Building a Better Jamaica

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Jamaica Observer

PRIME Minister Bruce Golding again served notice Tuesday night of Government's plans to make mandatory the inclusion of fathers' names on their children's birth certificates.

Golding told a town hall meeting at the Portmore Heart Academy that in the event that the father does not wish to come forward, provision will be made for the mother to name the father, after which the named party will be given time to accept or contest.

"Cabinet has given instruction for the laws to be amended that will require the name of the father to be included on the birth certificate of the child," Golding said to loud applause from Portmore residents.

"If the father does not wish to come forward, we are going to make provision for the mother to name the father, we will then serve a notice on the father to say you have been named, and we will give the father an opportunity to challenge that. And if the named person denies that he is the father, then he is going to be required to submit himself to a DNA test."

Loud applause and whistles followed the prime minister's statement.

One resident wanted to know why it was so difficult for the leadership of the two major parties to work together to solve the nation's troubling crime problem.

But Golding dispelled doubts of non-collaboration.

"If you are under the impression that we are not working together that is not true. We are in fact collaborating on the question of crime. For example, the national security council, which is a sub-committee of Cabinet, I invited the Opposition to name a representative and they named that person who has been attending the meetings and we meet once a month," Golding said.

He added: "Crime is a compound problem, it's a challenge. It is not just the collaboration alone that will solve it. A lot of work has to be done."

He said Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller suggested that there was need for a complete overhaul of the legal framework under which the police operate, to which he agreed, in addition to the merger of the Police Services Commission and the Police Public Complaints Authority.

He said they are both working together, but entire communities must be mobilised to fight crime.

Other questions ranged from squatting to the Jamaica Public Service's impending rate adjustment; opportunities for investment and employment opportunities for the able-bodied and physically challenged.

A 12-year-old girl who was paralysed after being kicked by a boy in primary school also had her wish granted by the prime minister, who promised to grant her a power wheelchair this June, after she made the request in a letter to him.