‘Deliver or perish’ was the title of my first The Agenda piece this year. It was a reminder/warning to the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) that democracy was also on trial in Jamaica and that its ability to provide required social and economic goods was the primary piece of evidence that would be used by especially ordinary citizens to decide whether democracy was found guilty, or acquitted.

We are nearing the holding of our 19th parliamentary election. Eligible Jamaicans will soon decide if the ruling JLP has done enough to justify another five years in office. In making that crucial decision, I believe well-thinking Jamaicans will dispassionately apply a ‘deliver-o-metre’ to the stewardship of the Andrew Holness-led Administration.

Contrary to what some believe, well-thinking Jamaicans will also apply a similar metric to the Mark Golding-led People’s National Party (PNP) to determine if that party can be trusted with the keys to Jamaica House. It is well-thinking Jamaicans in the majority marginal seats who will decide the winner of the general election. I said so long ago.

Who has/is delivering?

In the arena of a political administration, delivery is measured by the outcomes or lack thereof by Cabinet ministers. These are individuals who are rewarded/selected by a prime minister to lead specific portfolio responsibilities. An Administration is judged as a whole. The whole is mainly the Cabinet. It is made up of individuals.

We are now seven months away from the end of the second five-year term of the Holness Administration. Most Cabinet ministers would have had charge of their portfolio responsibilities long enough to enable well-thinking Jamaicans to make informed assessments of their performance, meaning the delivery of results which have been or are being felt in the pockets and/or seen on the dinner tables of especially ordinary Jamaicans.

Incidentally, one of my readers recently asked why I always use the pocket and dinner table metric vis-à-vis the delivery of economic and social goods. This is the reason: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” These are the words of Franklin D Roosevelt, 32nd US president.

As I see it, in addition to Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, there are 10 ministers who are delivering. I will discuss Holness’s management of the country’s affairs in a separate piece.

1) Daryl Vaz

The minister of science, energy, telecommunications, and transport is the top performer in the Holness Administration at this time. Jamaica needs more of his type of forthright, forensic, and on-the-ground style of ministerial leadership. I get a sense that Vaz’s word can be safely taken to the bank.

Hurricane Beryl impacted Jamaica on July 4, 2024. In the aftermath, Vaz demonstrated very admirable dynamism and responsiveness to the worries of the public. It was reassuring. I got the impression — and I was not singular in this respect — that Vaz was personally feeling the hurt being experienced by citizens. Some were without electricity for several weeks. Vaz did not stop at sympathy or empathy, as some elected representatives often do. Understanding was matched with tangible actions which practically helped to ease the pain of hundreds of Jamaicans. Vaz demonstrated that he was not afraid to publicly challenge the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), the big elephant in the room, insofar as local public utilities (monopolies) are concerned.

Consider these headlines:

* ‘JPS restores light to 80,000 just 24 hours after passage of Beryl’ (Jamaica Observer, July 5, 2024)

* ‘JPS says 90% of customers now have electricity after Hurricane Beryl’ (Loop Jamaica, July 11, 2024)

JPS has close to 700,000 customers. The fact that electricity was returned to 90 per cent of customers after just four weeks, to me, showed that Vaz was about the people’s business. His persistent bulldozing of lame excuses by JPS and his persistent insistence that the JPS needed to work much smarter and harder sent a clear message to Jamaicans, certainly the average Jamaican, who is without the luxury of substitute means of generating electricity, that the Holness Administration was actively safeguarding our interests, first and foremost.

I remember listening to a radio programme and hearing Vaz say: “I have to leave, because now that I deal with JPS, I am going to deal with the telecoms.” He did. Most Jamaicans got back Internet and related services within seven weeks.

Any objective measure of the quality of especially ground transportation in the country will show that things are moving forward at a very positive pace.

Consider these headlines:

* ‘Commuter experience to be enhanced with the arrival of 100 new CNG buses’ (Jamaica Observer, July 15, 2024)

* ‘JUTC fleet further expanded by largest single bus acquisition’ (Jamaica Observer, August 27, 2024)

* ‘Gov’t to procure another 100 buses by mid-2025’ (Irie FM, October 31, 2024)

The expansion of Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) services into Morant Bay, St Thomas; Linstead, St Catherine; Castleton Gardens, St Andrew; and May Pen, Clarendon, are godsends. Hundreds of ordinary Jamaicans from the mentioned towns and surrounding communities will now have a safer, cheaper, and much more comfortable alternative.

The role which Dr Nigel Clarke played while he was minister of finance and the public service, in securing hundreds of new buses, cannot be underestimated. Recall that before Dr Clarke left to take up the job of a deputy managing director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) on October 31, 2024, he signed off on a number of key initiatives designed to benefit, among other things, the public transportation sector.

Like him or loathe him, Vaz is producing tangible results which are positively impacting the pockets and dinner tables of especially those who have little.

Ponder this, too: ‘Petrojam lands US$90-m Trinidad fuel deal’ (Jamaica Observer, February 2, 2025). This fuel supply arrangement is a big deal for the local economy. Vaz is clearly on the job.

I believe the science portion of Vaz’s portfolio needs to shine much brighter, though, especially given Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s recent designation of Jamaica, as a science, technology, engineering and mathematics, (STEM) country.

2) Edmund Bartlett

Bartlett, our minister of tourism, deserves high commendation for his continued outstanding work. Post the novel coronavirus pandemic, our tourism sector has been ranked as one of the fastest to recover globally. I do not have enough space to list all the regional and international awards Jamaica has won in the last 8 years for the consistently high quality of her tourism product.

Consider these headlines:

* ‘US$4.3 billion earned from tourism industry in 2024’ (Jamaica Observer, January 7, 2025)

* ‘2000+ more rooms by 2024’ (Jamaica Observer, September 13, 2023)

* ‘Two new Princess hotels open in Jamaica’ (Jamaica Observer, December 15, 2025)

Bartlett has been opening so many new hotel rooms that I have lost count. The demonstrations at several properties last year was not a good look, though. Still, Bartlett deserves credit for the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme’s (TWPS) implementation.

3) Dr Horace Chang

Chang has the second-hardest job in the Cabinet. Prime minister is the hardest. Minister of national security is not a position which individuals in the Cabinet jump and shout, “Me, Sir!” whenever it’s available. As I see it, Dr Chang has done a highly commendable job to date. His unflappable style of leadership is reassuring, especially given our long-standing and hugely abnormal homicide and related crime realities.

I do not think we give Dr Horace Chang enough credit for the massive improvements in the security forces. The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) today, if we are to be fair, is not the force which cemented the nomenclature “Babylon” (oppressor) in the 1960/70s. Based on evidence, we have today a much more caring, responsive, resourced, and better-trained police service. The massive investments in and improvements to the working conditions of policemen and women, especially over the last 8 year, are good things. Information in the public domain says a total of 163 police stations and other JCF facilities have been renovated over the period 2016 to present. Six new stations have been constructed over the same period. This is a good look, as we say on the streets.

Massive improvements at Up-Park Camp have not escaped my notice either. The Administration’s big spend on improving the technological capabilities of the security forces have proved invaluable. There are some who will, doubtless, say for example, that the technological improvements in the JCF are simply a reflection of the times we are living in. I suggest those people have a talk with some of our brothers and sisters from neighbouring islands on that score and related matters.

The JCF and Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) are more mobile today than any other time in our history: ‘9 cops to 1 car — Police have only 1,300 working patrol vehicles for entire island’ (Jamaica Observer, August 26, 2012).

We have not seen frightening headlines like these in recent times. Last year murders declined by 19 per cent — that means 265 fewer Jamaicans were murdered compared to 2023. Murders are down 13 per cent this year compared to 2024. “So what, that is what Dr Chang is paid to do,” some mean-spirited individuals will scream. Our political leaders are made of flesh and blood too. They should not be exempt from allotments of graciousness; “for encouragement sweetens labour”.

4) Matthew Samuda

‘Water is Life’ is the tag line of National Water Commission (NWC). Water Minister Matthew Samuda has been doing a superb job regarding the facilitation of life through the provision of potable water in the nooks and crannies of Jamaica.

Check these headlines:

* ‘Over 7,000 apply for NWC debt write-off’ (The Gleaner, January 30, 2025)

* ‘NWC receives 7 trucks valued at $92.6m’ (Jamaica Observer, September 27, 2022)

* ‘$10-m water programme commissioned in St Catherine (Jamaica Observer, December 22, 2024)

* ‘1,152 residents of Spicy Hill, Trelawny, have improved access to water’ (Jamaica Observer, December 18, 2024)

Since Samuda took charge of the water portfolio, in 2020, some 150,000 more Jamaicans have received access to the precious commodity. He is a rising star on Holness’s team. Samuda’s ‘more action and less talk’ approach is very commendable.

5) Christopher Tufton

Dr Tufton’s management of the country’s health portfolio has been generally good, but the millstone of the Cornwall Regional Hospital and its changing completion timetable is a major blotch. Simultaneously, the construction of several new health facilities and very significant upgrades to dozens of clinics and major hospitals country-wide cannot be discounted.

Ponder this too: “He [Tufton] noted that the Government has also increased the cadre of workers with 2,089 doctors now in the establishment in addition to 4,741 nurses and 2,210 community health aides. This is a major increase over 2016, when the number of doctors was approximately 1,500; nurses, 4,669; and community health aides, 893.” (Jamaica Observer, May 8, 2024) These workers are now much more secure in their jobs. Tufton also deserves some credit for the Administration’s increase of the public health budget by 143 per cent to $145 billion over the past eight years. His leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic was stellar and is recognised globally.

6) Robert Morgan

Morgan is likely counting his lucky stars that he is no longer in charge of the information portfolio, because whenever anything goes wrong in an Administration, communication and information are the whipping boys. They are not usually the culprits.

I am seeing and feeling the national reach of Morgan as works minister. I am not singular in this respect. The tyres of hundreds of motorists are now happier. These bits of news were music to the ears of thousands of Jamaicans:

* ‘Work to begin on 100 roads under SPARK programme’ (Jamaica Observer, January 29, 2025)

* ‘Building bridges… 55 dilapidated structures to be upgraded or replaced under UK/Jamaica deal’ (Jamaica Observer, January 31, 2025)

Next week I will look at the stewardship of Prime Minister Andrew Holness and my remaining top performers in the Cabinet.

Garfield Higgins is an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.