Revisiting the view that size matters

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Chinese saying, "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step", can easily be applied to Jamaica's current quest for lasting peace and economic development.

It's a long and arduous journey, we admit, but it can be achieved with leaders who have the political will and the ability to inspire the nation to make it happen.

Our view is that the Executive is the repository of that kind of leadership, and as such, it is important that the individuals placed there be highly skilled and totally dedicated to making Jamaica a better place to live. Indeed, they must be patriots.

The same, we hold, applies to those who sit in the legislature. For their decisions impact on the country in every way imaginable.

We raise this issue due to the continuing debate about the size of the Cabinet appointed by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. It is indeed large, compared to what obtained before. And the criticism levelled at Mrs Simpson Miller is understandable, given her strident opposition to the size of the Executive appointed by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

However, we insist, and for good and logical reasons, that what matters is not the size of the Cabinet but its capacity for effective management and efficient decision making.

The portfolio allocations of the Cabinet selected by the prime minister obviously exhibit the PNP's view of the organisational structure of government which it regards as providing the most efficacious management of its policies.

Therefore, those who argue about the structure should really be focused on the team selected to manage the system.

Normally the members of that team are selected for their proven capacity, relevant experience, a working knowledge of the portfolio subject and demonstrated managerial skill. But given that the choices are largely restricted to those elected to the House, it may not be possible to satisfy all four criteria.

However, while we do have some concerns about matching portfolio responsibility with the appropriate talent and experience, the prime minister has done well by bringing into the Cabinet skill and capacity in the person of Mr Mark Golding, who has earned a reputation for refining legislation to make them more prudent and effective.

There are, of course, other members of the Cabinet who we believe are fully equipped for the tasks appointed to them. How the majority of them fare will become clear in due course, as the Cabinet has its work cut out for it.

If she has not yet done so, the prime minister, we believe, should set timelines to goals for her ministers and give quarterly or half-yearly updates on their performance to the country. That way we will be able to determine who is deserving of their place in the Cabinet.

In the final analysis, if the country is better off at the end of their term, that will put an end to the view that size matters.

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COMMENTS (9)

4/25/2012

Let me say I am a poud product of the so caelld innercity. My march to becomming a respected professional was greatly facillitated by the policies of the PNP. My wish now that every innercity youth seek for a way to positively improve themselves as contrary to what people may say the are opurtunities to make that improvement. We have not attained a position where we should be comfortable but if we work togather we can make it. We have to shed the legacies of our socio- historical past and become true citizens of our beloved countyr. We all have our civic duties to perform, let us do them and in so doing we can help to make a better Jamaica. With steadfast assurance that God will look done and give us his blessing our efforts to crown,we will be united to build by his grace a nobler Jamaica alofterier race,Land of my birth I pledge to be loyal and faithfull,true to thee .

0o k
1/18/2012

If Jamaicans sit down and accept the fact that they must pay for PNP Succession Plan without protest then anything else that from the Comrade Leadership they should not even bother cry about.
Rightly or wrongly Comrade PSM ridiculed, relentlessly Mr. Golding Cabinet. Amongst other things, describing it as Whatnot, saying then GOJ did not have the moral authority to cut the size of the Public Service due to size of its Cabinet.
Now she gives spurious reasons for the gargantuan size of hers?

N Manley Blythe
1/18/2012

A worthy defence of the larger Cabinet, Editor, but, the Prime Minister said the reason was "succession planning". Only tribalists agree with her decision.
We were justifiably outraged at the arrogant callous wasteful ways of the JLP (42/21). We must now be equally outraged at the arrogant callous wasteful ways of the PNP.
Utterances from Mr Holness and other JLP officials indicate they have learned nothing!! The decision by the PM indicates that the PNP is in the same boat!!

ras london
1/18/2012

Somehow we manage to make every tiny matter into a mountain. A blogger from Trinidad on the same issue was amused when our 21 member cabinet became an issue. He stated that Trinidad with half of Jamaica's population had a 35 member cabinet. In this case size does not matter if that's what is necessary to complete the job.

Anthony II
1/18/2012

III. A society's behavior is often shaped by its leaders. What a good thing it would have been if someone had said, hey, you know what? These are hard times that call for belt-tightening/sacrifice; we will all have to share in this. Let's lead by example and show people that hard times call for efficiency and more effective management. Little wonder that we have headlines such as those on the business pages about JAMs being debt-ridden; because we do not like living within our (POOR) means.

Anthony II
1/18/2012

II. SIZE DOES MATTER! In places where efficiency matters, managers are consolidating positions and making teams "leaner", usually as part of a cost-cutting exercise. Positions are being made redundant/lost by attrition. Where I work, budget cuts are causing people to think more creatively and to become more innovative. No, not so in Jamaica. We have an economic crisis and somehow we are being told that the size of our Cabinet does not matter. "Let's not try to lead by example."

Anthony II
1/18/2012

Size does not matter; so, let us appoint all 42 government MPs to some position in the Cabinet. Let's not combine ministries; have individual ones. That way we can ensure that all 42 will have a ministry to oversee. Size does not matter; so let us get some more appointments for some of those in the Senate.
.
Mr. Thwaites, please make one of your objectives an education policy that promotes THINKING from as early as possible, so that we can produce people who can think.

Stephen Fox
1/18/2012

Editor, I agree that the size of the cabinet is not material. We should reference these members as servants of the public not leaders. They may be an executive but they are answerable to law and to citizens. The cabinet size is indicative of the need for professional administration. While these parliamentarians are managing ministries they are not representing constituents in Gordon House. Administrators should administrate and legislators should legislate. Clovis! Lambert not so wide!

fall mouth
1/18/2012

Talking about size, as I look at your cartoonist trying to ridicule Senator Lambert Brown's and his appointment to the Senate , I wondered that after only two years the PNP "rewarded" him, yet no such accolades were poured on the two Kens and Motty Perkins after decades of work for the JLP. Perhaps they are too old.
Then again it might be that they have nothing to offer but criticism, unlike Lambert, a respected labour leader.
Incidentally, if the JLP had won would Clovis have been named G.G?

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Revisiting the view that size matters