EDITORIALS - Support social partnership
published:
Tuesday | April 22, 2008
Prime Minister Bruce Golding's announcement last week that he has formally invited the Opposition and the umbrella trade union organisation to negotiate a social partnership agreement is a welcome and important development.
Indeed, this newspaper, as it previously made clear, believed that the prime minister was on the right track when he first indicated that it was, in his view, important that the Opposition be on the ground floor of any such discussion. It is a way of building confidence and trust on the way to consensus.
We hope that the People's National Party (PNP) and its leader, Portia Simpson Miller, accept the seriousness of Mr Golding's intent and do not feel themselves compelled to play tit-for-tat.
In the mid-1990s, an attempt by the PNP administration at an element of a social contract, then headed by P.J. Patterson, faltered on trade union intransigence, having been blinded by its mistrust of the private sector. That project, managed by Dr Paul Robertson, who had the portfolio for development, did not, unfortunately, engage the Opposition from the start.
Stillborn process
The upshot is that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) watched warily from the sidelines, doing little to help the process. It could not be blamed for the fact that the process was stillborn.
Nearly a decade later when a new initiative was being driven by the private sector, with the PNP still in office, the JLP was again aloof. It obviously feared that a commitment on its part would leave it committed to the broad economic policies, thereby limiting its capacity to criticise. We suspect, too, that part of the JLP's fear was that a social partnership agreement may have led to economic success, with the potential for freezing it out of power.
But whatever the party's reasons for its seeming disinterest, it is important to note that Mr Golding was not, during the early part, the JLP's leader. In any event, Jamaica's current circumstance demands that the country heads on a path devoid of narrow and tendentious political sniping.
In other words, we feel that an economic framework can be established that allows for consistency of programmes and agreed norms, while leaving room for parties to form their areas of emphasis. During their interventions in the Budget Debate, Dr Omar Davies, the shadow finance minister, and Mrs Simpson Miller promised an engaging and mature Opposition. We expect to see its manifestation in this area.
Aimé Cesaire
The death and burial last week in Martinique of Aimé Cesaire passed in Jamaica, sadly, with little notice.
Cesaire was a leftist politician, who served in the French National Assembly and as mayor of Fort-de-France, Martinique's capital. But what is more important about Cesaire was how he converged art and politics.
It is no idle claim to say that as a poet, Cesaire was a genius, patently declared by Return to My Native Land that holds within it a critique of colonialism and the ambiguities and contradictions of life as a colonial.
With Leopold Senghor, Cesaire, who was 94 at his death, expounded the notion of Negritude and the use of literature to highlight the sense of self and worth of black, beyond the attempts at their diminution by colonialism. Jamaica and the Caribbean owe Aimé Cesaire a debt of gratitude.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
