Dear Editor,

Those of us who understand what we face in this country are bewildered and worried at the political and economic turn of events over the last few months. No one is unaware of the tremendous difficulty facing this two-year administration. No fair-minded citizen would conclude, like persons within the Opposition, that the current economic challenges are the making of this current administration. It is clear that the efforts begun 30 years ago to set this economy on a sustainable and economically sound footing have been abandoned and nothing better has replaced those efforts.

As a result we moved from a position where the country relied on agricultural exports, tourism, the garment trade, light manufacturing and bauxite and mining to just tourism, remittances and loans at the beginning of 2008. This is a prescription for disaster and pain. To compound the problem, most people who support this administration were disappointed and frustrated that the new government did not immediately tackle the serious problems of crime and corruption.

The three main areas of importance highlighted during the 2007 election campaign were economic (jobs), crime and corruption. The country prior to 2008 was already in an economic bind for upwards of five years. The previous Opposition, now Government, knew this. The downturn in the US economy in the last quarter of 2007 has only made things immeasurably worse.

The prime minister and his Cabinet have created for themselves a major credibility problem. On assuming government a decision was taken to “not look back”, and the first budget presented was as rosy as Utopia. All this time we were sitting on a powder keg, with some promises for investments, all dependent on a healthy world economic outlook and solid demand. Now the options for immediate relief of this economic nightmare are as follows: total debt refinancing, massive contraction of government, draconian tax imposition, and default. There are two other options but those are medium- to long-term strategies. The first is for the government to find a source to inject massive capital for production as was the case with bauxite. The new global thrust for green technology presents that possibility. The second is as painful as taxation; it is using inflation to reduce the domestic debt component through devaluation or other economic methods.

Where the worry and confusion comes in is the indecisiveness of the government, and the feebleness in appearing firm in the face of discontent or dissent. This may soon come back to haunt them. Examples of this behaviour were seen when the Opposition pressured the government to grant a stimulus package, which has borne no visible fruit, and recently with the first tax package introduced. In the case of the latter, the matter could have been resolved by introducing a two- or even three-case scenario to the people to demonstrate the seriousness of our situation. The government would know what the people are thinking and the people would have to embrace their decision. Instead the matter was treated in a way that gave the impression that the minister of finance is both cold and insensitive or does not know what he is doing.

This prime minister and his Cabinet face the same situation as the president of the United States, albeit with less power, fewer options, and definitely less prestige and popularity. I am hoping for this new year that the government remembers this.

Irvin C Wade

ircivwade@hotmail.com