Who is popular today?

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang has unapologetically labelled as "politically unethical" Opposition Leader Mark Golding's recent call for the head of the country's police force to improve his performance within 60 days or go.Speaking in Montego Bay on Thursday, Dr Chang dismissed Golding's ultimatum - thrown out from the podium of a press conference two days before - to Police Commissioner Major Anthony Anderson."I'm the politician. The commissioner is not a [holder of] political office and I find it very disturbing that the Opposition would have drawn the commissioner into what, essentially, was [a statement made] from a political platform," said Dr Chang who, it had been widely speculated, would have been relieved of the security ministry portfolio in a Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month. He survived but with more than 110 persons murdered across the island since the start of the year the calls for the Government to stanch the bloodletting have gotten noticeably louder.Speaking with reporters during a handing-over ceremony in Salt Spring, which is in his St James North Western constituency, Dr Chang suggested that it would have been better for Golding to have a conversation with the commissioner."If he has concerns, the commissioner is always available to the Opposition and I'm sure they could have had discussions. So to have done that was politically unethical - and I say that quite openly," said Chang, who is also the deputy prime minister.His dressing down of the Opposition leader comes in the wake of similar concerns expressed by minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Information Robert Morgan. In a swift response on Tuesday, Morgan labelled Golding's ultimatum as unbecoming and reckless.Meanwhile Dr Chang has also taken issue with the timing of Golding's ultimatum."That's not the kind of politics you do, especially when your police is obviously under pressure," he argued on Thursday.Often housed in facilities in need of urgent repair, understaffed and locked in a battle with the Government over wages, the Jamaica Constabulary Force is regularly described as an under-resourced entity whose members are demoralised.Chang has promised to address salary concerns that have lingered across political administrations, and there are ongoing efforts to build or repair a number of police stations across the country.- Horace Hines