‘Who dem a try fool?’
Campbell says Government's criticisms of JPS over slow restoration nothing but a sham
MILE GULLY, Manchester — People’s National Party (PNP) General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell says the Government’s response and handling of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) effort to restore power to communities post-Hurricane Beryl have been weak.
“The Jamaica Public Service [has] approximately 20 per cent of it is shares owned by the Government of Jamaica (GOJ). The GOJ appoints people to the JPS board… so how can the Government come out and behave like they want [to] cuss JPS; who dem a try fool?” Campbell asked during his address at the PNP’s Manchester North Western constituency conference on Saturday.
He questioned the role of the Government-appointed members of the JPS board to protect the country’s interest.
“What are the members representing the board doing [in relation] to JPS. What were the plans that they put in place to ensure that if we have a disaster we could respond to it? There are still approximately 10,000 Jamaicans who are still without electricity more than a month and a half since the hurricane passed and it never came here directly,” said Campbell as he underscored that sections of the south coast were worst affected by Hurricane Beryl on July 3.
“Just over a month ago the country was affected by a hurricane. It didn’t come to Jamaica directly. The eye of the hurricane passed 50 miles south of Jamaica and it caused some damage [to] the southern parts of Manchester, Clarendon and St Elizabeth – which were the worst affected – but it affected all of the country to varying extents.
“When the hurricane passed we saw the devastation on the ground and we started speaking out on it. People start cussing us and seh, ‘how we just come with our negative self’ when we told them what JPS was reporting was not correct,” added Campbell.
He charged said Minister of Energy Daryl Vaz’s rebuke of JPS is not enough.
“When they realised that people started to protest left, right and centre all of a sudden Daryl Vaz came out and started to cuss JPS… This Government with its uncaring self has not done enough to ensure that the people can have their electricity restored,” he said.
“You have people who are small farmers that have chicken and they can’t kill the chicken because they don’t have a refrigerator to put it into. The chicken them now big [with some] reaching all 10 pounds. Did you know that 30 per cent of the chicken that you consume in this country is produced by small farmers? These are people who bought their chickens, so that they can raise it to send the children to school,” added Campbell.
