Delroy Chuck
HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS, of all kinds, depend significantly on trust and confidence. The best business relationships are those that can be sealed with a handshake or those in which a person's word is his bond. Talk is cheap but without action it is meaningless.
If we want to discover why this government has failed and continue to fail, we need not look beyond its pronouncements and flip-flop approaches to policy implementation. Nothing is well thought out. Its pronouncements are usually devoid of realistic targets, clear blueprints for actions and the necessary safeguards if things go wrong. Its ministers and spokespersons, in spite of their many speeches and addresses to the nation, have never inspired trust and confidence in anything they do or say. In a nutshell, the present government cannot be trusted and the lack of trust and confidence sufficiently explains the dismal state of the country.
Take the example of economic growth; there is no six-month period over the past 10 or 12 years when the country has not been promised three to four per cent growth annually. The Minister of Fi-nance, Dr. Omar Davies, in his 10 years and more in office, has never failed in his annual budget presentations to forecast significant growth of two to four per cent, in the short and medium terms. Yet, when we look at the figures, the country has not shown any meaningful growth at any time during that period.
NEGATIVE GROWTH
In fact, cumulatively, we have not grown four per cent during the past 12 years, as minuscule growth of half or one per cent have been cancelled by negative growth in intervening years. How many of us remember the much-vaunted National Investment Plan, unfolded and presented with so much fanfare, in which the Prime Minister promised 6% growth annually for 10 years starting in 1996, which means we should have grown by over 40% by now! Why should we now believe that economic growth is possible under this government?
Then, have we not been told that JPSCo's load-shedding will be a thing of the past? Would we not have a pothole-free country? How often have we heard of a balanced budget and bringing the fiscal deficit down to international norms of three per cent? And, when will we stop mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren with debt that cannot be repaid in the foreseeable future, or ever? In truth, no one in his or her right mind can admit the country is on the right track or accumulating solid achievements or making progress, yet that is exactly what the government and its supporters believe and want the rest of us to believe.
The reality is that the government has no vision or plan of where to take the country or how to get out of the rut into which it has plunged the country. When Dr. Omar Davies introduced the massive taxation package including the tax on winnings, Audley Shaw and myself warned him in Parliament that it would devastate the Cash Pot game, as time and experience have now demonstrated. Dr. Davies' prescription was to wait and see, and that prescription has been extremely costly in terms of tax collected, contributions to the Chase Fund and the damage to the operators, Supreme Ventures, which will now have to go on a massive advertising campaign, computer reprogramming and rebuilding of goodwill with the gamblers. I remember well urging Dr. Davies in Parliament to put a threshold of $25,000 or $100,000, as the winnings to be taxed, which would have avoided so much damage to the industry and, now, belatedly he has put a threshold of $15,000.
NO VISION
When leaders have no vision of where they want to take the country or no understanding of business practice then they wait until a crisis emerges or problems surface before they act. Leaders cannot wait until we get to the bridge to decide how to cross it, they must anticipate what problems may arise if the bridge is too small, overcrowded or one has to be hastily built. Have our present leaders listened carefully to the words of our anthem "Give us vision lest we perish" and accept responsibility for the failure to formulate and articulate a vision to move Jamaica forward? Let me help by admitting that the government alone cannot do it. However, unless the government provides the stage, vision and environment for businesses, farmers, educators, professionals, etc. to succeed then the increasing jobs, opportunities and choices the country so desperately needs will be mere political mirages for years to come.
I pity the private sector leaders, trade unionists and other players who now urgently seek a social contract or partnership for progress with the government. How can one enter into a contract with someone who cannot be trusted? Until the government demonstrates that its policies and actions can be consistent, well thought out, subject to critique, open and transparent, and represent programmes and objectives that truly benefit the country then what purpose would it serve to enter into a social contract? In governance, without trust and confidence, nothing worthwhile can be achieved.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at delchuck@hotmail.com.
