The new Government cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the previous set, where press releases were mistaken for actions, sound bites for strategy, and the refusal of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to make herself available to the media was mistaken for “Mama working, working, working”.

As the new Government maps out its priorities, achieving economic growth and creating sustainable jobs has to be the Government’s number one priority. It will no doubt remain that way for its entire time in office.

Setting out a bold plan on the public finances is unavoidable if we are to retain confidence in our economy and creatively deal with decades of debt, high interest rates, and the sliding dollar. There is no social justice in passing on the deadweight of the last generation’s debts on to the shoulders of the next.

I recommend these seven priorities:

1. Prime Minister Andrew Holness and his Government must use new channels to communicate the Administration’s vision beyond the throne speech, statements in parliament and the and the annual budgetary exercise. The Government should consider the reintroduction of the immensely popular Jamaica House Live programme introduced by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, which gave the audience a chance to speak to the PM, ministers and government officials on any subject of their choice. The forum enabled ordinary and overseas Jamaicans who would otherwise not have the opportunity to interact with the PM, and goes to the heart of openness and transparency in government. It will also allow the Government to consistently update the public, but more importantly allow for feedback and would improve the quality of public debate.

2. Speedy but meticulous implementation of the elimination of income tax relief for those people earning salaries of $1.5 million a year and below. We are not naïve, we are well aware that the Government will have to recoup this lost revenue through higher indirect taxes. If implemented, and expanded properly, a well-regulated medical, commercial and pharmaceutical marijuana industry could potentially plug the revenue gap.

3. Legislative reform that goes to the heart of good governance:

i. Initiate the drafting and legislative process for the introduction of fixed (general and local) election dates, term limits for the office of the prime minister; special prosecutor’s legislation to prosecute corruption in the public and civil service; right of recall and impeachment legislation for ministers, members of parliament, senators and public officials;

ii. Appointment of nine independent senators by the governor general to constitute the ultimate tie-breaker for inconclusive issues and to force consensus and compromise. Independent senators would chair committees such as the impeachment and integrity in public life committees;

iii. Amend the constitution to allow a senator to be appointed finance minister, and the necessary amendments to allow ministers of either House to sit in the other to answer questions and pilot legislations.

iv. Amendment to the constitution to allow dual citizens to sit in the Jamaican Parliament;

v. Amend the Standing Orders for the introduction of ‘Prime Minister’s Question Time’;

In 2014 Trinidad and Tobago’s People Partnership Government led a comprehensive review of the Parliament’s Standing Orders and inserted a clause for PM’s questions due every second sitting of the House.

4. Comprehensive reform of the National Security Apparatus:

i. The new national security minister should consider merging Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency, Bureau of Special Investigation, Fraud Squad, Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, Cybercrimes Unit, Narcotics, DNA, and Visual Identifications units of the Jamaica Constabulary Force to form this new FBI-style agency. Restructure the police force into a police service, allowing them to focus on maintaining law and order, community policing, investigating, and solving crimes in their respective divisions. This new agency must be governed by the necessary legislation and report to the National Security Council and Parliament through the minister of national security;

ii. One critical component in combating transnational and organised crime is good intelligence. Accurate and early intelligence allows authorities to disrupt plots and arrest key operatives. The Government should merge the National Intelligence Bureau with the Anti-Gang Intelligence Unit of the police and military intelligence to create a new State Intelligence Agency governed by an Intelligence Act. This new intelligence agency will be an independent arm of the FBI-style agency;

iii. The minister of finance should consider merging the Financial Investigative Division Tax Administration and Jamaica Customs Agency to form the new Jamaica Revenue and Customs Agency responsible for the administration and collection of customs, passenger and airport duties, investigation of serious fiscal crime, including drug trafficking, tobacco and alcohol smuggling; and the protection of Jamaica’s borders.

5. Housing for young professionals: As young adults struggle to raise a deposit to get on the housing ladder, or are forced to live with their parents to save money, splitting rent and bills in shared housing is often the only way for those on low incomes. Faced with rising rental costs, many young adults who hope someday to become homeowners find it virtually impossible to save for a mortgage down payment. I implore the new Government to pay particular attention to the articulate minority and combine the forces of central government, local and international investors to develop a comprehensive strategy that directly responds to the rental-affordability and homeownership-access problems. The stakeholders should replicate the public private partnership demonstrated by the University of the West Indies, Mona, the Jamaica Mortgage Bank and the National Commercial Bank in the construction of student housing on the UWI campus. A similar programme should be developed and lead by the Government for the construction of eco-friendly, energy-efficient residential apartment towers tailored for young professionals — perhaps we can start downtown.

6. Fixing the water crisis: Water is key to economic and social development, but climate change, pollution growth and the over-use of resources are all contributing to a global water crisis, where both water quality and quantity are compromised. A gap now exists between supply and demand which, if not addressed, will further retard the country’s growth and development. The extent of the problem, however, is such that it cannot be solved in isolation, improving our archaic water infrastructure will require significant but urgent capital investment;

7. Introduce rental controls and regulate the private rental market: The Ministry of Housing must consider introducing a rent controls policy which allows the Government to intervene in the rental market to limit how fast rates rise. Without a doubt, irrespective of age and profession, tenants would support more regulation for the private rented sector, including measures to control rents and ensure longer, more secure standard tenancies to better protect the tens of thousands of private tenants. Rising rental costs, student loans, cost of living, petroleum and food prices; stagnating wages; the devaluing dollar; and excessively tight mortgage credit conditions have all conspired to make it more difficult for young professionals;

The depth of our economic difficulties, accumulated by decades of unsustainable borrowing at high interest rates, means there are no short-term fixes. The size of the deficit means that whichever party had come into government would have to face short-term unpopularity in order to restore long-term prosperity to our economy. But while the Government tries to balance the books and distribute the burden, we must work on plugging those structural gaps in government which have retarded efficiency in the public service.

Andrew King is a public affairs commentator with an interest in national security, governance and development policies. Send comments to the Observer or abking020@gmail.com.