Sad Christmas, merry circus

Lambert Brown, Contributor

Christmas is often described as the most wonderful time of the year. People look forward to its celebration with much anticipation. Indeed, the commercial countdown to Christmas has begun. This year is shaping up to be a very sad Christmas for too many of our people, however. Nearly 100,000 former employees have lost their jobs in the last three years. These large numbers of our citizens will find it much harder this year to find bread, much less the delicious fruitcake, which is such an essential part of our Yuletide celebrations.

Last week, news came that the Government had issued a circular to public-sector managers to cancel all Christmas parties for staff members. Hard times, as we are facing as a nation, often require sacrifice, some would say. The Scrooge mentality that cannot see the value of even the poorest among us enjoying the benefit of this annual socialisation called the Staff Christmas Party is dominant in the Government.

Many hotels will have seen cancellations of Christmas parties. Additional staff hiring will be forgone. Additional purchases of goods and service will not be undertaken, or if already undertaken, it may be found that funds do not exist to support such purchases. Christmas is, despite the protestation of some of our religious gatekeepers, a period of very high commercialisation and a major stimulator of economic activities.

While the Government is unlikely to cancel Christmas officially, for thousands of public-sector teachers, to whom it owes billions of dollars and whose agreement it broke, this is likely to be the sad reality. So, too, for thousands of security guards and minimum-wage earners, who have patiently awaited the announcement due from January of an increase in their wages by the minister of labour, it will be a sad and disappointing Christmas.

Businesses are not spared either by this Scrooge mentality as the same-day tax increases have threatened to knock the black out of the bottom line of big businesses like J. Wray & Nephew, as well as that of thousands of small businesses whose viability depends on the success of companies like it. It is the jobs created by small businesses that are the mainstay of our economy. The Government's policies are not only making Christmas a sad occasion this year, but they are ruining our economy on a long-term basis.

It is against this backdrop that we must view the series of merry circuses being promoted by the prime minister and the Government in recent weeks. Circus number one calls for the removal of Up Park Camp to Caymanas Estates. "A done deal," declares Minister of Information Daryl Vaz at a recent post-Cabinet press briefing. Not so. The prime minister wants us to believe "it is only a proposal" he declared in Parliament under pressure of Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller and her team. As it stands, no feasibility study has been done, no costing is available for this move, but like spectators watching a clown at a circus, we must accept this stupidity as a "done deal". As they say, if you can't give the people cake, give them a circus.

Second circus

Circus number two relates to the prime minister's proposal for term limits for prime ministers. Sounds good, some say. It looks like America, and anything American feels good. Mayor Bloomberg of New York recently had the law changed to allow him to serve beyond his term limit. The presidential term limit is rooted in the constitution of the United States, not in a mere state law of New York. The proposal of Golding is, like the New York case, easily changeable by a mere majority of Parliament. Airy-fairy, copycat, and inadequately thought-out proposals are not worthy of our parliamentary agenda. A circus where clowns and comedic personalities control centre stage is the appropriate place for such a proposal.

Let there be no doubt about it, the best limiters of prime-ministerial terms are not legislation, but the voting population. I trust the Jamaican voters. They have served us well since 1944. They and the constitutional processes, not the parliamentary machinations, of any copycat political leader must determine the time to be served by leaders of our beloved country. Good service to the nation may be rewarded with more time by the voters. Give us a merry Christmas! Give us bread! That is what makes a better Jamaica, not the distraction of sweet talk.

The final circus around town is that in the last quarter, Jamaica created almost 40,000 new jobs in the economy. These jobs, we are told by officials of the Planning Institute of Jamaica, were created in sectors of the economy that actually contracted, not grew, during the said quarter. No one is feeling the impact of these jobs in the marketplace.

The need for good news in the economy is evident. The majority of our people in opinion polls are declaring that the country is going in the wrong direction. This sad Christmas is but a reflection of this perception among our people that that experiment of Messrs Golding and Audley Shaw has failed. The evidence supporting the need for changing course is cogent. The rejection within the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) of the man who is the propaganda face of the Government and confidant of the prime minister as the general secretary of the ruling party is testimony that even within the JLP, people are dissatisfied with the performance of the Government.

It appears that our political horizon will be dotted with more circuses, including a Cabinet reshuffle and possible snap election in the coming weeks and months. In the absence of bread and cake, the gloom rather than the hope of the season will envelope our nation portending greater economic hardship in the new year. The USA has shown five consecutive quarters of positive economic growth. Other countries are achieving economic progress. We, too, deserve progress, not circuses.

Lambert Brown is president of the University and Allied Workers' Union and may be contacted at labpoyh@yahoo.com or columns@gleanerjm.com