WHEN Bruce Golding took the oath of office as prime minister on September 11, one year to the day today, Jamaica was still rain-drenched from Hurricane Dean.

The first anniversary of the administration has found Jamaica in a similar situation, courtesy of Tropical Storm Gustav and symbolic of the crises which would mark a year of mixed performance.

Opposition critics who, expectedly, mark hard, gave the administration a failing grade. But others thought it did well, arguing that it was unfair to match up one year of an administration against the 18 years of the previous People’s National Party (PNP).

“They have been beset by a great number of difficulties, not least of which is the recent storm, so I don’t think it’s fair as yet to judge them. They haven’t been in office long enough,” said anthropologist George Aarons, a lecturer at the Caribbean School of Architecture at the University of Technology (UTech) in Kingston.

Aarons believed the party had maintained its equilibrium despite the difficulties faced, and that while a number of the promises on which the party campaigned were yet to be fulfilled, it had managed to deliver on others.

“I think given the state of the economy and the current world economic order and the international food crisis and the effects of global warming, I would say they have done a fair job,” he told the Observer.

UTech’s Dr Horace Williams, a lecturer in the School of Business Administration, also gave the government a “passing grade for effort”, but said that it had fallen victim to its own short-sightedness and had been overly ‘optimistic’ in promises to reduce crime, achieve single digit inflation, low interest rates and create ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’.

“They came into office at a time when oil, commodity and food prices were moving up. One would have expected that they would have looked at that situation and realised that they could not have been as optimistic as they were. Their promises, especially through their manifesto was a little

too optimistic. But overall, I would give them a passing grade for their efforts so far,” Williams said.

He pointed out Cabinet ministers like Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, Transport and Works Minister ‘Mike’ Henry and Finance Minister Audley Shaw who “appeared to have done their homework and hit the ground running”.

“I am a little disappointed in terms of Mr Clive Mullings (Energy Minister) who appeared to have been a shining star especially while they were in Opposition but nothing much seems to have been happening in the area of energy,” he said.

Williams listed the feathers in the party’s hat as free tuition, free health care, continued use of the PetroCaribe arrangement forged under the PNP Government with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the deepening of relationship with Cuba.

“We should give them credit… Although one may consider that Washington may not look too kindly at that close relationship with Cuba, I think one should praise the government for having a wide world view…

The centre of influence is no longer in Washington only,” he pointed out.

But Dr Williams subtracted points for failure to deal more effectively with crime, the absence of promised bills on the legislative agenda to deal with corruption, impeachment of public officials and a fixed election date.

“One did not expect all of that to happen in a year but one would have expected that by now we would have seen some draft Bills or green papers but that has not happened,” Williams said.

For the president of the PNP-affiliated National Workers Union, Vincent Morrison, the JLP has failed, scoring below five on a scale of 0-10. “The reason is crime, the economy, unemployment figures, business confidence, foreign direct investments and the pain of workers with respect to inflation; all of these are going in the wrong direction,” he said.

“I think when they took power, unemployment was about nine per cent and it has gone to about 11 per cent with over 30,000 persons losing their jobs in the last few months,” Morrison said.

Charging victimisation, Morrison said: “It’s the first time in many years that I have seen so many issues of victimisation. Persons were thrown out of their jobs at the National Solid Waste Management Agency because of political perception. I am disturbed by the way the termination exercises have been handled at a number of government agencies.”

But Morrison gave Golding credit for the way in which he communicated. “I think the government’s response and action early in the life of their administration does demonstrate that the political will is there,” he conceded.

In contrast, political historian Troy Caine who usually favours the JLP, said the government had earned more “much more than a passing grade for their performance so far”.

“What we have seen of this new administration so far in most areas, is way beyond the capacity of the alternative which we had for 18 years,” he argued. The only drawback is their approach to crime and violence but the other side couldn’t solve either and this will take more than a year to get under control if it can ever be controlled totally,” he argued.

Responding to criticisms that the administration was overly optimistic in its projections, Caine said that up to the point of the 2007 election, there were no signs of high oil and food prices that hit immediately after.

“This administration hit the ground after September 3 last year and they haven’t stopped running yet. They are not perfect but most of the things are being done right,” he said.

“It is really rather silly for you to be holding an administration that is only a year in office to one that was 18 years in office. It will take longer than a year, maybe more than their first term or two to put this country back on sound footing. People need to be a little more tolerant,” he added.

And Jamaicans elsewhere have also formed their own impression of the administration’s first year in office.

“I think they make a lot of promises and they talk a lot. But in terms of what they have done so far, more could have been done,” said David Thompson, a young professional. “But it seems to me they have been making a lot of efforts to weed out corruption and I believe that is the direction the country needs to be steered in.”

A St Andrew-based sales agent who gave his name only as Williams thinks the JLP is a failure. “They are not doing well, them nuh ready fi run the country yet. Them can’t manage the country,” he insisted.

And 27-year-old Kingstonian Laman is still waiting to be impressed: “I don’t think they are doing well because the prices have gone up so much even though they say that it is not their fault. In addition the crime rate needs to go down, they need to do something about that.”

For Temmesha, a resident of St Catherine, there is hope for the fledgling leadership. “So far so good. They have been doing well. They have taken a lot of pressure off parents by paying the tuition fees. I think all they need to do is pick up on crime because it is affecting tourism,” she said.