Our leaders must come clean and truthful on the economy

Monday, November 21, 2011

In a move which must have left many seasoned politicians shaking their heads in disapproval, prime minister and new Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Andrew Holness rang the bell then chose not to name the date.

At least we now know after his address at his party's huge annual conference yesterday that the elections will be this year, mixed in with Christmas and New Year. That's what we read into his message that the political "uncertainties" must be resolved "this year".

In what must be one of the more sober addresses delivered at the annual conference of a political party in Jamaica, Mr Holness also made it clear — without going into much needed detail — that times ahead will be tough.

No surprise there, considering the country's fragile economic state including frightening levels of indebtedness and the difficulties afflicting our borrowing arrangements with the International Monetary Fund.

Mr Holness tells us that he and his party will not be promising "milk and honey" for this election and that Jamaicans are now left with no choice but to pull themselves out of their own problems with ingenuity and hard work.

The truth is that, given the realities of the national economy and that of the world around us it is the only broad message that is viable.

The thing though, is that Jamaicans are now waiting to hear much more about the nuts and bolts of policies going forward and the likely effect of another round of "rationalisation" on their daily lives.

Mr Holness and his party, as well as Mrs Portia Simpson Miller and the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) need to speak frankly, truthfully and substantively to the people about the state of our economy, their ideas about how to walk the thorny road ahead and the likely short- and long-term consequences

And in seeking to point the way forward, step by step, out of the current economic quagmire our political leaders should be inspired by the recognition that as a nation we have been able to get some things right. The very fact that we could now be contemplating an election at the height of the Christmas and New Year holiday season is testimony to that.

There was a time not so long ago when, given the high level of violence associated with Jamaican elections, any suggestion of a vote during Christmas week would have raised howls of protest from the business community and other interest groups.

If we stop to think about it, the difference now is that we no longer automatically associate violence with elections. Of course, there will be the odd unpleasant incident. But the experience of the last 10 to 15 years has taught us that the horrors of decades ago are behind us — though we should never let our guard down.

Likewise, from a shambolic structure vulnerable to thuggery and thievery, our electoral system has been reformed — by our own hands — to a state where it is now the envy of much of the world. The history of the Jamaican people is replete with such successes in the face of great adversity. Now we have come to a place where we must address the tricky fundamentals of our economy.

This newspaper believes that the Jamaican people are now ready for genuine economic transformation, if only our leaders will steadfastly tell the truth and nothing but, and act with sensitivity without retreat to political expediency.

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Our leaders must come clean and truthful on the economy