It is utterly ironic that the recently released $5,000 note bears the image of Hugh Lawson Shearer, who as prime minister (1967-1972) presided over the last sustained period of robust economic performance. The $5,000 bill is not a note to be proud of.

In an early address as Jamaica's youngest prime minister and the youngest in the Commonwealth, at 43, younger than Barack Obama, Shearer told the expectant nation: "I have three alternatives from which to select in running the country. The first is to allow Jamaica's development to stagnate. The second is to go on bended knees to some foreign country and beg for economic assistance. The third is to call on my nation of people to accept our challenges and tackle our problems with self-respect and self-discipline.

"I do not propose to resort to the first alternative and preside over the stagnation of development - I cannot and could not, be prime minister under those circumstances.

"I do not propose to go, hat in hand, with the problems of Jamaica, to some other country begging for grants and handouts; I will never be prime minister under those circumstances - somebody else, not me!

"I propose to succeed or fail on the third alternative. I will rely on the self-respect and alertness, the courage and self-discipline of my people to face and tackle the problems of our country."

Every other prime minister, subsequently, has gone begging hat in hand, has presided over some stagnation and even regression, and has racked up the national debt which Shearer left in 1972 at low and manageable levels.

'I was there'

The majority of Jamaicans are too young to know the currency changeover from pound, shilling and pence to dollars and cents in September 1969, over which Hugh Shearer presided as prime minister. I was there.

The bright new Jamaican dollar was valued 1:1 to the US dollar, and 2:1 to the British pound. The largest bill was the $10 bill and 50 cents was a note not a coin. The Jamaican dollar has since then, in the space of 40 years, suffered nearly a 90-fold devaluation against the US dollar - most of this since 1989. The Gleaner's 'This Day in Our Past' for September 29, reports that on that day in 1989, the Jamaican dollar was 5.93 to the US$1. Since then, the currency has lost 1,500 per cent of its value. In the first 20 years, the loss was less than half that at just under 600 per cent.

We have introduced the $20 bill, the $100 bill, then reversed to a $50 bill, then on to the $500 bill and the 'Manley'. The United States' biggest bill is the $100 note, for Britain it is the £50 note. I ran a Jamaican dollar exchange rate against CARICOM currencies in preparation for this column and the results are: Barbados 43.64, T&T 15, EC 32.33, and Cayman a whopping 102.

Not even his bitterest critics could say, "is Shearer fault". Hugh Shearer was swept out of office in 1972 with the exchange rate at US1.30 for J$1!

What Independence means

Here is a bit more vintage Shearer from the undated JIS publication, Quotes from the Rt Hon Hugh Lawson Shearer, The Prime Minister of Jamaica: "Independence of a nation means independence of spirit, and accep-tance by its people of their obligations and responsibilities. It means that past dependence on others to solve their problems is at an end, and that new attitudes must begin to manifest themselves among the people. Independence means that the people of the nation must realise that the shape of their destiny is their own responsibility." I am hearing whispers of the 'take responsibility' message breaking out here and there again, certainly from the mouth of the current prime minister. This must be encouraged after years of neglect since Shearer.

Here is a gem! "Manna fell on Earth once in the history of the world, and it did not fall on Jamaica. This means, among other things, that our children must from now become aware of their responsibilities to the nation. It means that no magician is going to appear and strike with a magic wand the rock of Jamaica's problems from which will gush rivers flowing full of milk and honey."

Hugh Lawson Shearer was a solid, middle-of-the-road, one-term prime minister and a man of peace who left the Jamaican economy on a more secure footing than it has ever seen since, and who had begun important social transformation with care and moderation. To the extent that the $5,000 bill is a symbol of the wreckage of our economy and unnecessary hardship upon the people, it ought not to be a Shearer. I can think of a number of more worthy personages.

FOOTNOTES:

The Breakfast Club carried a valuable interview with Phillip Paulwell, former minister of telecommunications and other things, last Wednesday morning (September 30), the exact tenth anniversary of the signing of the deal which broke the Cable & Wireless monopoly in Jamaica. Paulwell, permanently in nappies in Las May's cartoons, is one of the more media-battered politicians, but yackety-yack Jamaica owes him a debt of gratitude for introducing competition into the telecoms sector against all the naysayers and a 25-year contract with a sole supplier.

Competition has driven down prices and expanded access beyond anybody's dreams. Paulwell indicated on air that he has been consulted by the present minister on current telecoms policy - a very positive political development in the midst of the everlasting squabbles.

The Government, starved for revenue in what will be an extended tamarind season, has chosen to impose a small tax increase on the telephone. Wise move. A small tax increase on a high consumption item which is less essential than, say, flour, and sells at relatively low unit cost per unit, is sensible taxation for large gain from small pain.

On a longer-term basis, the Government should push for a double win by registering and titling every parcel of land in Jamaica and getting every owner to pay a low, fair tax or forfeit ownership to the state. Titling will free up dead assets, stimulating the poor performance post-Shearer economy, and generate a strong and secure contribution to the revenue.

The long and robust sitting of the standing finance committee of Parliament, which is the whole Lower House, last Tuesday into Wednesday, including East Portland's Donald Rhodd's "principled" stand not to vote with his Opposition party against the estimates as a matter of conscience, bodes well for the future. The Budget must face real debate by the people's representatives which can lead to real changes: "No taxation without representation".

But look at how both sides locked arms in unity around the preservation of the dangerous constituency development fund (CDF). The CDF permits the unwarranted transfer to the legislature from the public service the power of managing the spending of revenue. The fund should go, as I and this newspaper, among a handful of others, have kept calling, removing a constitutional hazard to the separation and balancing of powers and freeing up even more revenue to help plug the gaping hole in the post-Shearer Budget.

Martin Henry is a communications consultant. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.