Prime Minister Bruce Golding appreciates that the mere changing of faces or shifting of seats in a Cabinet does not equate to policy clarity or the effective implementation of programmes.

So, while this week's adjustment by Mr Golding of his team may be a good public relations move, an implied declaration of new directions by the government to confront the tough times, that, in and of itself, is not enough. Especially in the absence of an explanation of the philosophical framework used by the prime minister to arrive at his decisions.

This, perhaps, will emerge over the coming weeks, and especially during the budget debate, as the government outlines how it will fund its planned $547.7 billion of expenditure, as well as the policies it will pursue to ensure fiscal stability and economic growth.

The question that confronts Mr Golding, therefore, is whether the team he has fashioned is the best available to do the job, notwithstanding the constraints of a thin parliamentary majority and a shallow backbench.

Security shift

In this regard, the most significant move by Mr Golding seems to be the shifting of Mr Dwight Nelson as a minister in the finance ministry to be the minister of national security. That, at first blush, is not a bad decision.

Colonel Trevor MacMillan, unlike during his tenure as police commissioner, did not enjoy broad consensus in the job. He appeared, perhaps inevitably, to have had strained some of his old friendships in the human-rights movement, and appeared not to have earned the trust, if not full respect, of the political opposition. His impolitic gaffes didn't help in an environment where crime, even more than a sickly economy, is considered the country's number-one problem.

Mr Nelson clearly brings no magic wand to the job. And in the current economic circumstance, he can expect no great flow of resources.

But Mr Nelson is an astute, although sometimes tart-tongued trade unionist with friendships and respect across political and social lines. He has greater prospects than Col MacMillan of achieving bipartisan consensus necessary to fight crime.

But Mr Nelson's departure from the finance ministry leaves a void, removing as it does the person who was negotiating with trade unions the proposed freeze on public-sector salaries, so critical to the government's economic programme.

The prime minister, inadvisably, did not disclose a process for these talks to proceed. That breeds uncertainty.

Test of character, experience

The mining and energy ministry taken over by James Robertson is a key economic one that has fallen on hard times. It will be a grave test of Mr Robertson's experience and intellectual curiosity if he is to command the nuances of the mining industry and the global environment in which it now operates, so as to entice the transnational owners of the mothballed alumina refineries back to Jamaica once the crisis has passed. We suspect, though, that he can expect much help from Mr Golding.

Like Mr Robertson, Daryl Vaz, who has been given the information and telecommunications portfolio, is energetic and politically robust.

He has the capacity to bring order to the government's, at times disjointed and chaotic, communication efforts. It is important that he combines obvious skills with subtlety, lest his efforts have unintended consequences.

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