Oliver Fredrick Clarke

THE GLEANER, THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2020 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | E8 I HAVE had the pleasure of working with Oliver closely whilst carrying out the mandate of divesting the hotels. At that time the tourist industry was in the doldrums and the Government had decided to divest and revert the hotels to the private sector. The Prime Minister assigned Oliver and myself to carry out this exercise. Oliver at that time was the Chairman of the National Hotels and Properties Limited and I was the Chairman of the Divestment Committee. I thoroughly appreciated Oliver’s approach and his enthusiasm with getting on with this assignment and particularly his meticulous planning in our endeavour to have the matter completed expeditiously. It became obvious to me, that Oliver was a workaholic as early – very early – morning meetings were the order of the day. He demonstrated to me that he was a person of supreme integrity and was not prepared to take directions from politicians whilst carrying out this task. This became evident when a Minister of Government purported to give instructions to dismiss an employee on his staff as being a member of the opposition party. Oliver indicated to me that he had no intention of so doing with which I concurred. Needless to say the employee provided invaluable service to us. Oliver was always conscious that time should be well spent in carrying out the objectives and not wasting time unnecessarily. We reviewed the matter and came to the conclusion that the investors would be found on foreign shores. We had appropriate brochures and audited accounts prepared and then set off in pursuit of same. We first had discussions in Miami and thereafter in New York. In New York, we were interviewed by the press and held discussions with other potential entrepreneurs. We then discovered there was a rumour circulating that the Jamaican Government had confiscated the hotels without compensation. We vehemently rejected this and indicated that that this was not possible under the Jamaican Constitution. From New York, we went to Toronto, Canada and Oliver ensured that the schedule for all locations was tight and got designed to get through as many interviews as possible. This was achieved by sharing interviews between the two of us. Thereafter, we proceeded to London and then on to Paris and Milan, where possible lessees were interviewed. The Committee then decided which investors should be further contacted with a view to concluding business with them. Oliver proved himself to be an extremely, excellent negotiator and we were able to conclude very beneficial agreements. However, I received a letter from Prime Minister Seaga indicating that we should not divest the hotels by way of outright sales but only lease as the Government wanted to retain a proprietary interest in them. Hence we entered only into leases at that time. All the time spent on this important exercise lasting over a period of several months which we rendered gratuitously. R.NA . HENRIQUES Oliver did not elieve in time wasting T hinking man, indeed FREEDOM OF the press is, in essence, an offspring of the fundamental right to freedom of expression which is enshrined in the constitutions of practising democracies across the globe. The late Honourable Oliver Clarke’s life work cannot for a moment be separated from the unending struggle on behalf of press freedom in all such democracies. That, no doubt, is one of two inescapable reasons why he strongly supported the idea of the absolutely necessary establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), and openly welcomed its coming into being. For Oliver Clarke, rightfully, there was a deep measure of incongruity and senselessness in citizens being blessed with the right to freedom of expression without the concomitant privilege of the ability to pursue remedies in all our courts of law, including up to the highest level of appeal, for breach of that right. Within legal boundaries, the fundamental right to freedom of expression that attaches to all our citizens is also meant to be enjoyed equally by the press. And all persons and entities within our society should be placed in a position to be able to pursue that right without let or hindrance. Affordability has forever been an unavoidable stumbling block in the way of multiple generations of Jamaicans in the pursuit of remedies in our highest court of law, the distant Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, sited in a country on the other side of the Atlantic. That did not, and could not, sit well with visionaries like Oliver Clarke who labour daily in the vineyard of press freedom. In his thinking, no entity, including his beloved Gleaner Company, should enjoy any access to our most superior court over and above the access that is open to all who are entitled to pursue violations of any right, in particular, the right to freedom of expression. PLEASE SEE NICHOLSON , E12