A progressive agenda for crises development

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Robert Buddan, POLITICS OF OUR TIME

The People's National Party (PNP) launched its Progressive Agenda on August 17. The party prides itself on refreshing its thinking about its philosophy and principles and its policies and programmes at intervals of every decade or so. In a fast-changing world, that is indispens-able. The last time it published such a review was in 1999, when it produced its 21st-Century Mission. The difference, I think, between then and now is that if the earlier document addressed the challenges of transformation under globalisation, the present is written during a crisis of globalisation.

Development is no longer 'challenging'. We are now in crisis globally, regionally and nationally.

When PNP President Portia Simpson Miller told her party in the summer of 2008 that this was a time for soul-searching, for going back to the drawing board, and for mobilising the intellectual energy of the party and country, the PNP had already accepted that there was a world, regional and national crisis.

The crisis was of rising food prices, high energy costs, growing indebtedness, deepening economic recession, ballooning crime rates, extreme climatic conditions and major natural disasters, worsening poverty, and growing unemployment.

The PNP could have exploited these conditions with rioting as others in less and more advanced countries have done or are doing and some here wanted. It could have offered populist quick fixes. What it did was go back to the drawing board. People wanted it to take to the streets. It took to study. What did it come up with?

It seeks to engage with globalisation. If the 21st-Century Mission advised that we should, the Progressive Agenda tells us that it is urgent to build the infrastructure for global engagement. The Patterson administration had started this. The Progressive Agenda identified Jamaica's geographical location and its cultural identity as prime advantages.

The Patterson administration proposed to develop our port facilities with the potential to make Jamaica into what Robert Stephens called the 'Dubai of the Americas', a busy crossroads for ocean-trade traffic; and to make Jamaica into a "cultural superstate". Cultural industries are worth some US$2.2 trillion globally and are growing by five per cent a year, says the Progressive Agenda.

an important nodal point

This idea fits neatly into another that began to emerge in the 1990s, the idea of a world or global city. This is a city that is an important nodal point in the global system. The entire island of Jamaica can become a nodal point of globalisation while preserving its natural environment, New World history and the distinct aspects of its dynamic culture.

As a global island, as I would call it, Jamaica would need to develop the high-class information and communication, transportation, banking and finance, food and leisure, theatre and entertainment, conferencing, hotel and resort services that London, Tokyo, Johannesburg, New York, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Canberra, Seoul, Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Toronto, Caracas, New Delhi, Dubai, Rome, Bogota and a range of cities in developed and developing countries have done.

Jamaica should use creative architecture and special designs to showcase its rich and rare historical and cultural themes to keep its own distinctive brand. It is an exciting challenge to be creative about designing modern nationhood by branding our global identity for purposes of culture and industry.

We already are a global people (the diaspora) and have a global brand name. Jamaica can become a true global island with corporate and intergovernmental headquarters, international sports and heritage sites, Jamaica-world media networks, music and dance companies performing for and touring the world, and art galleries, film and film festivals, all of which are industries just begging for mega development.

Human Opportunity

Herein lies another attraction of the PNP's Progressive Agenda - opportunity. The wide range of economic, social, cultural and political services that a world island would provide would create opportunities for everyone. Dancers, painters, sportspersons, singers, and industries that provide leisure, health, commerce, manufacturing, communications, transportation, food, clothing; and, furthermore, skills for architecture, engineering, accounting, banking, public administration and many more, would enrich the range of opportunities needed to release that indubitable Jamaican potential.

Jamaica would have to build a variety of schools and training institutes for this. Marcus Garvey, whose birthday we also celebrated on August 17, had a dream for a university of technology and technical high schools in every parish. We have virtually brought that dream to reality. But we need new dreams. We need schools for sports, music, dancing, art, food, fashion, hairstyling, and all the other services that world island industries must provide. We should have these schools in every parish too.

We need schools, not just for performers, but for technicians, managers, planners, administrators, promoters, and lawyers specific to these industries. Schools and industries go together. You cannot have one without the other. We must improve productivity and competitiveness by creating knowledge workers. The Progressive Agenda agrees, saying, "Our educational and training institutions, inspired by our human talents, will release the knowledge society we must create." Marcus Garvey would have approved.

Progressive Governance

The other striking thing about the Progressive Agenda is its recognition that engaging globalisation and investing in opportunities will demand a fundamentally new method and philosophy of governance. There is a central role for technology, for example, to make different parts of government communicate and coordinate as the best way to realise outcomes.

In fact, probably the primary justification for the Agenda is that Jamaica's problems have arisen, not so much because government has not put in enough into making development happen for everyone, but that society has not got back enough of what has been put in, that is, invested in development.

So, the document is very strong on the outcome orientation of government. It seeks results, not excuses. It will approach governance pragmatically, not politically. It will do so rationally, not emotionally. It will apply governance scientifically, not sentimentally. It will go where the facts lead. But it will make sure the outcomes serve people's development humanely. It won't compromise core values of democracy, respect, justice and equality of opportunity.

Coordinated outcomes would also be best achieved through clusters of ministries. For example, a human-resource cluster (or pillar) becomes most critical if all the human-resource opportunities of world-island industries are to create knowledge workers. The safety, security and justice cluster is also critical. No world-island can successfully emerge if crime, violence and societal risks cannot be managed. Gangs and garrisons will have to go. A progressive internationalist cluster is pivotal for engaging globalisation in the first place. An economic cluster would bring together all those ministries that would leverage Jamaica as a nodal point of the global economy in such a way as to make development sustainable.

Outcomes would also depend on a most important pillar for participation, accountability and responsibility. The party quite rightly believes that leaders must be clear about their roles and job descriptions and the structures within which they work; must give account as per timelines, costs, and ethics; and take responsibility or face sanctions when these are not met. It wants to close the trust deficit and implementation deficit that exists between citizens and politicians and policy proposals and results.

Development is in crisis. Let us hope this is the progressive way out.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm