In the mid-1980s there was a very famous cartoon which depicted the President of the United States of America Ronald Reagan and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) leader Mikhail Gorbachev in a boat, looking at each other, steadfastly. The two world leaders, simultaneously, thundered, “Show me yours.”

So, what occasioned this memorable depiction? At the time the USA and the USSR were involved in highly sensitive negotiations to eliminate all intermediate and short-range, ground-based missiles and launchers from Europe. Distrust between the two superpowers was immense. Anyway, a treaty between the two nations was signed in 1987.

Fast-forward to today and exercise your mind beyond the precise context of the mentioned negotiations. Now cast your attention to the recent initiatives announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness that will deliver important benefits to dinner tables and also to the pockets of thousands of, especially, ordinary Jamaicans. These benefits are the results of our present robust macroeconomic State, built-up, especially over the last 8 years.

Dr Holness and the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, (JLP) have shown us theirs. Well, at least some of theirs, because Holness has said more and similar benefits will come in the national budget debate presentation which will be read in March, next year.

As I said here last Sunday, the Administration made a very smart chess move when Holness, among other things, announced a 53 per cent cut in the General Consumption Tax (GCT) component on electricity bills, a $20,000 payment for vulnerable Jamaicans, and a considerable amnesty package for National Water Commission (NWC) customers who have had their water services disconnected for various reasons, including inability to settle massive debts. The announcement of these initiatives was strategically timed and delivered in the midst of a very successful 81st annual conference, where Holness committed that the next five years would see a JLP Administration focused like a laser beam on economic growth and the delivery of related benefits which especially ordinary Jamaicans would see on their dinner tables and feel in their pockets.

The People’s National Party (PNP) can deny it all it wants, as some in Norman Manley’s party have, and some are still doing. But it is obvious to anyone with even a cursory interest in local representational politics that 89 Old Hope Road was surprised, very surprised, by the initiatives announced two Sundays ago.

The birds, the reliable Black-Bellied Plovers, Bananaquits, and John Chewits, chirp that the initiatives by Holness had many in the PNP making frequent trips to the bathrooms. Anxiety attacks are aplenty in the PNP’s top leadership, the birds tweet. “What should we do?” was the six-million-dollar question on the lips of Comrades, the birds shriek. The PNP’s answer became obvious to the public at a press conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader 48 hours later. Unsurprisingly, the PNP reached for its old playbook, and selected the crumpled page called deflection.

The Mark Golding-led PNP launched a near-useless set of deflection rockets, which turned out to be nothing more than political duds reminiscent of the antiquated scud missiles which the rag-tag forces of Saddam Hussein, the late president of Iraq, repeatedly fired during the conflict involving his country, the US, and a coalition force consisting of 42 countries. Recall Saddam Hussein was deposed. It was another missed opportunity which again showed them to be checkers players.

Ponder this: “In relation to the waiver of market fees for craft vendors, Golding described the gesture as meagre and said it ‘does not affect their plight’. According to Golding, the vendors ‘want a level playing field for doing business’.”

The Opposition leader also criticised the prime minister’s announcement that certain vulnerable Jamaicans who are not captured as part of any social intervention programme and who did not benefit from the $20,000 reverse income tax payment will get a one-off payment next year. (Jamaica Observer, November 27, 2024) Translated, Golding, the prime minister-in-waiting was effectively telling Jamaicans that zero benefits were better than the tangible benefits announced. What rubbish!

Golding and his team evidently do not get it that repeatedly coming to the table with their “two long hands”, as we say in local parlance, cannot and will not win him any political brownie points. “Consider this: “More than 75 per cent of households will experience minimal relief with savings capped at around $237 per month,” Paulwell said. And PNP General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell said that he will realise savings of just about $500 per month on his $15,500 monthly electricity bill.”

Even those who abandoned mathematics at long-division understand that $500 of saving is better than no saving at all. And, even those who did not do logic at university know that minimal relief is better than no relief at all. Phillip Paulwell, Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston Eastern and Port Royal, has some of the poorest communities, yet he scoffs at what he calls “minimal benefits”. Show us yours, folks are demanding.

We have seen this movie before from the PNP. And the ending was very frightening for thousands of especially ordinary Jamaicans. Recall the charlatans and other close relatives of con artists who, in the 1980s, inveighed against the garment industry. The opportunity that hundreds of women got to advance their economic independence was dubbed as slavery. Did these double-dealers and merchants of social and economic dependence provide alternative employment opportunities? No! Today tricksters are again busy up and down the highways and byways of Jamaica trying to trap the unsuspecting in their snares of deception.

Those who have the knowledge have a duty to warn. The fact is, Singapore, Germany, the United Kingdom, US, and I could list many other developed economies that all started at or near the bottom of the employment continuum. Through technology transfer, transformation of education systems, creation and adoption of best practices, prudent economic management, and related social investments, etc, these countries gradually escaped from the punishing clutches of a low-wage, low-output existence and achieved the necessary leap in status. As we say in local parlance, “Yuh haffi creep before yuh walk.”

Golding, at the mentioned presser, said: “The PNP has a plan to achieve lower electricity costs.” I have heard that tune from Golding so many times over the last three years; I have stopped counting.

Our 19th parliamentary election is less than a year away. Why won’t Golding share his plan with the Jamaican people? Is it that Golding’s plan is locked away at the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, or a similar place?

The PNP seems not to understand that folks are not “buying puss inna bag” anymore. I noted here last Sunday that the Minister of Finance and the Public Service Fayval Williams had said on radio that the initiatives/benefits announced by the prime minister will not “burst the budget”. There is no “run wid it” here, as I understand it. The governing JLP has given a commitment that the benefits announced by Holness are fundable.

Golding says he has a better plan — a master plan. Is that the plan that will provide near-instantaneous fixes for especially long-standing problems in this country? Laughable! I have been asking for the verifiable mathematics of the PNP’s plan for at least three years in this space. To date nothing in the way of practical and fundable data has been put in the public domain.

In the meantime, Golding would have us believe that a bird which he says exists in the bushes is better than the one that the prime minister has put in our hands. Evidently Golding is not familiar with the local adage, “A promise is a comfort to a fool.” The PNP seems not to understand, too, that fool’s gold will not work.

At the recent vision-sharing session involving captains of industry, private sector heads, professional association leaders, permanent secretaries, media, and Jamaicans home and abroad, Holness showed what Jamaica will look like with the JLP at the helm for another five years. He also repeated that demonstration at the annual JLP conference two Sundays ago. On both occasions Holness explained that now that Jamaica has achieved macro-economic stability, economic growth would be the focus in the coming years. Why is economic growth important?

The local saying, “Puddin’ cyaan bake without fire,” is applicable here. It means one cannot achieve desirable results without first satisfying specific preconditions. Without economic growth there are fewer tax receipts. There are poorer public services and lower and/or stunted remuneration for, especially, public sector workers, plus higher, much higher taxes for everyone. Lack of economic growth means greater hardships and reduction in the standards of living for everyone.

The Opposition spokesperson on finance and the public service, Julian Robinson says he agrees that economic growth is Jamaica’s next great hurdle. However, he is yet to deliver details on how the PNP would surmount this hurdle. Since Independence, Jamaica has achieved meaningful economic growth only twice, in the 1960s and the mid-1980s. The JLP was in Jamaica House on both occasions. The forte of socialist parties is not economic growth; it is borrowing, tax, and spend and redistribution of resources minus prior production.

The Comrades seem not to understand that, because they have no track record of meaningfully growing the economy, there is a much heavier burden on them to credibly demonstrate to the Jamaican people that this latest crop of PNP leaders are “new creations and brand new men”, as we say in local parlance. Golding seems not to understand either, that, the greater the amount of raw meat in his possession the bigger the fire he needs to cook it.

When politicians are struggling on “empty”, they invariably reach for deflections. Golding says the prime minister’s initiatives are rooted in vote-buying. Golding cannot pull wool over our eyes. I seriously, doubt there is any Jamaican, anywhere, who does not recognise that elements in both the JLP and the PNP have participated in the rotten and illegal act of vote-buying.

Deflection on steroid is an antediluvian mask that has been exposed by the availability of modern technologies. Folks know that Golding’s claim of voting-buying is a dodge. The PNP was caught totally unawares by Holness’s chess move.

Golding strikes me as someone who is sitting under an East Indian Mango tree hoping a juicy and ripe one will simply fall into his lap. It will not happen.

Garfield Higgins is an educator, journalist and a senior advisor to the minister of education and youth. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.