(Jamaica Gleaner) The resignation of prominent businessman James Moss-Solomon from public-sector boards, in protest over a perceived failure of both Government and Opposition to give strong, effective leadership, has been met with a difference of opinion from a prominent state board chairman.
Wayne Chen, chairman of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), said he respected Moss-Solomon’s decision, but urged other public servants not to follow his lead.
Chen asserted that Jamaicans of integrity, experience and competence need to actively engage in the management of the country’s affairs.
“The danger is, if all of us were to resign tomorrow, in a sort of mass protest, nobody can predict what would happen next in terms of the quality of people who would take up the vacuum,” he argued last night.
Moss-Solomon, a well-known public- and private-sector figure over the past 30 years, told The Gleaner on Tuesday that he had dispatched his letters of resignation from the boards of the Scientific Research Council, the University Hospital of the West Indies and the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Science.
The letters were sent last week but the resignations took effect on Tuesday.
Moss-Solomon, who served the public sector in both political administrations, accused both Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller of failing to provide strong, decisive, moral and ethical leadership to Jamaica.
“Our leaders are just not on the ball,” he declared.
Moss-Solomon referred to a common line in his resignation letter that captured his disgust with the political directorate.
“This resignation is due to my inability to accept the numerous incidents that impugn the credibility and honesty of those elected to serve the nation from both sides of Parliament,” the correspondence asserts.
Sense of disgust
Moss-Solomon communicated a sense of disgust as he spoke with The Gleaner.
“They need to have more respect for people,” he declared. “There are many things going and the nation is getting poorer and poorer by the minute.”
Moss-Solomon contended that the situation continues to deteriorate in the face of the obvious failure of the leaders to do what is right.
He was critical of the People’s National Party (PNP) for the retention of former state minister in the energy ministry, Kern Spencer, in Parliament, even as he challenges criminal charges relating to the Cuban light bulb scandal in which millions of dollars were allegedly misappropriated.
Moss-Solomon also frowned on former PNP General Secretary Colin Campbell’s plan to return to representational politics after his involvement in the Trafigura scandal.
In commenting on the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), he chastised the party for keeping Joseph Hibbert, former state minister for transport and works, and Everald Warmington, current state minister in the Ministry of Water and Housing, after serious criminal allegations were made against them.
More required
Hibbert has been named in a bribery investigation into British bridge-building firm Mabey and Johnson, and Warmington is being investigated by Contractor General Greg Christie.
Karl Johnson, general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, said it would require more than a resignation if Moss-Solomon wants to make a statement on how governance is exercised in Jamaica.
“It would require conversation. Because resigning alone, while commendable, will not necessarily address the issue.”
Moss-Solomon told The Gleaner he would be placing much of his attention on his philanthropic activities to assist those in depressed communities.
He promised to use his influence in the private sector to engender greater change to the welfare of the people who are forced to live in vulnerable areas.
