What about Kingsley Thomas?

THE CONTROVERSY of the Government’s plan to name the tolled North-South Highway in honour of the former prime minister, Edward Seaga, has abated, but in Jamaica’s often politically-charged environment, it is unlikely to be completely dead.

We expect officials and supporters of the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) to rekindle the argument that Mr Seaga opposed the spending on the highway and that work on it commenced during the premiership of the former PNP leader Portia Simpson Miller. Prime Minister Andrew Holness has defended the naming of the highway on the grounds not only of Mr Seaga’s broad contribution to Jamaica, but of his efforts in the development of the two areas directly connected by the highway: Kingston, the capital, and the north shore town of Ocho Rios. Fair enough, perhaps.

We found curious, though, throughout the controversy and the many alternative names suggested, no mention was made of Kingsley Thomas. Maybe no one remembered. Mr Thomas was CEO of the Development Bank of Jamaica and chairman of the National Housing Trust during the mid-1990s into earlier parts of the 2000s. He was the big ideas man of the PNP administration of the period

Importantly, Kingsley Thomas was the conceptualiser of the Highway 2000 work of roads, and was pivotal in the construction of the first segment, by its French concessionaire, Bouygues, that runs east to west, from Portmore to near May Pen in Clarendon. He also left blueprints for north-south roads and for their connection in a loop in the west of the island. He may be worthy of a lay-by being named in his honour.