Dawn Ritch, Columnist

The kindest thing that can be said of Prime Minister Bruce Golding's first broadcast to the nation has already been said. In their editorial, this newspaper said he "gave an impressive perspective on the country's problems ...", though what he intended to do about them remained unclear.

Other than his most rabid supporters, nobody seems terribly convinced that Golding is able to do anything about these problems. Indeed, his supporters don't care whether or not he solves them, just as long as he continues to talk about them prettily.

It seems more than a little disingenuous of Golding, therefore, to spend an entire broadcast moaning about who created the crises facing the country. Jamaica's extraordinary debt-servicing obligations were well known to every schoolgirl, much less to the Leader of the Opposition as he was then. That didn't stop the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) promising free education and to double people's pay from political platforms across the country. Now that these campaign promises have won him public office, Golding is using the public debt as an excuse for not fulfilling them.

Far worse than reckless and false election promises, however, is the fact that since he took office, the cost of living in Jamaica has climbed dramatically, without a raise of pay in sight. Already one of the most expensive cities in the Western Hemisphere, Kingston does not have the kind of buoyant domestic market where price increases can be fed through to consumers without a hitch.

'Jobs, jobs, jobs'

Having promised, "jobs, jobs, jobs", Golding is likely to find himself presiding over an economy where even more people are thrown out of work in order to lighten the burden of rising overheads. It raises the question of why Portia Simpson Miller was able to manage the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar, yet, he who has a degree in economics cannot?

All else in the country remains the same save for a change of government. Yet, prices have gone up by 50 per cent. The inescapable conclusion is that Golding talks a good game, but doesn't know how to bat. Indeed, he is becoming an expert at complaining about every ball he has bowled.

It doesn't really help matters to be lectured in a television broadcast about the international price of corn or oil. Or even to hear complaints about the considerable damage done to roads because of unseasonably heavy October rains. Government is about the proper administration of a country even in the face of the unexpected. Indeed, government is mainly about how one copes with the unexpected. New situations arise every day, some of them never seen before and unlikely to be seen in the index of any book.

Surely, 18 years in the political wilderness ought to have honed Golding's skills at rolling with the punches. But, it appears they have not. What he wants is predictability and a clear run at everything the way it has been all his life. For him, it has been position on a silver platter while someone else fumbles the responsibilities. But the premiership of a country cannot be like that.

Nevertheless, now there's nobody to whom he can pass the buck, Golding would rather blame it all on the past, or forces beyond his control. It's either historical or international circumstances which are at fault, or both. At this rate, Golding can never run out of excuses for his own incompetence.

He is showing, therefore, far greater enthusiasm and diligence in pursuing past scandals than in governing the country today. Trafigura has been brought back, and two Members of Parliament from the People's National Party have fallen upon their swords over the light-bulb scandal.

I can't help wondering whether the money involved in these two scandals might not be less than the sums spent so far by the new administration on foreign travel. The new ministers of government travel like flocks of geese, and the island hasn't seen a cent of income out of it. Not even a foreign loan. Instead, we are still being fed on theories of how Jamaica can access cheap funds, as though the sitting government were still in Opposition and having a leisurely lunch at a private sector think tank somewhere.

Not ready?

All of this creates the indelible impression that the Jamaica Labour Party was anything but ready to assume the reins of government. Perhaps they didn't really expect to win the general election, which is why they are so unready. This may also be the reason that a number of their winning candidates have dual citizenship, in order to ensure that they had greener pastures to which they could emigrate.

The fact is, however, that they all have the responsibility now to help Bruce Golding govern Jamaica properly. It would be worth their while, therefore, to stop thinking about the past or greener pastures, and concentrate on the here and now.

Merely talking about 'fiscal discipline' and 'macroeconomic stability' won't cause those things to come into existence. It is of no more help than the Mayor of Kingston, Desmond McKenzie, saying it will take $780 million to fix all the roads in Kingston. One gets the impression that the Government is feeding us all this information just so they will have to do nothing about any of the pressing problems faced by the majority of the country.

Reasonable people might be forgiven, therefore, for thinking that a public relations agency was voted into power instead of a government. If things continue like this, the Golding administration will be unable to point to a single achievement during its first 100 days in office.

As to the monster, crime, which has increased on the JLP's watch, Derrick Smith, Minister of National Security, announced last week, that he intends to reduce it by 40 per cent. This is a wonderful figure, but he gave no specifics on how he intends to accomplish this. We can be certain, therefore, that it will remain a figment of his imagination, along with all the other promises the JLP government continues to make.