The situation involving accountant Dennis Chung and his appointment as chief technical director of the Financial Investigation Division (FID) within the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service is quite messy.

How could Chung have been chosen to head the FID, the organisation that has been asked to investigate Prime Minister Andrew Holness for his suspicious financial declarations? It was the same Chung who last year slapped the Integrity Commission across its backside for its report into Holness’s financial dealings, suggesting too that there was nothing unusual about the prime minister having 28 bank accounts. 

The FID’s mandate, up to now, is to investigate fraud, money laundering and financial crimes, so it is a disgrace that the job description of the agency’s chief technical director was quietly rewritten within months from one that originally asked for 12 years’s experience in law enforcement, five of those at a senior level, to nothing of the sort. Chung would have failed to satisfy that criterion, as the only exposure that he might have had in law enforcement was by serving as a home guard, if he is that old, or as a one-day policeman on election day.

My guess is that Holness is trying to undermine the FID by insisting on having Chung. And don’t tell me that the selection was made by the Public Services Commission. We know how Jamaica is run.

It was surprising that Chung accepted the job, as he must have recognised that there would have been justifiable displeasure.

Chung’s saving grace is to decline the offer, rush to the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) office, where he served as general secretary with cap in one hand and ball in the other, and announce himself as the Prodigal Son. 

Is the Government preparing to cut Cuba off?

My visit to the Cuban Embassy in New Kingston last week revealed another fine gesture by Jamaica’s communist neighbours to the north.

Despite the many challenges that the Spanish speakers have been going through for the last six and a half decades, caused primarily by the United States’ economic blockade, Cuba still manages to assist countries in need, with Jamaica a priority.

From a programme that began around 1982, when Cuba started offering scholarships to Jamaica in the field of medicine, it has benefited over 600 students in various disciplines. By contrast, what has Jamaica offered Cuba, save for disrespect at least in these times?

I say disrespect because even at the event, the Government official who was due to deliver the main address, State Foreign Affairs Minister Alando Terrelonge, arrived 43 minutes late for the start of the proceedings. Nothing strange here, for the same thing has happened before.

Such a function should have had someone addressing it at the ministerial level, not a junior. For at least Jamaica could genuinely communicate its gratitude at that level, considering the sacrifice that Cuba continues to make.

Some strange things have been happening recently with respect to Jamaica-Cuba relations. Since the threat issued by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, that countries which engage Cuba with its programme of supplying medical practitioners like doctors, nurses, technicians and others could face sanctions, some things are just not adding up.

Yes, Rubio has since softened his stance, for now, in respect of Jamaica, but is there something going on in the background that needs to be highlighted? Since Rubio’s announcement, I notice that Jamaica’s Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton, has travelled to the Philippines and India in search of doctors and nurses, possibly other health professionals. That move is worth watching a bit more. Was Jamaica pressured to seek alternatives during a back-door deal, with the intent to push the Cubans out?

Indian medical workers have served Jamaica well, over the years, but when it comes to the Filipinos, there have been more than a few sad stories.

Bottom line is that Jamaica should not be forced to do away with the Cubans who have devoted so much of their resources to the upliftment of Jamaica, for so long. Now is not a time to allow bullies to take charge … if that is the case.

Jamaica’s greatest Prime Minister Michael Manley insisted that Jamaicans should always walk on their feet and not on their knees. That should always stand. 

‘Greendot’ findings just not making sense

A political poll is not the determining factor in a party winning an election. It is merely a guide into the voting intention of the people of a country.

So, when I listen to the poll findings done by the Blue (sorry, green) Dot polling organisation, I am left wondering if the exercise was conducted in the same island that I am living in.

The poll findings are being aired on Nationwide News Network, and while, as a personal rule I do not openly criticise other media organisations and have never argued for any entity to be silenced; maybe, just maybe, officials at Nationwide could do a deep examination of what is being put into the public space, posing as credible information.

I will not go deep into the ‘findings’ of the ‘Greendot’ polls, because they seem to me at any rate to be too far away from reality. I am sure that I cover more ground than those who operate under the ‘Greendot’ banner, and what I see out there is not what ‘Greendot’ is claiming. For example, I do not believe that the JLP is ahead of the PNP nationally; that the JLP has it so easy in St Elizabeth; nor do I accept that the PNP’s candidate in St Mary Western is 17 percentage points ahead of the JLP’s Robert Montague.

It brings me back to polling on the eve of the 1980 general election. Still a teenager at the time, I was fully aware of what was happening. It was clear that the JLP was in full control of the numbers, what with the deep intervention of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the labelling of Jamaica as ‘communist’, and the destabilisation of the Michael Manley administration by internal and external forces, like hoarding goods in supermarkets and wholesales and putting them back onto the shelves the day after the election, many of which were spoilt.

Pollster extraordinaire Professor Carl Stone had predicted in his polls that the JLP would win by a landslide. Only the JLP supporters believed him. There were a few other ‘polls’ that predicted the outcome differently. One of them was a polling organisation that included university lecturers Dr Derek Gordon, and Dr Paul Robertson. They said that the PNP would win, hands down, knowing too that no such thing would have happened. And how wrong they were. Prof Stone was spot on. The JLP won 51 seats, the most in its history, while the PNP took the remaining nine in the then 60-seat House of Representatives. 

Are there similarities here?

Mike McCallum: Another legend departs

Boxing legend Michael (Mike) McKenzie McCallum’s death last Saturday night (May 31) marked the end of a colourful journey for Jamaica’s most successful man in the ring, which was highlighted by promoters penalising him and not allowing him some of the big fights, because he dared to stand up for his monetary rights.

His death came as a shock, for McCallum, at age 69, was still lively and energetic, although in later years he had put on some weight.

Hailing from Tower Hill in the Olympic Gardens division of the St Andrew West Central constituency, McCallum’s energy and determination piloted him to world titles in three weight divisions, ending with, among other accolades, Jamaica’s Sportsman of the Year seven times.

As an amateur, it was felt by many boxing officials that McCallum had been robbed of a potential gold medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada, after losing to a German in the welterweight division in his third fight.

Turning professional in 1981, he won the World Boxing Association junior middleweight crown in 1984; the WBA middleweight belt in 1989 and the World Boxing Council light heavyweight title in 1994, before ending his career with 49 wins, 36 by knockout, five losses and one draw. He was inducted in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.

He also coached a few boxers after retirement, with some amount of success.

We had an interesting relationship, our birthdays were just five days apart in December. He was never comfortable when he was criticised, but that was soon wiped away with face-to-face reasoning.

Boxing was his real love. Not many other activities mattered. In fact, even when he was approached by Eddie Seaga to enter representational politics and contest the St Andrew West Central seat for the Jamaica Labour Party, he told me in 1986 that he took less than 30 minutes to decide that politics was not for him, after considering all of the ramifications. Seaga got a delayed response, Mike said, because he did not want to offend him. 

It’s a sad time for Jamaica.