Opposition Spokesman on Rural and Community Development, Dr Kenneth Russell has expressed concern at the appointment of losing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidates in the last local and general elections to senior positions within the Social Development Commission (SDC).

Russell highlighted the issue on Wednesday during his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives.

Describing it as a “very disconcerting pattern”, Russell said “we see a number of former JLP candidates who lost in the elections appointed to senior roles in the SDC”.

The first-term MP noted that Chairman of the SDC Hidran McKlusky, Executive Director Omar Frith and Parish Manager for the SDC’s Kingston and St Andrew (KSA) region Wade Brown, are all losing JLP candidates.

McKlusky was beaten by the People’s National Party’s (PNP) Peter Bunting in Manchester Southern, while Frith was defeated by the PNP’s Mikael Phillips in Manchester North Western in the 2025 General Election. Brown lost the Harbour View division in the 2024 Local Government Election to the PNP’s Oliver Clue.

“These are not undercover party activists. All contested and lost elections in recent times. This is a serious concern,” said Russell. He told the Parliament that “the Minister (Desmond McKenzie) must also update us on what is happening with the governance of the SDC”.

According to Russell, community development works best when communities trust the institutions that serve them.

“Trust is the most valuable currency of community development. In this regard, the Social Development Commission occupies a unique place in Jamaican public life. It enters communities not as a regulator, not as an enforcer, but as a facilitator of participation, leadership and collective action. That role depends on trust,” Russell insisted.

He warned that “when the lines between community development and partisan politics become blurred, the institution’s credibility suffers, participation suffers and trust dies”.

Russell asked whether a fully constituted board was in place and whether there was a staffing issue at the Commission. On the matter of staffing he said many communities across the country do not know who their community development /liaison officer is because they don’t have one.

Russell told the Parliament that there should be three officers in South East St Ann but said there has been only one for many years.

“I understand officers are being recruited. I appeal to the Minister to ensure every effort must be made to get this done as soon as possible and in a non-partisan way,” Russell said.

Continuing, he said, “We are asking a transformative institution to operate with tools that belong to another era. I believe the time has come for a comprehensive review and modernisation of the legislative framework governing community development”.

He advised that this should start with the Jamaica Social Welfare Commission Act – the 1958 legislation (revised 1965) which governs the SDC.

“The opportunities, technologies and expectations of today are not the same as those faced 68 years ago. The world is changing fast. The aspirations of our people are changing even faster, said Russell.

“Yet too much of our thinking about rural and community development remains trapped in old assumptions. At times it feels as though this Government is playing tic-tac-toe while the rest of society has moved on to fee fy foo,” he added.

The Opposition spokesman argued that community development requires belief in oneself, in people, and in the greater good. He said it was that belief that inspired Norman Manley to create Jamaica Welfare in 1937.

“That belief drove him to persuade the banana industry to support an annual allocation of £80,000 to fund Jamaica Welfare. Today that funding is equivalent to approximately J$1.49 billion [yet] the total SDC budget in 2026 is $1.9 billion, with more than twice the population,” Russell remarked.

“Nearly 90 years have passed, and so we must now ask difficult questions: have we kept pace with the ambition of that original vision? Have we modernised our approach to community development?” he asked.