Robert BuddanIF IN 1900 you uttered the words the Prime Minister is a woman nobody would know what you were talking about. Women could not then be elected to national parliaments. Only in a few countries did they have the right to vote and there were usually barriers like age, literacy, and marital status.
There was a time when women could not even join political parties. Today we are not too surprised when we hear that a woman heads the largest party in the world's largest democracy India or is the president of Chile, one of the most conservative Catholic countries of Latin America, and governs Liberia, a country just emerging from years of civil war between male warlords on a continent in which the patriarchal tradition, we are told, is still so strong.
Jamaican women obtained a qualified right to vote in 1919. But, they had to own property of a greater value than men's, be of an older age than men and pass a literacy test, unlike men. No woman was elected or appointed to the Jamaican legislature up to 1944. In that year, the first woman, Iris Collins, was elected to the new House of Representatives. She was the only one among 31 men. This was a small but singular Jamaican achievement. The British governor did not appoint any woman to the Legislative Council when he had the power to do so up to 1962.
FIRST POLITICAL WOMAN
If Iris Collins was the first female representative, Rose Leon was the first in the executive of Jamaica's political life. She was the first to be in a party executive, as JLP chairman, and the first to be in the government executive, as JLP and PNP minister. Indeed, she was our first political woman of real power. Portia Simpson Miller now becomes Jamaica's first chief executive of both party and
government. Her immediate task has been fulfilled appointing a Cabinet the executive committee of parliament that she now chairs.
A PRIME MINISTER
IN THE MAKING
The obvious question now is: What kind of a chief executive will Simpson Miller make? She is only a prime minister in the making at this time. However, we have a pretty good idea of what kind of chief executive she wants to be. She has acknowledged that there will be high expectations of herself and her Cabinet. She, therefore, naturally wants what she calls an 'action team'. She wants moral government in partnership with the Church. And, if the reduced size of the Cabinet is part of a strategic purpose, then she also wants economical government. Her first week of stewardship suggests that she wants a moral government of economy and action.
But what will the purpose of that government be? The clearest summary suggests that government will be for poverty alleviation through economic growth and strong national security
policies. The country will agree with these priorities and there is a logical connection between them. Poverty reduction requires
sustained growth in the economy and growth in the economy depends so much on a reduction of crime. The overall framework of this will be moral government and economy of administration.
BUILDING A CREATIVE ECONOMY
The key ministries will therefore be the social ministries, the economic and finance ministries, and the national security ministry and security apparatus. The key ministers will be Portia Simpson Miller, Omar Davies, and Peter Phillips. Ironically, it is the Prime Minister herself who has more ground to cover in stepping to the wicket. She is both new as captain and as
player as far as portfolio responsibilities go. But she has the National Poverty Eradication Programme in the Office of the Prime Minister, which gives her the instrument she needs to prove herself as action leader.
What will the strategy of her government be? Moralising alone won't do. There has to be a strategic plan for the government if it is to get what it wants. We will get a clearer picture from the Throne Speech, budget presentation, and sectoral debates to come shortly. Quite likely the National Industrial Policy will remain the main strategic plan. The presentations of the new Minister of Development, Colin Campbell, and Phillip Paulwell's ideas for industry, will be watched closely. Anthony Hylton's return will complement Delano Franklyn's work with the Diaspora, something Minister Hylton strongly believes in. But, do we have all the right people in the right places to bring policy and strategy together?
Consider this case. JAMPRO is trying to show us the potential of the ?creative economy? through cultural industries. Jamaica has the fundamentals in place. Minister Paulwell's issue of fibre optic licenses will make Jamaica competitive in the information industry able to deliver its own cultural product to the world. We have complained about American cultural penetration, which is becoming more mindless and violent than ever. We can market our own ?one love? culture abroad.
The Ministry of Culture has just presented a National Cultural Policy to make Jamaica a cultural superstate. In the midst of all of this, however, responsibility for culture has been separated from education and youth. I am not sure I agree with combining tourism, entertainment, and culture. Jamaican culture should not be packaged simply as entertainment and amusement for tourists. The National Cultural Policy actually advocates a stand-alone ministry of culture and makes a good case for it. Economy of government is fine. But those who say that a ministry of culture would add to the cost of government should remember that, according to the National Cultural Policy, the Recording Industry Association of America reports that reggae music is worth US$14.5 billion and Jamaica only gets US$0.5 million of it.
Our local cable channel, Sportsmax, is now delivering sports to the Caribbean, the only Caribbean sports cable channel. Ingrid Riley's interview with Christopher Chaplin in last week's Sunday Gleaner indicated that Jamaica could earn as much as the tourism industry does from cultural cable programmes. Mr. Paulwell has now made it possible for cable channels to advertise and raise capital. But they could raise capital from the capital rich and culture poor overseas Diaspora. Waisome Marketing is also looking for Jamaican cultural content to market. We have the basics for a cultural superstate but we don't have a ministry of culture!!
I use this example to show that the way government is organised must be linked to a strategic concept. We need the right ministries and the right people in the right places for development. Jamaican culture is global and today's technology allows us a rare opportunity to become global players in this area. The next Diaspora conference is in June and the Prime Minister and Ministers Hylton and Franklyn must use this opportunity to provide concrete investment possibilities to Jamaicans with capital. We must develop a creative economy. The cultural industry is a people's industry. It must be used to bring in investments so that profits generated can go into alleviating that other people's industry poverty. In fact, for the same reasons we need a ministry of culture, we need a ministry of human development.
Between now and the next general elections, the Prime Minister will have time to think through her strategic positioning of government and make refinements as necessary. She must keep in mind that the ultimate objective of moral government must be human development. Economy of administration, markets and technology, applied thoughtfully, are means to get there.
Robert Buddan is a lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies. You can send your comments to Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm
