Coye has no problem with reassignment
Two days after the Prime Minister’s Cabinet shuffle, or as he put it, “realignment”, reaction is emerging from all corners. Today, the man who many say lost the most took his turn at the mike. This afternoon, a calm and composed Jose Coye told News 5 that the new assignments are the Prime Minister’s prerogative, his constitutional right, and yet another reminder that sitting in Cabinet means playing as part of a team.
Jose Coye, Minister of Works
“I know there have been concerns expressed out there. Some believe it could be a punishment, that’s how it’s perceived…a demotion. Quite frankly I don’t see it as such, I am not here to think about whether it’s a punishment or a demotion. I believe that what is important for me, as a minister of government and as an area representative is how I measure up to the expectations of the people who elected me of course in the Caribbean Shores at first, and secondly while called upon to serve in the Cabinet is how well I have managed the portfolio for which I have been given that responsibility. I came to the Ministry of Health with the mandate to reform it, I am moving on now and I think that I will be judged on how well I have left it.”
“We must see the Cabinet as a team. I think that is the way it ought to function. Some people tend to see Cabinet as one ministry being more powerful than the other ministry. Again, I believe that we ought to be interdependent. It’s the synergies of a Cabinet that is important to us, it’s not who is might be more powerful or less powerful in a Cabinet. I feel as to myself that I can serve in any ministry within that Cabinet. Why, because I never believed as a minister that I must be the cook, but I must know how good food taste.”
“I do have differences certainly with certain members of Cabinet in terms of the way they want to carry out policies. And I strongly believe, and I want to repeat that for every one of us in government, whether it be as a legislator or as a member of the executive that remember always, that at the end of those policies there are lives and there are jobs, and when we are making them we need to take that into account. But there will be the perception because the reality is that there are differences and there is no sense in pretending that there isn’t. The question is how we manage the differences, whether we channel it into a positive way of development or policy development or whether we want to make it negative. That depends on the leadership.”
But Coye has also led the resistance against those in Cabinet seeking to privatise the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Today, the Minister maintains he will continue to defend his position.
Jose Coye
“I will continue to support the mandate of the Government in terms of the universal access to health. I will continue to support the mandate of the government in terms of improving the public sector side of the service. I had never opposed the public and the private sector partnership. I have never believed that we could be able to bring universal access to health, improve the health system simply by a public sector. That’s impossible, we have to have the private sector participation. What I do oppose and I will continue to oppose is that we will privatise health to the point where it becomes unaffordable. I believe in the partnership between the public and the private sector, and I want to re-emphasize here that I think that is the policy of the government, that’s what we set out to do in 1998. I also want to make it very clear here that I remain committed to the belief that the state has responsibility to create equal opportunities for human capital development. I think two of the essential services for that is health and education and I think we remain committed to that and I will always be committed to that.”
Coye will assume his duties as the Minister of Works on Thursday.
