Prime Minister Bruce Golding will, by now, have already crafted the message he intends to deliver to Jamaicans to mark the start of the new year.

Since it is his first New Year message in this job, we expect a slight difference in the tone from that which he adopted when he was Leader of the Opposition.

Being only three months in the job, Mr. Golding will probably remind Jamaicans of the difficulties inherited by his administration but suggest that Jamaica can look forward to the future with hope. The Government has been working, and will continue to work hard to improve the national economy and enhance security - and so on.

We will also be told about the need to proceed with unity and a singularity of purpose. And the Prime Minister will perhaps throw in something about improving the quality of governance. It will be a speech about which no reasonable person can complain. It will touch most of, if not all, the right chords.

But as Mr. Golding knows, and as he used to remind others, people will be more concerned with his actions than his words. They will be influenced by their lived experience.

Even in so short a time, that is the judgement that Jamaicans, perhaps unfairly, are already bringing to the Golding administration. And they are finding it wanting.

Part of the problem faced by Mr. Golding is the high bar that he set for himself - which was a good thing.

In Opposition, Mr. Golding spoke eloquently about the need for respect for established process and rule of, and equality under the law. He would bring new standards of public behaviour, with his Government leading by example.

Indeed, it is this same theme to which Jamaicans warmed in Mr. Golding's victory speech on the night of the general election and when he took the oath of Prime Minister of Jamaica. Unfortunately for Mr. Golding, a number of recent developments have caused some Jamaicans, particularly among the many who embraced his ideals, to question the sincerity with which the Prime Minister posited that platform.

Not least among their cause for concern has been the Prime Minister's handling of the so-called 'Vasciannie affair', the manner with which he appears to have flouted the Constitution and rejected the Public Service Commission's (PSC) recommendation for the job of Solicitor General. The reasons publicly advanced for the rejection of Stephen Vasciannie are, to say the least, flimsy.

When Mr. Golding did not get his way, he proceeded to have the Governor-General fire the members of the PSC on the questionable grounds of misbehaviour, using a Nicodemus tactic to circumvent an expected injunction by the court to prevent the action.

Then, the Prime Minister dithered on action against two of his junior ministers for remarks during the campaign for municipal elections in which they sought to trade benefits to a community for votes for their party. It appeared that Mr. Golding had to negotiate apologies from the two men.

The New Year provides Mr. Golding an opportunity for a new start. He is not too far along the way to be severely damaged. He might start by conceding the missteps and restart the engagement. The Vasciannie issue would not be a bad place to begin.

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