Whoa! Where you rushing off to?

TAMARA SCOTT-WILLIAMS

Sunday, October 23, 2011

As of last Thursday night, we are still unsure if Bruce Golding will address the nation one final time before stepping down as prime minister in favour of Andrew Holness, who will be sworn in today as the ninth (and youngest) prime minister of Jamaica. Golding has said he "hoped to" speak to us one more time when he announced his intended resignation a few weeks ago, but we know how it go with Golding. Sometimes him change him mind.

I had hoped to hear him bare all, and tell the awful truth about politics. In advance of next year's celebrations of Jamaica's middle age — 50th year of Independence — he could have set a new tone in the political arena and assisted Holness in blazing a new path for Jamaica's future.

I had hope to hear his denouncement of corruption and cronyism and the truth of what ails us as a country — that there are very few politicians on either side that have the Jamaican people's best interest at heart. That we as a people have tremendous power to change the status quo if only we would step up to the plate.

The fact is that the leader of the party is only as good as the people he has around him. Should Andrew Holness succeed as prime minister of Jamaica, then he would do himself and the nation a great service by ridding the party of the jaded, the careless, and the ineffective, all of the people in his party that mean Jamaica no good. But this should not be a wholesale disenfranchisement of the old — for age ain't nothing but a number and there are some valuable 'oldies' in the lot who are tolerant and wise.

But why should Holness have to do all of that? A nice parting gift from Golding would have been for him to remove all of the deadwood and the dishonest from the party and the Government (at least before we see them being led away in handcuffs) and hand Holness a reasonably clean slate with which to start.

Yes, we know that timing was of the essence, but what was the big rush? If this move — the resignation of Golding and the handing over of the leadership of the party on a silver platter — was as strategically constructed as we are being led to believe, then perhaps Golding should have started earlier, taken it a step further and "come clean" before stepping down, jumping ship, changing drivers, engaging the master plan, whatever the current metaphor for his departure is.

Well, no such luck. Golding is walking away quietly.

But just when we thought Prime Minister Bruce Golding would be able to ride off into the sunset (or slink off into the shadows), we were reminded that there is a God; and if you don't believe in God, believe in the Office of the Contractor General — neither one of them sleeps on the job.

In the last few days, Contractor General Greg Christie said he would launch a probe into the sale by the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) of a property at 35 West Parade to Bashco Trading Company. Last Thursday, he recommended that the UDC terminate the sale agreement and advertise the property after learning that the tenant, businessman Michael Mahfood, who now occupies the building had made offers to buy the property but was refused. Bashco chairman Gassan Azan (a director of this newspaper) says he has placed the matter in the hands of his attorneys.

While we may not hear from Golding himself on the matter (the UDC is in the prime minister's portfolio), if the general manager of the Urban Development Corporation, Joy Douglas, is removed from her post, then we're sure to get a clear idea of how Azan and Mahfood have become entangled in such a messy affair.

Back in 2008, Douglas's suitability was questioned and brought to the attention of the then Prime Minister Golding, which he pointedly ignored. Since then, the UDC has been embroiled in a series of controversies under her stewardship. As recently as August of this year, her callous handling and issuing of a veiled threat to acquire the Nuttall Memorial Hospital lands owned by the Anglican Church propelled her into the negative spotlight. She has since backed down.

Within the last two weeks, the UDC has been forced to explain a series of controversial moves involving the privatisation of State assets under its jurisdiction. The Public Accounts and Appropriations Committee of Parliament raised concerns two weeks ago about the sale of a property in Negril without it being advertised.

Last week, former chairman of the Pegasus Hotel John Issa charged that the UDC did not get the best price when it sold its shares to Quiven Holdings and in fact may have lost one billion dollars in taxes due for government coffers and the people of Jamaica.

We're curious to hear how Douglas explains herself and her plans to remedy the damage done to the reputations of those business people who innocently and earnestly engage in business with the UDC.

And what of the board of the Urban Development Corporation? Perhaps the new prime minister should start his housecleaning campaign there. We've lost confidence in them.

scowicomm@gmail.com

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Whoa! Where you rushing off to?