THE SWEEPING of the Local Government polls by the JLP has created the situation where all but one Parish Council is controlled by that party while Central Government is in the hands of the PNP. Tensions are to be expected, considering the dominance of Central Government over a weak and dependent Local Government.
Mayor of Montego Bay, Noel Donaldson, is accusing senior PNP political functionaries in St. James of attempting to undermine the work of the Council. In a written release, not an off-the-cuff speech in the heat of the moment, which hopefully would have been the result of careful thought and calculation, the Mayor has accused the political functionaries of bringing pressure to bear on the Council to provide benefits to them without proper procedure and with little or no returns to the coffers of the Council.
In a specific instance, Mayor Donaldson said Providence Beach, the Parish Council's prime beach property, has become "a target of senior political hacks" seeking to obtain a lease on the property without the process of public tender and who have sought the intervention of senior government officials on their behalf. A number of other Parish Council properties have already been leased to well-known political persons at pepper corn rates, the Mayor says he has discovered since taking office.
After the euphoria of election victory and elevation to the office of Mayor, Noel Donaldson is waking up to the harsh realities of Jamaican politics on the inside. We have keen interest in monitoring the progress of his declaration that "the Council will not cower to undue political pressure."
Mayor Donaldson is blowing the whistle on widely established patterns of corruption in political administration. We cannot at this point vouchsafe the accuracy of his specific charges. Derrick Kellier, Chairman of Region VI of the PNP, which includes St. James, is pleading ignorance. But the problem is sufficiently widespread and entrenched to lend credence to the mayoral release.
The Mayor will soon discover, if he has not already done so, that the political pressure from his side for special favours and scarce benefits from assets held in trust for all the people will be more intense and unrelenting. His principled protest against "undue political pressure" suggests that the voice of Local Government need not remain weak and dependent but should reflect the current realities, harsh and otherwise.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
