Don Robotham, Contributor
Golding was forced to bow to public pressure over the comments made by his ministers of state. - File
The end of one year and the start of another is a time for reflection on the state of Jamaican society and on what we can each do to make it better. This is particularly important because if there is one thing which experience has taught us over the last 20 years it is that we have a real leadership crisis. If there is one wish which we can make for the New Year it should be for a new style of leadership in Jamaica in 2008.
The outcry around the actions of Ministers of State Warmington, Montague and Vaz, as well as the Public Service Commission (PSC) affair, has made this point loud and clear to the new Government. The usual tribal partisanship which most political activists take for granted will no longer be tolerated. The speed and the intensity of the outcry took the Government by surprise and compelled Prime Minister Bruce Golding to act. This was particularly noteworthy because many people who voted for and supported the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) voiced their condemnation of the behaviour in no uncertain terms. For the first in a long time, one could see the narrow, tribalist loyalties being set aside and the interest of Jamaican society, as a whole, coming to the fore. In the midst of the gloom which surrounds us, we should not fail to appreciate the significance of this development. It is an extremely hopeful sign which provided us with a glimpse of what is possible if we set aside our partisanship and put principle first.
The new Government has partly got this message Mr. Golding finds himself under intense internal pressure to become more tribalistic. The PSC case is the most visible sign of this degeneration in the Government, which we hope can be arrested and reversed. As far as the Opposition is concerned, however, they seem unable to get the message - the country is tired of narrow, partisan politics and wants a leadership which can rise above the old-time tribalism. The Opposition continues to be an even greater disappointment than the Government. Rather than playing a constructive role, they have chosen, instead, to be largely negative, trying to capitalise in a partisan way on the failures of the new Government. It shows how out of touch they are with the wishes of the Jamaican people.
Old-time, sterile one-upmanship politics
What we want from the Opposition is not this old-time sterile, one-upmanship politics. First of all, we want them to be self-critical. They were in power for over 18 years and have much to answer for, especially in the area of corruption. The Opposition is dreaming if it thinks it can simply stonewall on the corruption issue and hope that it will go away and all will be forgiven. Well, all will not be forgiven. All has to be revealed and a clean and unmistakable break must be made with individuals associated with the lumpen tendency which has come to dominate the People's National Party (PNP). Without such a clean break, it will be impossible to take the Opposition seriously on any matter whatsoever.
Moreover, we want the Opposition to adopt a constructive posture. They must end the boycott of the Vale Royal talks forthwith. The withdrawal from these bipartisan talks was petulant and not credible in the first place. Too much is at stake for the PNP to be playing such foolish games with the future of Jamaica.
We also expect them to make positive suggestions about how we can better address the problems of the country. We have not heard one word from the Opposition on what new measures they propose to address the surge in crime. We have heard nothing about what they think can be done to address the dismal quality of our educational system. Vague references to 'educational transformation' or to the need for early childhood education will not cut it. Early childhood education attempts to address the deficits of the educational system indirectly and in the long term. It is not an answer to the problems of today. The Opposition seems to be clueless in this area.
Silent opposition
The same applies to the crisis of our youth. We have an Opposition spokesperson on youth who is silent. This is an absolutely crucial area of public policy. The Opposition seems to be clueless in this area as well.
The same emptiness exists on economic policy. This is highly ironic because, as predicted, the JLP is pursuing the exact 'low inflation model' as the PNP. If anything, given the highly negative global economic environment, the JLP is being even more rigid than the PNP was under Omar Davies. All the PNP has done so far is to crow over the fact that both inflation and interest rates have risen significantly since the JLP came to power. But how does that help us? What the country wants to know is what suggestions the PNP has to arrest inflation and to halt the spike in interest rates. To reduce this serious issue of policy to personalities - the competence of Mr. Shaw, Mr. Wehby or Mr. Golding - trivialises them. What the country wants to hear are policy proposals - but there is nothing from the Opposition.
Meaningless calls
Some vague noises have been made calling for food subsidies to deal in with the cost-of-living increases. But these have been meaningless. Anybody can demand food subsidies but the issue is how to finance them, given our severe budgetary constraints. Moreover, Dr. Davies cannot be chiding the Government for the spike in inflation and interest rates on the one hand, while Mrs. Simpson Miller calls for inflationary subsidies on the other! This is simply another example of demagogic nonsense and should be dismissed.
So far, the PNP has not provided the slightest clue as to how their proposed subsidies would be financed in a non-inflationary manner. Or if their position is that we should tolerate more inflation, then they should argue their case openly and not play stupid games with a serious issue. In the absence of such arguments and in the face of such inconsistency, one can only conclude that this is another area in which the PNP does not have a clue. They are simply hoping to play upon the hardships of the people and get a free ride back into power.
The most critical challenge which we face is in the area of crime and violence. There has been grave dissatisfaction with Minister Derrick Smith, including within the ranks of the JLP. Yet, we have not really heard any fresh ideas coming from the PNP side either. One gets the impression that the view from that quarter is that we have to wait on the medium and long term before we can begin to get on top of the crime problem.
What's their position?
But, as has been pointed out many times, if we don't get on top of crime in the short term, there will be no long term. So what is the Opposition's policy suggestion for the immediate short term? Do they agree with the 'hotspot' strategy as currently implemented or would they change it? If they would change it, how and why? Do they agree with borrowing aspects of the British preventive detention policy or do they not? Do they agree with the analysis which argues that the surge in homicides is due to 'disorganised crime' (the smaller fry) and not so much due to the big gangs in the garrisons? What does the Opposition think of the plan to re-train and redeploy the Mobile Reserve as a strike force against hardened criminals? Is this not a 'kill and go' policy under another name? How do they think police killings can be reduced and the human rights framework for police operations strengthened? These are the thorny issues which face the country and on which we expect the Opposition to be giving leadership as much as the Government.
This is the kind of leadership which the country yearns for. One thing we have learned from recent experience is that the constructive approach to leadership does not repose in any single political party and does not come naturally. On the contrary, the leadership and core supporters of both parties have a powerful tradition of tribalism. Both sides have many leaders and supporters who need to leave politic The forced apologies from Warmington and Montague proved, however, that if we are sufficiently determined we can compel our leadership to stick to some principle. This is the crucial, positive development of 2007. We must continue to apply this lesson not only to the Govern-ment but to the Opposition as well. We must apply it in the private sector as much as in the public sector. We must struggle to bring forward more of this new kind of leadership in the New Year. The seriousness of our problems demands it.
