Davies unwilling to discuss Seaga's debts with supporters
WALDERSTON:

MINISTER OF Finance, Dr. Omar Davies, told a group of over 200 People's National Party (PNP) workers of the North West Clarendon constituency in the Spaldings Primary School last Saturday that he does not discuss publicly the details of delinquent accounts brought to his attention, in his capacity as Minister.

"I do not even tell the Prime Minister sometimes," he said.

The Minister was replying to a question of loans received by Mr. Seaga.

He said, "There are secrets in this country that I know, because of my work. I know people's business, which I have to know as the Minister of Finance, not as Omar Davies to talk about publicly. So, when I am asked about Mr. Seaga, that is my position. I know, and he knows that I know."

The Minister said that the most difficult part of his job over the last nine years was in dealing with the problem of the banking sector.

"Loans were received that will have to be repaid by your children and grandchildren. But, if we did not intervene, the same thing that happened to Argentina, where people cannot get their money, would have happened in Jamaica."

On education, Dr. Davies said, "The future has no space for illiterates or unskilled workers."

He asked the candidate, Richard Azan to adopt a method used in his constituency of South St. Andrew and introduce remedial classes for slow students, as well as to retrieve some super brilliant students, who did not get the opportunity to excel.

This he said should be done in consultation with principles of underutilised centres. "Though they might not want to do so before the trumpet sounds," he said.

Citing himself as an example of his party's longtime emphasis on education, the Minister recalled his days as a barefooted boy at Four Paths Primary School when he was the only one to win a government scholarship. The then Member of Parliament O.D. Ramtallie had given him money as encouragement. Mr. Ramtallie, who was present as the Minister spoke, nodded in agreement.

Dr. Davies supervised the distribution of a booklet entitled, "Solid Achievements."