Floyd Morris, Contributor

Free and quality education are not mutually exclusive. Our communist neighbours to the North, Cuba, has demonstrated that a country can provide both free and quality education, and their country has been consistently rated in the top five countries when it comes to the provision of health and education services.

Cuba has less economic resources than Jamaica and has been subject to over 40 years of economic embargo by the United States. Its per capita income is less than US$2,000, while Jamaica is over US$4,000.

PNP administration

The PNP administration has demonstrated in the past that is has the capacity to find money to do things that it deems as priority. If the PNP took the money that it had been using to subsidise Air Jamaica and the struggling sugar industry, and injected this in the education and health sectors, the administration would have been able to provide these services free of cost to the citizens. It is estimated that it cost the Government approximately J$13 billion a year to support Air Jamaica and another J$3 billion for the sugar industry. These are significant sums that could be used to top up the health and education sectors. The Government should sell Air Jamaica to our overseas brothers and sisters who have significant amount of cash that could assist in turning around the national airline. They will then find a suitable management team for the airline to provide the necessary returns on their investments. This will also trigger significant and real participation of our overseas population in national development.

The PNP should also engage members of the Jamaican diaspora in discussions on the support for education. Each year members of this community repatriate approximately US$2 billion to the country in the form of remittances. This money has been sent to relatives to do various things. Could the 'rebranded' PNP engage members of the diaspora in a discussion to have a portion of this money being placed in a special fund to support the development of our education system? This fund would be managed by a team of both local and overseas Jamaicans, with government supervision. Such a fund could provide the necessary resources for purchasing much needed equipment and supplies for the schools, thus eliminating the need for any user fees.

While I believe that sugar is still 'sweet', I believe that it should not be 'sweetened' at the expense of tax-payers. Under current arrangements, the means of producing this com-modity is inefficient. The PNP administration had embarked upon a process of diversification with the aim of producing ethanol. The administration is commendably following through with its implementation.

Divestment process

The divestment process is likely to cause some social dislocation. This means that the country will lose significant number of jobs for those who currently reap the various crops of sugar cane. However, a future PNP administration must get HEART/NTA to retrain these individuals in other areas of agriculture, such as hydroponics and bee-keeping, so that they can gain new sources of income. The new PNP should organise them into co-operatives where they will be required to pool their resources in order to be efficient in production. I am certain that the European Union would be prepared to assist with such a venture.

A future PNP administration must then concentrate the greater portion of expansion of our schools in these 'sugar-belts' so that the children of these cane-cutters can gain greater access to education and to ultimately break the inter-generational cycle of poverty that has dogged sugar workers for centuries. This is where real and genuine freedom will come for our people who have toiled on the plantation from the inception of the slave trade.

Fundamental issues

These are some of the fundamental issues that the PNP has to deal with in its rebranding efforts. The organisation's members and supporters need not fear whether or not the PNP will be able to pass through these testing times. The PNP has a very strong support base that is larger than that of the JLP. More people identify with the fundamental philosophy of the PNP than that of the JLP. For example, in the study conducted by Powell et al, 53 per cent of the respondents identified with freedom while 43 per cent identified with order.

From a liberal democratic philosophical perspective, the PNP has always identified with freedom and has been more liberal than the JLP. The PNP believes that people should be free to live their lives and that government should provide support through the provision of social services to improve the lives of its citizens, irrespective of the circumstances.

If the PNP is to remain relevant, the organisation must move with due haste to reclaim what is traditionally theirs. The organisation must move to win back the trust and confidence of the people, and this cannot be done in a cosmetic way. It must be done through the organisation returning to core values and principles. Principles that Norman Manley would be extremely proud of.

As the PNP enters another round of internal elections, the contestants, Dr Peter Phillips and Portia Simpson Miller, have a window of opportunity to restore the organisation to its core principles. For any one of them to get my support, they have to highlight a clear strategy to restore the PNP to its democratic socialist ideals - ideals to which I am firmly committed.

Floyd Morris is a former PNP senator.