The Jamaica Public Service is one of those companies that is seen by many Jamaicans as not being the most helpful to them. In fact, many see the company as a burden, exacting a heavy toll on their pockets while they are forced to sit helplessly by as they are taken advantage of. In all of this, the people by and large feel that this state of affairs has been allowed to exist by successive governments – either that they do not care or they have not seen it politically prudent to confront the JPS behemoth.

Call him youthfully exuberant if you wish, but one of the most signal achievements of Mr Phillip Paulwell when he served as minister of energy and telecommunications under the former PNP government was the breaking of the monopoly in the telecommunications sector. I can well remember the opposition he faced dealing with the Cable and Wireless giant. Few entertained the thought that this could be done, but the minister approached the matter with great tenacity and determination. Like David taking on Goliath he succeeded in the end, and today we have a fragmented telecommunication landscape which may well be threatened by one of the principal architects in the ending of the monopoly – Digicel.

Today, attention is being properly turned to the JPS monopoly of power generation in the country. To approach the matter on a bipartisan basis makes eminent sense. Obviously, the previous administration has honed some skills after their experience with breaking the telecommunications monopoly, even if there is the admission that mistakes were made in the last licensing arrangement with the JPS. Whether there is bi-partisan consensus or not, it has become quite clear that there is no lasting benefit to Jamaican consumers for this monopoly to persist.

New avenues of energy generation must be pursued with vigour. The market must be opened up so that new investments can pour into it and take advantage of the many renewable sources of energy that are now available. The government cannot just sit back and fold its arms because they feel constrained by a JPS licence. One would not advocate the arbitrary ending of a contract, but there is the power of negotiation. The least the government can do is to begin talking to the subject. It can be well assured that it would have the backing of over 60 per cent of the population who believe that the time has come for there to be a fragmentation of power generation in Jamaica.

stead6655@aol.com