EDITORIAL - Beyond the PNP's agenda

If the People's National Party (PNP) wants to be self-congratulatory, it can claim that Jamaicans have all along agreed with it, no matter how they voted last time.

For after nearly four years of soul-searching, public and private consultations, internal and external, the party has finally published its Progressive Agenda. It has turned out, essentially, to be a restatement of the party's overarching philosophy and a broad statement of principles. Or, at least, those it has followed since it ditched its dogma of democratic socialism prior to its return to office in 1989, led by the late Michael Manley.

What is perhaps different is that these precepts, or what Anthony Hylton, the chairman of its policy commission, refers to as "principles, policies and pathways", are now codified - albeit in fuller fashion than its statement of socialist principles of the 1970s.

In a sense, there are declared commitments for which the PNP, assuming it again forms the government, can be held accountable. But, as is the case with such broad declarations, principles, ideas, policies and the pathways towards their fulfilment tend to be stated in generality.

In that regard, the PNP has, in its Progressive Agenda, provided a good document for discussion about its world view and where it intends to centre itself, but not of specific or detailed tactics for confronting the economic and social problems facing Jamaica.

To be fair to the PNP, it made it clear that the Progressive Agenda is not an election manifesto outlining specific plans for a five-year term in government. But then party manifestos tend not to be particularly useful documents. They are usually bare-boned statements of intent, lacking robust analysis of the practicality of, or requirements for, the implementation of the promised policies.

We would have hoped, therefore, that the programmes and pathways enunciated by the PNP - particularly in the face of its declaration that its approach "will be data-driven, evidenced-based, with measurable outcomes" - would be accompanied by robust, data-driven analyses. Such analyses indicate how the party would pursue policy - say, the management of the country's debt - differently than the present administration.

Address with greater specificity

Now that the "principles, policies and pathways" are on the table, perhaps the various shadow ministers will address these issues with greater specificity. They might answer why, curiously, the absence of, or poor economic growth is not listed among the disappointments of its previous and long stint in government. The glossing over of the unmet expectations of that tenure - unemployment, crime and electoral reform were listed as the key disappointments - does not presume to do justice to the honest discourse presumed by the PNP for the Progressive Agenda.

There is another point to be noted in this document: the intent of the PNP to hold public- and private-sector managers accountable and insist on transparency in their management of public resources, and for the establishment of a professional bureaucracy.

These things must start with a credible and accountable political party. In that regard, it is unfortunate that the PNP did not squarely address in its Agenda how it will wean itself off the gang-like tendencies that have, for too long, enmeshed our political parties.