Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller has dubbed the eight-month-old Bruce Golding administration a failure.

"I am not going to rate them on any scale. I give them a failing grade," Simpson Miller said.

Last September, Simpson Miller led the People's National Party (PNP) to its first defeat in contested parliamentary elections since 1980. The Golding administration has been confronted with several challenges as world conditions have forced food and petrol prices to astronomical levels. Oil prices are now at a record US$128 per barrel compared to just over US$80 per barrel when the Jamaica Labour Party came to power.

Worldwide woes

Strong world demand, especially from China and India, is seen as a contributor to food prices rising.

In addition, the diversion of corn and grains to the manufacture of ethanol and other biofuels, as well as higher energy costs, have been listed as factors leading to food prices rising.

While acknowledging the adverse effect of global conditions on local prices, Simpson Miller said that the Government has refused to show leadership in critical areas.

"What I find with this Government is that they are behaving the same way as when they were in Opposition.

"Any Government that is in power has a responsibility to ensure that they deal with the challenges," Simpson Miller told The Gleaner.

According to the opposition leader, the handling of crime and violence has been a major disappointment.

"We will do anything to assist the Govern-ment, but the Government must also be serious," Simpson Miller said. She complained that the administration has not allocated enough money toward social-intervention programmes.

Murders spiked under the PNP's watch during the last 18 years. Nearly 600 persons have been murdered since January.

Prime Minister Golding, in an attempt to address the crime problem, moved Derrick Smith as national security minister and installed former police commissioner and army officer, Colonel Trevor MacMillan.

Over 14,000 Jamaicans were murdered during the PNP's 18-year reign. Some 1,574 persons - 100 fewer than the record homicides in 2005 - were murdered last year.

Asked what she would do if she were prime minister now, Simpson Miller was guarded.

Community intervention

However, the opposition leader said she would spend more on community-intervention programmes to fight crime. In attacking the effects of rising food prices, she said one of her strategies would be to increase the minimum wage, which now stands at $3,700 per week.

"I would dispatch my minister of foreign trade to like, Argentina, to discuss the question of wheat and to other producing countries of rice and wheat for dialogue," Simpson Miller said.

She added that she would charge her finance minister to keep the lid on inflation.

"It is the wickedest tax on the poor," Simpson Miller said.

The opposition leader, who has done her own introspection of her 18-month stay as prime minister, believes she did well in the job but ran out of time.

"I was not able to achieve as much as I wanted in terms of lifting the standard of living of the masses, but I really feel that I made my mark," she said.