ON Wednesday June 13, former minister of national security and justice, and foreign affairs and foreign trade, K D Knight, made his farewell speech in the House of Representatives reminding his constituents that, “all good things must come to an end”.

“I hope that they feel that the confidence that they reposed in me, that I too have performed in a manner which has caused them to believe that there was a genuine attempt to meet their needs, to satisfy their demands and to do what is required of a representative,” Knight said.

Interestingly, he also thanked the media:

“Generally speaking, I thank the media for how they assisted me in carrying out my responsibilities in the ministries in which I had worked.”

He also confessed that he is a deeply religious man:

“I don’t wear my religion on my sleeves. I don’t even want to say that that I am a deeply religious person, though I am. But, what I do say is that, there were occasions along the way when had it not been for my deep and abiding belief and faith and my undying love for my Lord, I would never have made it. Because some days were dark and lonely,” he said.

“There were times that I had wished that the night could be longer, so that I would not have to be out there in the hustle and bustle. But, the Lord gave me the strength to face the world, to face the issues, to face the challenges, to be calm, not to panic and then to be able to find a way to provide solutions to difficulties, so I thank God,” he added.

Turning to the question of laws he felt proudest for piloting through the House, Knight listed:

. The Corruption Prevention Act.

He said that he was happy to have been given the job of piloting that piece of legislation.

“An Opposition Party is given always, it seems, to point fingers at the governing party to say that it is corrupt. And should the governing party become the Opposition, it too then begins to point fingers at the now governing party and say it is corrupt. We can’t pursue national development in that way. It can’t be that we keep on tearing down those who are the leaders within the society,” Knight said.

He said that some institutions needed to be made to be “like “Caesar, beyond reproach”. He gave as examples, the judiciary, the police and political leaders.

“We can proudly say corruption is not affecting the behaviour of our judges,” he commented.

He said that corrupt police could not deal with crime, and therefore the country had to aim at “cleansing” the force.

.The Police Public Complaints Authority Act to deal with complaints by citizens against police.

He said that when it started, he had to go to every police division to sell them the idea.

“This was opening a door to a moving away from a monopolistic situation which existed within the police force,” he said.

.The constitutional amendment making it the right of a woman to pass on citizenship to her child.

. The Bail Act.

He said that in developing the Bail Act, consultations were held with 27 pastors and ministers of religion and that they met monthly.

.The Criminal Justice Reform Act which created sentencing options allowing persons to be able to receive sentences that were appropriate to the offence, and not be restricted to a choice between a fine and/ or imprisonment.

He said that the five bills were foundations that can be built on for the good of society.

Turning to his latter ministries of foreign affairs and foreign trade, Knight said his two most important areas of achievement were in terms of Haiti and Iraq.

He commended former Prime Minister P J Patterson for leading Caricom to a “clear” position on Haiti.

“Jamaica was a leader in putting Caricom’s position forward. We stood our ground,” he said.

On Iraq, he said that Jamaica, again, took a principled position that the world should not deviate from the multilateral process with the United Nations at centre.

However, Knight warned against the practice of making allocations in the annual budget, and reducing those allocations as the fiscal year wears on.

He suggested that there should be little deviation from what is announced.

“You go ahead and plan within the allocation. Three months after, you hear it is going to be revised downward. Then you just keep on hearing reduce this, reduce that. It militates against proper planning. Something has to be done to make it more realistic. There must be little deviation from April 1 to March 31. If there is a huge deviation, everything goes haywire,” he said.

Finally, on crime, Knight was saddened by the lack of unity between the Opposition and the Government on crime proposals.

“Immediately a plan is put forward you almost have 50 per cent for and 50 per cent against. Yet you want a united society to deal with crime,” he argued.

“It is not going to happen, because there are some people who are going to say that the Opposition spokesman is right. The others are going to say the minister is right, and they are not going to say it on the basis of an analysis of what is being said, but because of the mouth or the side from which it comes,” he said.

He suggested that a single crime plan be brought to Parliament, with support from both sides, and that, in the debate, only the prime minister, the leader of the Opposition, the minister of national security and the Opposition spokesman be allowed to participate.

“So we would have one plan proposed by the Parliament of the country to the people of Jamaica,” he said.