England politics: Truss factor and what ifs
Published:Saturday | October 22, 2022 | 12:05 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
While I am disappointed to see the back of Britain’s first black chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng who, according to The Guardian newspaper, was sacked by Prime Minister Liz Truss “ahead of a U-turn on key sections of her disastrous mini-budget, as she launched a desperate attempt to restore her crumbling political authority”, we now witness, in a rapidly moving sequence of events, the resignation of Truss just after 45 days as prime minister. We have some valuable lessons to learn, especially when faced with choices of putting friendship or party before country, which amounts to treason.
The first important lesson was when Liz Truss sacked Kwasi Kwarteng despite his being “her longtime friend and ideological ally”. Here in Jamaica, our politics prefers friendship and loyalty to the party above loyalty to the country. The outcome is the intentional destruction of the Jamaican economy or undermining of the rise of potentially great leaders.
Second, in sacking Kwarteng, she also averted the rapid financial crisis that would have led to further economic disaster in England. Such quick actions make me ponder the following ‘what ifs’:
- The People’s National Party was the first to introduce liberalisation of the capital account and the introduction of a flexible exchange rate in September 1991 that destabilised the Jamaican economy. Its outcome led to both the death of citizens who lost their life savings and lives, and an alleged free sale of assets to those genetically connected within the halls of power.
- What if Prime Minister P.J. Patterson had sacked his finance minister, Omar Davies, whose economic oversight caused the nation and its currency to plunge into the abyss of debts and hyperinflation and devaluation of its currency from US$1 = J$5.50 to the current $150?
- What if former Prime Minister Edward Seaga had stepped down as leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)? Would we have had the default reign of P.J. Patterson for 18 years?
- What if the Opposition JLP had been vigilant in the business of parliament to expose the government’s policies that made JPS a millstone around the neck of Jamaicans?
-Of all the known commissions of inquiry held in independent Jamaica, the FINSAC commissioners have failed in delivering their report to the Jamaican taxpayers, while collecting their pay. What if the FINSAC report was released on the colossal collapse of Jamaica’s financial sector?
When people or a nation lose their integrity, they have to create a creature of parliament, the Integrity Commission, to marshal their potency to embrace corrupt practices.
DUDLEY MCLEAN II
Mandeville, Manchester