THIS TIME next week, the excitement generated by the general election will be all over and we will have a new Government to embrace the new millennium. So who will win politics' greatest prize? Ah, as I gaze into my crystal ball I can tell you it will not be the UPP or the NDM, that's for sure.

What I can tell you is this -- whether it be a P.J. Patterson-led PNP or the JLP with Eddie Seaga at the helm it will be an epoch-making event. If the JLP were to take office after 13 years in opposition and at the ripe old age of 72 with a young baby daughter to nurture, the Eddie Seaga sobriquet Don Dadda, or should I say Breeder Leader, will change to the Comeback Kid. But as I said before, win, lose or draw, Eddie will have to be as Frank Sinatra said, "Young at Heart."

Let's turn to PJ, the $35 million man (Somehow I'd put it at significantly more than that but alas I digress). He wins a fourth term and goes down in the annals of Jamaican history as the Prime Minister who won three straight terms and in the process smashed the potency of the JLP, rendering it to an even longer period in opposition.

Will the quiet strategist be now deemed the PNP's greatest leader? Will he be seen as the man who perhaps didn't have the charisma or statesmanlike demeanour of Micheal Manley but nevertheless ensured that the PNP is seen as the party of Government and is no longer stymied by the political dogma of rabid socialism.

Like Moses, Eddie may well lead his party to the promised land but he won't be the one to ensure it makes the crossing- that may fall to Bruce Golding. Nevertheless come October 16, and the JLP wins , it will cap an extraordinary political career. But this is all conjecture and it is not yet October 16.

What is clear is that after the general election, the sun will set on two titans of post Independence politics who have left an indelible mark - The King is dead ,long live the King.

CAYMAN ISLANDS

I took in a trip to the Cayman Islands last week, my first I may add and was struck by how efficient, clean and prosperous the place was. It was the first world set in the Caribbean. Driving through George Town I thought Jamaica should be like this. I turned to Owen James, TV's Mr. Business who surmised the same and said: "This is the standard we should be at, surely this can be attained."

Owen made the point that most of the 40,000 Caymanians came from the first world where this standard was an expectation- nothing more nothing less. Cayman has identified what its bread and butter is and acts accordingly, we expect very little from our leaders and poor discipline and the lack of will to fundamentally change things holds us back- but maybe one day, maybe one day. I must say I agreed with Owen. Cayman's income per capita stands at US25,000. Jamaica's at US$2,000.

GOOD OL' ROY

The irrepressible Roy D'Cambre has taken a lot of stick for his performance in the Business Editors Forum. He made the point that he would change the top 10 police positions and would change them with foreign white people. He further incurred the wrath of many media pundits by saying that he does not have a problem with bureaucracy because he pays a man to get things done.

For these comments Roy was all but hung, drawn and quartered. But on closer examination what Roy said is indeed very insightful. As I saw it what he in fact appeared to be pointing out is that the police are so corrupt and inept that it would be best to change its leading practitioners and replace them with people who were not tainted by the factors that have lead it to be so discredited.

Replace those senior officers with people of proven track records who fight crime as opposed to practising it. Turning to bureaucracy, it is such in Jamaica that it can cripple your business and leave one bankrupt.

Perhaps it is far more expedient and necessary to ensure the survival of your business to bypass all the red tape, delays and bungling and get to what has to be done expeditiously. It is indeed a sad indictment of how we live today that one of the country's leading businessmen could say these things.

With Roy it is always a matter of semantics. I'm sure he didn't mean to cause any offence but it seems he did-oops. Until folks.