AMONG THE more startling revelations which came to light during the sittings of the Standing Finance Committee on the Estimates of Expenditure were the presence of a sports complex under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and assistance from the host Chinese Government in building a Jamaican embassy in Beijing.
As we reported, the sports complex is to be built at a cost of $248 million at Sligoville in the North-East St. Catherine constituency of former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, K.D. Knight. The only link between the sports/community development project and this ministry is the MP who was the minister.
The present Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Senator Anthony Hylton told the Standing Finance Committee that the former Minister K. D. Knight had negotiated the project with the Chinese Government. In exchange for what was not made clear.
Mr. Golding's motion that the budget line for the project be moved to the Office of the Prime Minister which now has responsibility for sports was roundly defeated by the Government majority voting under their party Whip.
Technically, there may have been no breach of law in this odd arrangement. But a willingness to gerrymander the rules to accommodate personal political interest is clearly evident.
'Gerrymander' was coined in 1812 in the United States, combining the name of Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry with salamander. To their own electoral advantage, Gerry's party while in power 'legally' created electoral districts with the contortions of a salamander. We are forced to agree with Mr. Golding that Sligoville sports complex under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade is a "corruption of the budget process" no matter how technically legal it may be and how many votes in Parliament have endorsed it.
Still in the hot seat, Minister Hylton was forced into a lame defence of the Government of Jamaica accepting funding assistance from the Government of China for the construction of an embassy in Beijing. In response to the charge of the Opposition that the arrangement stood to compromise the sovereign independent action of the Jamaican state if a decision had to be made against those 'who are paying the rent', the minister stoutly claimed that there was nothing wrong with the arrangement.
An embassy is, in fact, a piece of the owner country transplanted into the host country and should retain all of the independence of the owner country. We can hardly criticise the need for a Jamaican embassy in China which is a major economic player rapidly growing into a world power and with whom we are doing growing business. But the probing Opposition is right: We compromise our independent stance when the host government has to help finance our presence there.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
