Golding

In what is likely to be his most frank admission yet, Prime Minister Golding has conceded that his administration could have made better use of the early period in office.

"I think perhaps we should have taken the fiscal challenges by the scruff of the neck more vigorously," the prime minister said.

Golding attributed some of the hesitation to the inexperience of his Cabinet. "One of the things that you need to bear in mind (is) there were only four of us, - Pearnel Charles, Ed Bartlett, Ken Baugh (and myself) - with previous Cabinet experience," he said.

He admitted that too much time and focus were spent just trying to get the new Government into rhythm. "Perhaps I can offer no excuse, because I have been there before, and I knew that we had wasted time as well in 1981," Golding said.

The prime minister added: "Sometimes you get so caught up in the immediacy of the challenges that the sort of long-term perspective that ought to drive every decision gets overtaken by other things."

In a word, the prime minister characterised as challenging his first two years in office. "Challenging in the sense that the recession is certainly not something that we had ever counted on, never anticipated, and you can't blame everything on that, because there are things that I think we, perhaps, could have done more, notwithstanding that," was Golding's frank admission.

Making good use of athletics vernacular, Golding conceded that having missed a good start out of the blocks, his administration has to be playing catch-up. "If you are running a race and you slip behind where you had planned to be at a certain point, it only means that you have to run faster in order to make up the ground," he said.

Political analyst Shalman Scott echoes Golding's sentiment that the past two years have been challenging, but very exciting.

"In the sense that this serves as an opportunity for the Government and the country to rethink our attitudes towards ourselves as a people and in relation to governance ... we have to move from the historical reactive mode into more proactive and transformative action to accomplish our vision," Scott said.

Scott is of the view that the opportunity now presents itself for an increase in consciousness for a partnership for prosperity. He contends that the challenges should forge a new level of awareness. "Whether we see a connection between crime and violence, the impact on the health sector ... these are the issues we have to look at as we ponder our future."

Notwithstanding the poor start, Golding expressed confidence that his team would rebound. "I don't feel that any damage was done, I just feel that perhaps some advantages could have been gained," the prime minister asserted.

learning curve

Asked to grade the performance of his Cabinet members, Golding refused to be specific, but said there had been some very good performers and some who had managed the learning curve well.

"I think that there are others who can do better. It's my job to make sure that they do better," he said.

Political analyst Dickie Crawford believes the Golding administration wasted much of its early political capital.

"He (Prime Minister Golding) came in on a wave of expectation and euphoria ... expecting to do a much better job than the previous Government without taking a careful assessment of the objectives, conditions and realities that existed at the time," Crawford said.

Crawford cited the big negatives for the Government as its reluctance to end the tribal nature of politics and what he claims is the Golding administration's overconcentration on retaining political power at all costs.

"I speak specifically of the dual-citizenship cases which ought to have been handled much more easily and quickly and should not have diverted the Government from the management of the country's economy and the major problem of crime and violence," Crawford argued.

"I, therefore, think that the prime minister's two-year tenure was characterised by a number of critical issues - the approach to electoral politics and political power, and an overabundance of this feature over the importance of managing the country," added Crawford.