HOLNESS SAID LINGERING CONCERNS SPURRED CHALLENGE TO COMMONWEALTH SECRETARY GENERAL
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Prime Minister Andrew Holness says that it is not Jamaica’s intention to create division among CARICOM states, arguing that the country’s decision to name Kamina Johnson Smith as a candidate for the post of Commonwealth secretary general should not be positioned as controversial, The Jamaica Gleaner reported on Wednesday, April 6.
Today the prime minister will engage his CARICOM partners as the regional bloc discusses the challenge to the incumbent, Baroness Patricia Scotland, in June.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne had described Johnson Smith’s decision to run for the post as a “monumental error”, hinting that Jamaica was a stalking horse for critics of Scotland who sought “to divide and rule.”
But in a statement to Parliament on Tuesday, Holness said that Jamaica would conduct a dignified campaign and not inflame “what we have already seen emerging.”
“If there are disagreements and concerns by our brothers and sisters in CARICOM, Jamaica will not engage in any other means of addressing those other than through the established protocols of the meeting of heads,” he told lawmakers.
While acknowledging that Johnson Smith was qualified and had the requisite experience to take up the job of Commonwealth secretary general, Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding said the manner in which Jamaica announced her candidature was “very messy” and created an “undesirable situation.”
He said that since the announcement, two CARICOM prime ministers have publicly stated that at the recent meeting of the 15-member group in Belize in March, the heads of government expressed overwhelming support for the re-election of Scotland. See complete Jamaica Gleaner article at https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20220406/why-jamaica-pushing-kamina
