Don Robotham, Contributor
Michael Alexander sits by the rubble which was once the home of Iona Daley in Bull Bay, St. Andrew, earlier this month. Daley's house was destroyed by heavy rains which have triggered landslides, eroded roads and damaged buildings throughout Jamaica. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
A game of smoke and mirrors is being played on both sides of the political divide. On the one hand, the People's National Party (PNP) leadership is trying to deflect the public's focus away from the corruption issue. On the other hand, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government is labouring to divert the public's attention from the massive price increases with a view to winning the December 5 local government elections.
It is clear that the PNP leadership has been pressured by the public and by members of the review committee to insist on the removal of Phillip Paulwell and Kern Spencer as Opposition spokesmen. To say that the leadership has been dragged kicking and screaming would be the understatement of the year. In my view, it was not a matter of protecting Paulwell; it is a broader question of protecting the lumpen. Still the resignations have been secured and once this precedent has been set other resignations can follow.
This is an important victory for the healthy elements in the PNP and an important defeat for a key branch of the PNP lumpen. At the same time, it is only a first step. Much more vigorous action is needed. Without trampling on anyone's rights and without crucifying people in public, the PNP owes it to Jamaica to pursue all the allegations of corruption, including Trafigura, to their ultimate conclusion. Failure to be uncompromising on the corruption issue is hamstringing the PNP's efforts to take up the many burning issues which face Jamaicans.
What is at stake here is not personalities. The real issue is the social character of the PNP. Is it going to be a party ruled by the lumpen or not? That is the question.
Corruption and elections
A similar problem faces the JLP. At first, I was in two minds about whether the JLP was seeking to use the corruption issue to divert people's attention from the price increases. Not any more. We have a Minister of Energy who is more conversant with the provisions of the Dutch criminal code under which a Trafigura investigation will be conducted than he is with the brutal consequences of never-ending gas price increases. The JLP's plan is to drip out scandal after scandal and pray that the people forget about price increases.
If the JLP is serious about corruption, why has it not announced its intention to table a law on campaign finance reform? If the JLP is really serious about corruption why don't they leave it to the responsible legal authorities - the contractor general, the director of public prosecutions and so forth? Why can't the regular legal machinery deal with these issues? Why the need to play the demagogue in Parliament if the aim is not to use the corruption issue to win the local government elections.
The JLP is pleading that the price increases and the infrastructure damage are not their fault. But there are two huge problems with this argument. The first is that the JLP was warned loud and clear before the election that the world economy was dicey. Still they went ahead with their demagogic promises of free this and that. Now that local government elections are coming they are desperate to change their tune. They have only themselves to blame if their own music is now coming back to haunt them.
Short-term inaction
But there is an even larger problem. This is the problem of JLP inaction in the short term. Inaction on the cost of living increases. Inaction on crime. Inaction on infrastructure. In his presentation to the nation last Sunday, Prime Minister Bruce Golding spoke eloquently about his medium- and long-term perspectives. But he maintained a stony silence on what the Government would be doing right now.
Is this silence due to plans in the government to go back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank? Going back to the IMF will mean bureaucratic rigidity and policy paralysis. It will also mean mass lay-offs, price increases and more devaluation.
It is not good enough to say that this is a global problem. We know that. It is downright ridiculous to say that Jamaica is a market economy so nothing can be done. Market economies all over the world are taking steps to subsidise food and other imports to address these very same problems. Some are modifying their import tariff and cost structures. Others are imposing price controls. Yet, others are modifying other aspects of their tax regime to finance these new global challenges. But all the JLP seems to be doing is standing on the sidelines, wringing their hands and moaning that they feel our pain. If you feel our pain, stop chatting and act!
It may not be financially feasible to identify an entire basket of goods and to subsidise all. But it may be possible to take out specific key items and address those. It is essential to examine the costs of our wholesalers and retailers in detail with a view to reducing them. The possibility of a special cost of living surcharge on the financial services sector - on the lines imposed by Omar Davies some years ago - cannot be ruled out. What an irony it would be if the JLP Government is forced to adopt the very same set of measures as the hated Omar!
People are hurting
People are really hurting in Jamaica and no alternative can be ruled out. An examination of all options with a fine-tooth comb is required. It also requires an aggressive proactive approach to price gouging. Something is wrong if the official increase in the price of flour is 30 per cent but it is really selling for a 65 per cent increase. Similar increases are being placed on chicken and, rice and in some cases, fertiliser. Some goods like skimmed milk have vanished. 'Marrying' is becoming rampant. The Government cannot just powerlessly and lament these abuses. It must act.
I wonder if the JLP Government realises how rapidly it is losing ground. Someone said to me this week, "Imagine, Bruce bring back marrying." Another said, "This two-month government can't manage." A third said, "My family seh don't bother with no clothes. Just send two barrel of food." Others expressed themselves in language not suitable for a family paper.
Crisis
The same applies to the infrastructure and crime issues. The situation with the roads is indescribably bad. But it goes beyond roads. The official estimate from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is that 400 communities with a population of 800,000 people are in crisis. This is 29 per cent of our total population, an amazing figure! To address a disaster of this magnitude requires national mobilisation across all political lines. It cannot simply be left to ODPEM. But the Government has yet to tell Jamaica that this is the enormous scale of the disaster. Don't they realise how much people are suffering?
The leadership style of the JLP Government is too managerial and distant. National Security Minister Derrick Smith is the most obvious example, but he is not alone. Mr. Golding's 'CEO style' is also at fault. More time is being spent in meetings and consultations at the Ritz-Carlton than with the people who elected the JLP to office. Have you also noticed that the whole approach of 'constructive engagement' has been quietly abandoned?
Swallowed alive
The latest appointments and non-appointments reek of tribalism. How quickly has the high-flown rhetoric about constitutional 'this' and constitutional 'that' evaporated! Where are our vociferous human rights advocates, so outspoken when the PNP was in power?
Bruce Golding is a decent man who means the country well. But it is clear that he is being swallowed alive by the JLP lumpen. He is also being paralysed by his own managerialism. Collaborating constructively with the Opposition is not a favour which a generous government confers on them and on the country. It is a necessity which arises out of the gravity of the problems the country is facing.
The same applies to the necessity to leave the air-conditioned offices and to go out into the highways and byways where people are really suffering. No government can solve problems of this scale alone. But the JLP lumpen don't see it that way. They have the power and now it is their time 'to eat food.' This is bad news for Mr. Golding and for Jamaica. Two-mouth government!
