Ian Boyne

The ousting of Jamaica's most consistently popular politician since Michael Manley and the cloud over the head of Mr. Constitutional Reform concerning his decision to fire members of the Public Service Commission are indicators of the sense of diminished hope and dashed dreams which characterise Jamaican politics in 2007.

The Jamaican Political Project is under stress. At the end of 2007, tension between the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) is higher than they have been for a long time; many Jamaicans are expressing disillusionment with the two main political parties and the hope that the twin beast of high inflation - unemployment and high crime would be tamed is fading rapidly.

Frightening

Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Opposition Leader, Portia Simpson Miller, will have to cooperate more if the country is to move forward. - File

PNP supporters must resist the gloating and "I told you so" responses. Those of us who have sworn no allegiance to any of the political parties can ill-afford the luxury of sitting on the sidelines while thinking smugly, "I knew it all along". If people become cynical about and disillusioned with the two political parties; if they believe that "no better barrel, no better herring", then this is frightening for the nation.

PNP and JLP supporters should hope that if people are fed up with their party, then a swing to the other party is the more desirable option rather than rejection of the political system itself. For, if we are already reeling from the effects of anti-social behaviour and high crime, how could we countenance increasing numbers of people alienated from the Political Project, and believing that they have to seek their own anarchistic means of survival?

If the masses lose hope in the Political Project we are all in trouble. If they are fed up with the PNP it is better for them to believe in a constitutionally-acceptabl rather than feel that taking things in their own hands will bring deliverance.

Widespread political alienation and cynicism does no one any good, because the loss of hope is a sociologically and psychologically dangerous thing.

Fanning the flames of the "All politicians are corrupt and power-hungry" view benefits only those who have a vested interest in anarchy. Unfortunately, short-sighted politicians have done so much damage to one another in their one-upmanship games that they have needed little help from the rest of us.

I have always warned opposition politicians that they should play their political games carefully and mindfully, for often those games come back to haunt them.

Trifling our economic challenges by making it seem that they were purely the making of Omar Davies or "the wicked PNP Government" would tend to make any reasoned explanation of the new JLP Government hollow.

Pathetic

And to hear the PNP now pretending that our economic challenges, more particularly high-imported inflation, are the fault of the JLP when they were a few months ago in power and know of the grim realities of governing an open, import-dependent, small Third World country is pathetic.

Subsidies for the poor, when the PNP Government was committed to fiscal conservatism and the neo-liberal agenda? The year 2007 witnessed a deepening of our political cleavages, not a closing; a widening of the partisan gap, not a narrowing; a hardening of positions, not a softening.

This more adversarial, confrontational relationship between the Government and the Opposition is one of the dark spots of the year. I hear all the arguments about the need for a vibrant, responsive, alert and vigilant Opposition.

I hear the arguments about an Opposition's not being quiescent. And I agree. But we have to distinguish between constructive, critical engagement; a relentless, forceful and spirited defence of the people's interests and plain evidence of fractiousness and the myopic, self-serving posture.

I believe we must be as stringent in our judgment of any Opposition as we are of any Government. An Opposition's simply playing to the gallery, engaging in mindless histrionics and polemics should be castigated as firmly as a Government which is arrogant and contemptuous of any Opposition. Neither serves the interests of the people.

We have to find a way to heal the deep and bitter divisions of our people.

Intractable problem

This is our most serious, and seemingly intractable problem, not the high crime, high unemployment and high inflation which plague up. These are profound problems, indeed, but a united, purposeful and synergistic nation can tackle those or any other problem.

One of the reasons why our crime rate remains high and why consequently we can't boost employment much higher and strengthen economic growth is that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

At the end of the year our Parliament is more factious and rowdy than at the start and the tenor of our political discourse too shrill and antagonistic. It does not augur well for 2008. Our partisanship and narrow-mindedness is what I hate most about us. It is the greatest threat to our freedom.

It makes cowards of good men and women because it stifles and punishes dissent and coerces submission when it does not provoke rebellion.

People are afraid to express their opinions for fear of being labelled and subsequently made an outcast. Our partisanship contributes to our collective intellectual depravity.

Our intellectual faculties are corrupted by our political biases. In 2007 we have become even more disunited. This has done more damage to us than Hurricane Dean and the nearly two months of persistent rains.

The Prime Minister delivered a first-rate speech at his inauguration. In one memorable gem, he said, extending the hand of co-operation to Opposition leader Portia Simpson Miller: "In our pairs of hands rest so much of the hope of the people of Jamaica." Indeed, that is so.

He went on to say in reference to the Opposition Leader: "We have a choice. Those hands can engage in hand-to-hand combat or we can join hands together to build a nation that is strong, just peaceful and prosperous". Well said!

The hands are right now engaged in hand-to-hand combat and my wish for 2008 is that this game be called off. For, indeed, we can never be strong, prosperous and peaceful if our two political leaders continue the year the way they are ending it. Everything does not depend on them; but a lot does.

I remind the Prime Minister of his statement that "We must ensure that those who may think that they did not win are reassured that they have not lost." He must ensure that his actions are at pace with his rhetoric.

Vindicated

As I wrote in my column assessing the Prime Minister's inaugural address, "The Prime Minister will need the cooperation, emotional capital and trust if he is to confront three of the tasks which he has set himself and which people largely voted for the JLP for: The reduction of crime, the creation of jobs and the provision of an educated, productive people." I went on to say - and I am already being vindicated - that "these will be the hardest to achieve for the new Government".

And we will continue to bleed literally and otherwise and spoil our prospects for growth if we don't in 2008 correct our ills which worsened in 2007.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com