SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang has made it abundantly clear that although he is an experienced public health practitioner, he has no interest in becoming minister of health.

In fact, the security minister argued that the call in some circles for him to assume control of the ministry because of his medical qualification is not in sync with how the Westminister system works.

The Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom. This term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The system is a series of procedures for operating a legislature.

“I am not keen at working in the Ministry of Health. I am a public health person, but on a broad basis this call to elect persons to the Westminster system is inappropriate,” argued Dr Chang.

“As a country those (making the call) must decide what they want. If you want an American system where you want to elect to lead, it’s different from the Westminster system. And you would have to look how that operates. You would have to do major changes across the system.

“So those who are writing have to consider the entire concept of governance and the type of government we want. In the Westminster model, ministers support policy, legislation and have technocrats around them that advise on programmes, that execute programmes honestly and efficiently.”

He argued that what is needed in a parliamentary system is effective leadership and articulation of clear policies and the technical people in the ministry deciding the programmes.

“But if you go the route of having technical ministers, you then have to strengthen your parliamentary system,” Dr Chang told the Jamaica Observer.

“I had the privilege of going to the United States as a young MP and I know there was a green congressman out of Minnesota. The staff in his local office was 46 and he had 30 people in Washington with him.

“So (for instance) an MP for Central Westmoreland, if you are going to change the space in which he operates in, if you are going to go for an appointed executive leadership in the country, then your MP must have the kind of staff that can give them support to understand budget, and the requirements, someone who must have a senior assistant, pay at a good level, understand urban planning and urban development because it is a huge agricultural area.”

The deputy prime minister bemoaned that the Government will be addressing the civil service which has been degenerated over the years.

“We have somewhat degraded our civil service in terms of the very remuneration that they have and that has led to some weakess in the public sector, the central civil service. We will be correcting that in the upcoming review of public service and I am sure we can maintain and work with the system we have more efficiently because we are used to it,” Dr Chang remarked.

When Prime Minister Andrew Holness indicated that he was about to reshuffle the Cabinet, speculation was rife that Dr Chang would be relieved from the helm of the Ministry of Security in light of the spiralling murder figures across the island. Similar calls were echoed for the removal of Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton.

But the prime minister retained the two senior politicians in their respective ministries.

Meanwhile, recently Opposition Leader Mark Golding called on Dr Chang to step aside as minister. But speaking to members of the media in Montego Bay, Chang expressed his resolve to be successful in the warfare against crime.

“I have a job to do and I will get it done. I know I can get it done. But that’s par for the course for the Opposition. That’s their challenge to do so,” he contended.