Michael Stern made no secret of his wish to be appointed to the Government, or his expectation that it would happen.

He was, Mr Stern indicated to this newspaper, giving Prime Minister Golding time, in the wake of the PM's big speech about reorganising the Government, before the end of his hiatus. Mr Stern, the MP for North West Clarendon, was right is his confidence. He was quietly reinstated as minister of state for industry, investment and commerce.

Mr Golding, obviously, has blundered. By putting Mr Stern back into the executive, he risks sending the signal that the Government is not serious about public-sector reform or, if it is, it is not the political types who are to bear the brunt of the adjustment.

Or, at the most benign, Mr Golding's signal is that he has failed to grasp the depth of the economic crisis confronting Jamaica and the urgency of the response that is required.

Mr Stern was one of the parliamentarians who was caught in the dual-citizenship controversy. Although he won a seat in the House in the 2007 general election, he was ineligible to sit in the legislature, having "by his own act" come under "acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power" other than a Commonwealth country.

Mr Stern subsequently renounced his US citizenship and won a by-election ordered by the court. But in the interim, he was forced to step down as a junior minister.

trim the size of government

Six weeks ago, with Mr Stern on the ministerial sidelines and the Government forced to concede that the Budget it delivered in April could not hold, Prime Minister Golding, in a late speech to Parliament, warned that "we will have to trim the size of Government".

The Government could not afford the $127-billion wage bill for the 117,000 people it employs, who account for nearly a quarter of annual state spending and nearly 12 per cent of GDP. A task force is now looking at how the public sector is to be restructured, and Mr Golding agreed that as part of the process, "the size of the Cabinet and the number of ministries will also be dealt with".

Mr Golding has promised to begin implementation at the start of the new fiscal year in April. We, however, suggested to the prime minister that cutting his Cabinet and junior ministers need not wait.

By acting now to streamline his bulbous executive, Mr Golding would send a clear message about the depth of the crisis, the urgency of the task, and his willingness to take the hard decision. The move would be symbolic, but important. We do not believe that sending a few of the front-benchers to sit at the back of Parliament would affect the quality of the Government.

Nor do we discern that the absence of Mr Stern has affected the performance of the administration, unless Mr Golding is calling on extremely privileged information which the rest of Jamaica has not the ability to fathom.

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