Delroy Chuck JAMAICANS, EVERYWHERE, hope one day that the land of their birth can be a place of which they can be proud, a haven to visit and feel safe and, for many, a final resting place to spend the evening of their lives. At this time of the year, thousands of Jamaicans visit, to see families and friends, to enjoy the season's festivities and, sadly, to experience Jamaica's continuing disintegration. Jamaica yearns for strong, unifying and inspiring leadership, sound macro-economic policies and the social and moral values to take us on the path to recovery and a better life.
Jamaica could be paradise, a blessed land and a jewel amongst nations if only we could settle down, get our economy booming, control the crime and violence, and provide an environment for our citizens to pursue happiness, enjoy freedom, secure justice and find worthwhile occupations to earn a living or to spend their time and energy. The people of Jamaica have not been well served. Our leaders have not led well and provided the vision to inspire our people to build a great country. Jamaica urgently needs people, systems and policies to create the environment for peaceful and happy living, for more jobs, better opportunities and a stable, good and just society.
PUT JAMAICA FIRST
Foremost, we need to put Jamaica first. If we mean Jamaica well then let us adopt the best system and policies that can motivate the country to create wealth, to raise the standard of living and enable everyone to live a good life. Amazingly, there are still closet socialists who believe that politics is about the distribution of wealth, which ultimately becomes, as Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson warns, the distribution of poverty. In truth, for the past 10 years and more, the underlying theme of governance has been simply about how much land, houses, contracts, jobs, cars, cellular phones, etc. can be distributed, even while the country's indebtedness spirals. The government, and the country, is living beyond its means and that simple fact is largely responsible for the fiscal problems that Jamaica now experiences.
"When it comes to the question of which system today is the most effective at generating rising standards of living," Thomas L. Friedman writes in the LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE, an excellent book on globalisation, "the historical debate is over. The answer is free-market capitalism. Other systems may be able to distribute and divide income more efficiently and equitably, but none can generate income to distribute as efficiently as free-market capitalism." Friedman is right. Yet, we fail to embrace the free-market fully as the path to economic recovery. If we really mean Jamaica and its people well, we would reverse the daft fiscal and monetary policies that cause so many factories to close, so many jobs to disappear, and so many beggars and homeless people everywhere. Is it not these worthless government policies that forced so many erstwhile manufacturers and producers to relocate abroad?
Adopting free-market capitalism would truly make the private sector the primary engine of economic growth, which means the government must stop crowding out the private sector and provide business-friendly policies to induce investment, production, growth and development. Naturally, with an open economy, we must be prepared to produce cheaper and better than others or perish. Competi-tion is the name of the game and whether we like it or not our producers will have to learn to compete with the world. To be sure, the government will have to provide the macro-economic framework for industries to become efficient and competitive, and avoid supporting inefficient and uncompetitive industries. Instead of imposing and raising tariffs, we should be eliminating and lowering tariffs on imported goods. In the free market, the consumer is king. The remaining unprofitable and inefficient state industries and utilities should be immediately privatised and made to serve the consumers and the country better.
In fact, the burgeoning state bureaucracy needs immediate downsizing. The country cannot afford the bloated and inefficient public sector. Peripheral areas of the public sector are just corrupt, undisciplined and fairly useless. Many government employees serve more as impediments instead of facilitators and, thus, the public suffers from a poor delivery of service. I think we can get better value for money from the myriad government service and contracts. However, government contracts are not meant to deliver service, improve the quality of life or make Jamaica a better place but to give a 'bly' or to allow some people to eat food. Corruption, indiscipline and inefficiency affect every facet of life, and until we eschew them, Jamaica cannot become the paradise it can be. A trim, clean and efficient bureaucracy is a prerequisite for a good society.
As we say goodbye to another year and look forward to the challenges of 2004, we, the people, must summon the courage, commitment and creativity to find new ways to make Jamaica a better place. We can dream and visualise what a great Jamaica could be but until we play our part our island cannot become the place our children and future generations will be proud of and want to call home.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at delchuck@hotmail.com.
