THERE have been remarks about the achievements and strides made in Eastern St Thomas in recent weeks by critics, which has forced me to respond and put certain matters in context.

Eastern St Thomas has been a particularly interesting seat since it was formed in 1944. The People’s National Party (PNP) won it for the first time in 1976, when Vie Thompson triumphed, but up to that point, and when Thompson was defeated in 1980, the PNP had been losing the seat to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) by margins of between 7,000 and 8,000 votes.

Pearnel Charles spent 13 years and five months as Member of Parliament before my coming into office in 1993, which has since seen the PNP winning the seat five times in a row.

When I took office in 1993, in fairness to Pearnel, he started some things, that were worthy of commendation, including the Eastern Banana project and laid out others that he wanted to do.

As we recognise the 150th anniversary of Paul Bogle’s death, we have heard that

St Thomas has failed and that nothing has happened. That is not true. As the longest serving MP in St Thomas, following stalwarts like Isaac Barrant and Lynden Newland, Ken Clarke, Bob Lightbourne, much has happened in recent years.

On March 30, I will mark 22 years as a Member of Parliament. If one were to look at my tenure and assess my work education would be seen as priority one, two and three, and if there were a fourth, it would also be education. Given what existed, and coming out of a plantation system, where education was not seen as a priority — St Thomas was the last parish to have had a high school in 1961 — in my own belief, coming from a family which believed in education, a scholarship programme had to be introduced, which came into effect in 1992, a year before I became MP.

In the past, you could count on one hand the number of persons from St Thomas who had become doctors, lawyers and engineers.

My constituents all knew my priority was education and training, and I am fanatical about those. Over these 22 years, we have seen remarkable improvement in education and a number of basic schools have been built. In Rowlandsfield, the first basic school was built under the Japanese Grassroot Programme. In Wheelersfield, John’s Town, Bath, Ginger Hall, Sunning Hill, Beacon Hill, Thornton, Needham Pen, new basic schools have been constructed. The Saunders Basic School, for which I have served as chairman since 1982, has also been expanded, while others have been refurbished and expanded.

In the mid-1990s, I was able, through the Paul Bogle Development Trust to establish the UWI-DEC University Distance Learning Programme at Paul Bogle Junior High School, which allowed teachers and other personnel to access tertiary education, and we have seen the mushrooming of Paul Bogle Vocational Training Institute, which started under Pearnel with my support and continued by me after I won.

The Excelsior Community College has also played a critical role in improving education.

Every year, I host a GSAT luncheon for the top boy and girl in 21 primary schools. At this luncheon, bursaries and certificates are given to the top boy and girl, all 42 of them, and this has been going on for over two decades.

I spend a minimum of $7 million to a maximum of $11 million from my Constituency Development Fund on education each year.

There has been growth in education in Eastern St Thomas, as we now have three high schools in the constituency.

We began the computer labs programme in primary schools, starting in the mid-1990s with a state-of-the-art lab at Wilmington Primary School. Over time, we have seen the emergence of hundreds of scholarships, one such was given by my now adopted son,

Dr Lincoln Ferguson.

In the area of housing, we have built Red Hills Phase Two project. Prospect Phase Two and Three have also been built and, under the Sugar Transformation Programme Stokes Hall Phase One and Two are underway — Phase One being lots and Phase Two 145 units.

At Hampton Court, there are 80 housing solutions. We have done Belrock Phases One and Two — all these houses are for former and present sugar workers. The record will also show that St Thomas was one of the few parishes where sugar workers did not benefit from sugar housing, apart from the barracks. No one before my administration built houses for sugar workers.

Under Operation Pride, lots were sold at Dumphries and Donaldson, where I was able to negotiate final payment of $25,000 on lots for Dumphries and $50,000 for the Donaldson lots, irrespective of what payments might have been left on those lots. We are presently working on lots in Hector’s River and Morant to make available to teachers, nurses, police personnel, and other public servants, even

as many would have benefited from the schemes already built.

Regarding roads, before, during, and after my tenure in the Ministry of Transport, Works, Housing and Water, we were able to do a comprehensive programme of roadwork, fixing almost all, including the hillside roads from Rowlandsfield to Thornton, except Hayfield; Mount Felix and a part of Beacon Hill in the Bath Division.

In the Dalvey Division, we fixed almost all the roads including Bowden, Old Tera, New Tera, Barking Lodge, all of Cheswick, Hampton Court to Rocky Point and Hampton Court to Airy Mount.

Over in the Morant Bay Division, we fixed almost every road from Red Hills to John’s Town.

In the Port Morant Division, the Chovey Housing Scheme, Cashew Bush, Land Top Road, Pear Tree River Road and, at this time, the Port Morant to Bath, even as we did roads in Retreat and Prospect.

However, our major challenge remains the maintenance of these roads. The worst road is the Bath to Hordley, which will be fixed this year under the Sugar Transformation Programme. This is while I make strong representation for the fixing of the Arcadia district road and the patching and rehabilitation of sections of the main road from Lyssons to Hector’s River.

Having been the one to preside over the planning and start of the Yallahs Bridge, the Saturday before the 2007 election, I continue to make representation for the road from Harbour View to Port Antonio, known as the Southern Coastal Highway.

Water remains a major challenge, even as we have done a number of projects. The Morant Bay Division is impacted by the failure of the wells at Springfield, which I am told is on the agenda for fixing during the 2015-2016 financial year. This, along with Clifton Hill pump house in Port Morant and Batchelor’s Hall pump house will significantly improve flows into Leith Hall, Fort, Bee Hive Lane, Nickle Hill, Weslian Hill, and the Port Morant area in general and Dalvey.

We have made recent gains in the Dalvey Division, with improvements at Fraser Hill and the running of new pipes. Some areas that have not seen water in 20 years are now experiencing good flows.

As far as agriculture goes, we have had the Eastern St Thomas Agriculture Committee for over two decades. In spite of challenges and with the fallout of Eastern Banana and the challenges related to sugar, St Thomas Sugar Company continues to be one of the best performing factories in the country, even as there are concerns about salaries. We continue to support small farmers as it relates to livestock and planting material and, despite the issues we had in 2014 with the established agro park with the input of former minister Roger Clarke and present agriculture minister Derrick Kellier, and state minister Luther Buchanan, and the permanent secretary we are doing everything to ensure that the agro park become a success story. This year, I am going to be stepping up in a significant way my spending in agriculture, especially establishing some projects for women in farming, among other things.

Sport is critical to the development of any nation, and for over two decades I have been sponsoring the Division Two football competition, while supporting women’s football and contributing to sports clubs right across the constituency. This year we are going to be stepping up support for cricket and lifting the profile of the game within the parish.

We have built multipurpose courts at Rudolph Elder Park, Lyssons, Airy Castle, Barking Lodge, and this year

we are moving to Wheelersfield, Sunning Hill and Rowlandsfield.

We continue to support sports in schools, including ‘Champs’ and the Penn Relays, as well as sports

days in schools.

We are moving onto Phase Two of the development of the Lyssons complex, which involves the community centre and fencing under the Sports Development Foundation.

Upgrading of the Paul Bogle High School playfield has begun through the Sugar Transformation Programme.

This year, it is my hope that the Sunning Hill playing field will be done under that programme.

The Cheswick Community Centre will also be done this year.

There has been significant improvement in infrastructure at the Princess Margaret Hospital, inclusive of the installation of a

state-of-the-art X-ray machine, and expansion of the accident and emergency area, which has been completed.

As minister of health, there are those who believe that a huge chunk of the resources allocated for the sector should be manipulated by me. It cannot work that way. There has to be an even share of the resources, based upon need.

Despite the many challenges, some of the projects in health have been completed, among them the Port Morant Health Centre, and Phase One of the Isaac Barrant Centre of Excellence.

This upcoming financial year we will continue expansion work at the Princess Margaret Hospital, while looking at housing accommodation for health workers there, and we will begin Phase Two of the centre of excellence at Isaac Barrant. We have started a new health centre at Rowlandsfield under the Sugar Transformation Programme and my expectations are for a new one in Arcadia district.

The Bath Health Centre is also up for expansion and refurbishing in this financial year. We have not only been working on health centres in the East, but we have refurbished Trinityville Health Centre and Llandewey in the West. It is my intention to establish a centre of Excellence at Yallahs. All these will ease the pressure on Princess Margaret Hospital.

This year we will continue with our land reform programme and I have put in place a strong committee of experienced persons who will be leading this charge. The intention is to bring closure to the ownership of a number of properties that have been on the agenda for some time — properties that are owned by the Commissioner of Lands.

During my tenure, we have built new bridges in Bath, opening the township and ridding the community of a one lane bridge that was a constant nuisance, thus reducing conflicts among motorists.

We have also built two at Hector’s River. The Government will be going to tender shortly with the Harbour Head Bridge in Pear Tree River, which is of great concern to me and the citizenship of Pear Tree River.

As far as the Rural Electrification Programme goes, we have done a significant number of projects, including the extension in John’s Town, Wesleyan Hill, Baptist Lane, Monkey Lane, Louden Door, Bottom Yard in Bath, and presently we are about to embark on areas in East Prospect, Blue Mahoe, and Acacia Road.

Our big-idea project is the Rudolph Elder Park in Morant Bay, for which we have completed the preliminary designs and there are now discussions taking place with the secretary/manager of the St Thomas Parish Council in relation to establishing the parish council offices and a civic centre at Morant.

After 22 years as MP for Eastern St Thomas, I am satisfied that tremendous gains have been made in the development of human capital. Morant Bay High School is as good as, or better than most of the top high schools in Jamaica, in terms of academic outcomes.

There are few MPs who can boast of doing eight housing developments, few can speak of having a centre of excellence in their constituency, few can argue about a UWI-DEC transforming into a UWI Open Campus and, therefore, while we have had challenges, based on the fallout in agriculture, we are optimistic that, going forward, we will see that shift to the service industry, including tourism, that will see the twinning of the Bath Botanical Gardens with the Bath Fountain and Spa, making Bath the tourism hub in St Thomas. Already, work is far advanced in developing a plan that will make this a reality.

I want to thank the people of Eastern St Thomas for their support over these 22 years. There are those who pay and put little value on life and experience. I believe that over the years as their MP, and having gone to St Thomas at age 27, I have grown and matured and my exposure in Government has given me the requisite skills to continue to lead them, and in my hands the people of Eastern St Thomas are safe.

Dr Fenton Ferguson is a dental surgeon by profession.