
He also got the Senate to support a resolution for a commission to study the issue of state financing for political parties.
Professor Munroe, who is also President of the University and Allied Workers
Union (UAWU), is a longtime social activist. He has dabbled in party politics
as founder and leader of the now defunct communist Workers Party of Jamaica
(1978-1990) and was widely known for his radical, left-wing ideas during the
1970s.
Throughout the 1990s, Professor Munroe transformed himself, taking on a more moderate voice, focusing on critical governance issues such as corruption in the public and private sectors and the impact of the drug trade on national security.
