Above: Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller being sworn into Parliament yesterday (OPM Jamaica)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica’s Members of Parliament are servants of the people and they should not betray the trust placed in them, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said at her new government’s swearing-in yesterday.

“We should count it a great honor to have been chosen by the people of Jamaica to occupy this important place in the affairs of our nation,” she said. “The people of this nation have reposed their trust and confidence in us, and we will work assiduously in these very challenging economic times to live up to that trust and protect the rights and interests of the Jamaican people.”

Simpson Miller, whose People’s National Party swept into power in a landslide victory on Dec. 29, said that the fact that Jamaica celebrates the jubilee anniversary of its independence makes the task of the country’s leaders even more important.

“We must be ‘change makers’ and purpose-driven leaders, who focus on the people and their concerns,” she said. “We must inspire trust; we must do what is right and what is good.”