The newly-formed lobby group, Jamaicans for Action, may not be a political party, but 17 committee members were recently named and given portfolio responsibility for issues on which the grouping will focus.

“This is the team that has committed themselves to make a sacrifice on behalf of the country,” declared JFA convenor, Hyacinth Bennett, as she presented the members last week.

“They, like myself, understand that Jamaica is going through an extraordinarily challenging time; but trust me, these ladies and gentlemen are extraordinary people,” she added.

Those named as spokespersons for the lobby group include:

. journalist and political commentator, Lloyd B Smith, who will have the responsibility of speaking on tourism and consumer-related issues;

. psychiatrist Dr Wendell Abel – health/community issues;

. former senator, Barry Wharman – economics, housing, accountability and corruption issues;

. attorney Huntley Martin – national security and justice;

. Queen’s Council Frank Phipps – constitutional/legal and legislative issues;

. school principal Jacqueline Waite – transportation and road safety issues;

. Bishop C Everton Thomas – issues of ethics and morality; while

. Bennett will speak on the topics of human resource development, gender, culture, sports and foreign affairs.

Bennett, a former National Democratic Movement president, launched Jamaicans for Action earlier this month. The grouping, she said then, would address a raft of the island’s social and economic problems, including crime and violence and the deficiencies in the educational system.

Last Thursday, she noted that since the group’s launch, the interest in and support for the organisation have been overwhelming.

According to Bennett, the group would function essentially on three fronts – public education, establishing and operating projects and “speaking out where necessary”.

She later told the Observer the JFA would soon embark on a “huge” membership drive, and added that the group was in the process of setting up a committee to raise funds for the organisation.

There were also plans, Bennett said, to have a number of islandwide parish meetings to deliver the “message” of JFA.

Meanwhile, Smith, the JFA spokesman on tourism said he would be advocating for more of the tourism ministry’s budget to be spent in the resort areas.

“One of the main issues I will be dealing with, is to be a part of a serious lobby to get more of the tourism dollars to be spent in the resort areas of Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Negril,” he told the Observer.

“I think it is a crying shame that we continue to talk that out tourism is booming, yet when we drive through the resort areas, they look like dumps.”