Staff writer - Nyasha Watson
On Thursday January 5, 2012 the Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller was sworn in as the seventh Prime Minister of Jamaica. A post she had previously held between 2006 and 2007. The ceremony was quite sober and her speech was filled with emotive language that gave an aura of hope and optimism.
However, as we know that nothing is perfect so in everything there must be some glitch. Thus, when she was thanking the former Prime Ministers who were present we heard the name of the Hon. Edward Seaga and the Hon. P.J. Patterson.
It then became clear that the Hon. Bruce Golding was absent from the ceremony. We do not know the precise reasons for his absence, because it might just be that his absence was unavoidable because of a previous engagement or an emergency. However, because she did not give an apology for his absence then it is left to speculation that his absence might be something else.
Well, we are hoping that it is not that “something else” because it would create a dent in our move towards a unified Jamaica.
Former Jamaica Prime Minister Hon. Edward Seaga
Although, he is no longer leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, he was Prime Minister for four years so his expertise is of crucial importance if Jamaica is to successfully navigate the challenging economic climate that the entire world is now facing.
We all remember the infamous incident in his swearing in ceremony in 2007 where no seat was arranged for the Hon. Edward Seaga, who eventually left citing that he was disrespected. We know that they were not the best of friends but that incident further put a dent in their relationship. And the eventual loser was Jamaica because we lost out on the expert advice of Mr. Seaga.
For the sake of Jamaica, I really hope that history is not being repeated. However, I do not want to take away from the ceremony, because Portia and Andrew, the current leader of JLP, was quite warm with each other to the point where Portia declared that she was in fact his second mother.
On the campaign train, she had said that Andrew was “baby Bruce”, so if she is now saying that she is his second mother. Then that means that Andrew is the offspring of Portia and Bruce; just an observation. What do you think…?
