In Focus

Beyond an ad hominem title that may not necessarily be attributable to Darron Thomas, his response to my 'Clarifying the Jurisdiction of the FTC' bears a staunch resistance to reading primary as opposed to secondary research material.

After laying out some three supplementary budgets in fiscal year 2010-2011, the credibility of the estimates of expenditure for fiscal year 2011-2012 presented on April 21, 2011 has immediately been questioned. The approximately $48-billion nominal increase over last year's revised figure of $497 billion crudely keeps the real budgeted amount unchanged.

On Thursday, April 14, the Government of Jamaica tabled an expenditure budget of $544.721 billion in the House of Representatives which includes projected debt-servicing costs of $263.343 billion. The debt-servicing estimates suggest projected interest payments of $131.084 billion and amortisation payments of $132.259 billion.

The February 2010 revisions to the Financial Administration and Audit Act require the provision of significant pre-Budget information to engage the consciousness of, and feedback from, civil society. Several groups have complained of not being consulted, and it is difficult to identify a coherent and consolidated set of pre-Budget information.

Things are happening in the Budget which have not been seen for decades, perhaps not since the end of the 1960s, early 1970s. But we may be now too tired and cynical from years of lifting the massive debt burden, or too party-loving, to even notice, much more to celebrate.

It is not that Jamaica is a failed state, in my opinion, as expressed by some, most lately among them, former Prime Minister Edward Seaga.

The political games are heating up. But there is one game which is not on: the game of ease-up on Bruce Golding. After his bruising wrestling match with K.D. Knight a couple of weeks ago, last week it was Portia Simpson Miller's turn to get into the ring with him - and she was declared a winner, even though the fight was called off.

The Manatt-Dudus scandal arose because Bruce Golding was thought to have used the Government's powers and privileges to carry out party business.

The removal and replacement of an entire chapter of our half century-old Constitution represent one of the most substantial rewriting of a Constitution in recent history, among modern democratic nations.

Three of the prime minister's promises are circled in red on the full-page advertisement run by the independent Trevor Munroe-led National Integrity Action Forum (NIAF), to which I am attached.

"Go to hell!" Well, if the downward trend continues, that is where we are likely to meet the contentious, re-elected Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) parliamentarian Everald Warmington.

It's clear to me that most readers, especially those in the 50-and-under age demographic, are clueless as to the origins of the Westminster system of government; its principles; its effect; and, hence, why it hasn't worked in Jamaica in 50 years and...