Stop playing chicken with Jamaica’s future
Finance Minister Audley Shaw is unjustifiably indignant with the People’s National Party’s incessant call for the government to update the Jamaican public on the true status of the US$1.27-billion Standby Agreement with the International Monetary Fund and to state specifically the reasons for the US$323-million delay in loan funding. But it isn’t only Mr Shaw who is in a huff with the PNP, Transport Minister Mike Henry, Information Minister Daryl Vaz and Education Minister Andrew Holness have all expressed anger at the Opposition for wanting to, among other things, “derail the IMF programme”, “create economic uncertainty” and vulgarly and wantonly “spread doom and gloom” throughout the country for solely political reasons.
This IMF imbroglio is another public relations disaster for the government. Mr Shaw should have already delivered a national broadcast. Instead, senior Cabinet members have all but declared the Opposition as a cast of dreadful political goblins whose sole purpose is to “win at all costs”. But is this really true? What then should be the role of the Opposition, if not to question the government and demand forthright answers? Would the PNP, by questioning the government, not be pursuing a strategy similar to the one pursued by the JLP when it was in Opposition? Would the JLP have been wrong when it questioned the former PNP administration about widespread corruption and ineptness in government?
It is unfathomable for me to grasp the reason Mr Shaw and his colleagues decided to morph into perennial political cry babies, when it is patent that the PNP seems set to occupy the politically cushy position of redistributing exactly what the JLP had served them. Obviously, “what is good for the goose is good for the gander”. But besides the pure reverse-political psychological canard, why is the JLP so worked up and so belligerent over the IMF and JDIP issues? Is there any truth, for instance, in claims by Mike Henry that the PNP’s questioning and concerns about JDIP could imperil the programme? Where is the evidence?
Without a doubt, it would be an awfully sad reality if the PNP’s seemingly legitimate questioning of the government regarding the status of the IMF agreement and the JDIP arrangements is being driven by sinister motives or influenced by raw partisan political opportunism, without regard for the country’s economic future. So, if the JLP has evidence of any PNP subversive or underhand tactics to win its way back to power, then it should present the evidence and stop behaving like spoilt brats pouting over a bad game of marbles.
No one should deny the JLP the opportunity to advance its opinions – however nonsensical or warped. And while Mr Shaw and his contemporaries are entitled to their own opinions and can ascribe motives as they see fit, they are not entitled to their own facts. The fact is that Jamaica has not received close to US$323 million from the IMF because the December, March and June quarterly tests are incomplete and this ought to be of major concern. The fact is that the government did not make provision for the J$10-billion public sector wage settlement and the IMF is insisting on “even-cuts” elsewhere in the soon-to-be tabled Supplementary Estimates.
The fact is that Jamaica will not get programmed funding for budgetary support from other multilateral agencies such as the EU and the IDB until the IMF reviews are complete. The fact is that the trade deficit continues to grow, Foreign Direct Investment inflows continue to decline and at the end of June 2011, government revenue inflows were off by almost J$3 billion. The fact is that with more IMF-induced, anti-Keynesian-type cuts looming in capital expenditures, at a time when it is needed, there could be more contractions in aggregate demand. So quit the foolishness and stop playing chicken with the country’s future.
We cannot fiddle while Rome burns. And although the economic flames are not due entirely to the policies or failures of the Bruce Golding government – because the PNP contributed to the accumulation of economic malaise that is affecting the country – elections have consequences. We already know that the PNP bequeathed a trailer-load of misery and economic mess to the JLP government and from which it cannot absolve itself or seek absolution without first admitting the mistakes, misprioritisation, mismanagement and miscalculations of its 18-year tenure, but governance is not an occupation cemented in the past. If the PNP thinks it can merely “cock-up” its hind legs like donkeys do, or “thumb its nose” at everything the government does, without putting forward ideas and credible solutions to the problems it created, then the party would not only be deluding itself, but it would also make itself unworthy of the people’s support and trust.
These are serious times; government officials around the world have developed thick skins and are dealing with the avalanche of criticisms and questions that are inevitable; it is no different in Jamaica. Undoubtedly, the political heat will intensify the closer we get to the general election due in 2012, but for maturity’s sake, the government cannot impute sinister motives or react arrogantly to every question that is asked, or criticism made. Evidently, the PNP may have recovered its “mojo”, but all the JLP has to do is to force it to lay bare its policies; and let the people adjudicate. In the meantime, Audley would be well advised to know that if the opponent is secure at all points, be prepared for him, and if he is in superior strength it’s best to evade him. The PNP knows that its opponents are temperamental, and so, the party’s strategy is to irritate the JLP with the hope that it grows more arrogant. So far, Shaw, Henry, Holness and Vaz have swallowed the bait.
Burnscg@aol.com