Attorney questions absence of more new faces in Cabinet

 

Following last Monday's Cabinet reshuffle, Attorney Clive Munroe Jr. has questioning the absence of new faces in government ministries.

 

Pointing out that the government has 49 seats in the House of Representatives, Mr. Munroe suggested there could be a lack of suitable government MPs and senators to take on the role of Cabinet minister. 

 

"Let's say about 20 - somewhere in the mid to high 20s - were ministers already. That leaves us with another 20 or so, and you can't find any of those 20 [to be ministers]? I think that in and of itself is a very telling thing that you have to go externally to go and look towards where you want to go next," he argued, drawing attention to the recent appointment of business strategist Dr. Dana Morris Dixon as senator and then as a government minister. 

 

Dr. Morris Dixon and former media practitioner Abka Fitz-Henley were sworn in to the Senate on May 12 following the resignations of Leslie Campbell and Natalie Campbell-Rodriques.   

 

Last Monday's Cabinet reshuffle saw Dr. Morris Dixon being appointed a Minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for skills and digital technology. 

 

But with limited new faces in the Cabinet, Mr. Munroe raised concern about the advanced age of some of the current ministers, saying consideration should be given to how long they will be able to capably carry out their respective functions. 

 

"Succession in politics has often been mostly generated from adversity, so you end up in opposition and then all of a sudden you need to reinvent yourself, as opposed to having persons understudying and working their way forward so you kind of hand pick them and go from there. And then you have other challenges, too, of when you're too successful you kind of create, for want of a better expression, these fiefdoms where people can't be moved, so persons cannot move up into that particular position or post."

 

Mr. Munroe was speaking Sunday on Radio Jamaica's That's A Rap.