Phillip Chong and Rubis
One of the dangers of not having someone clearly assigned to oversee the energy portfolio is playing out clearly in the dispute between Phillip Chong, who has served as president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers association, and Rubis petroleum — a 29-year-old multinational organisation with solid roots in France.
Maybe Prime Minister Andrew Holness is exceedingly busy. He must be. He is the Prime Minister and I know of no PM who has been in charge of Jamaica who does not have a long schedule and who does not work hard.
That’s why the PM should have already assigned someone to be the policy head of energy to address the impasse between Chong and Rubis that has motored on for much too long. Someone high in authority needs to tell Rubis in no uncertain manner that its approach to governance smacks, in some ways, of modern-day slavery. How can the company insist, for example, that it will terminate a contract of one of its retailers in one month? Even when you rent a place to live there is some space allowed.
Packing up a business in one month seems totally unreasonable. Surely, there are other issues involved that must be addressed, but Jamaican business people, like Phillip Chong, deserve more, and the Government has to tell Rubis and others of like mind that they cannot just drop into a little island they may call poor and trample on the rights of its citizens anyway or anyhow they feel.