EDITORIAL - Parties must pitch for thinking Jamaicans

As even the most cursory watcher of Jamaican affairs will be aware, becoming leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the country's prime minister will be the easy part of Andrew Holness' ascendancy.

The real, and difficult, job will be running the country - either in the near term, or after a general election - assuming that the JLP wins the one that Mr Holness is expected to call not long after he is sworn in as prime minister. Indeed, the job will be tough for whoever forms the Government.

Jamaica, for example, is still struggling to rescue its standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), remains burdened by its debt and yawning fiscal deficit, while a nascent recovery in the economy is being threatened by a likely return to global recession. Framed another way, the next administration will have many serious and unpopular decisions to take, including the rationalisation of the public sector to reduce the Government's wage bill from nearly 12 per cent to nine per cent of gross domestic product. That will mean job losses.

The administration that gets this job, whether one formed by Mr Holness' JLP or the People's National Party (PNP) of Mrs Portia Simpson Miller - if it is serious about fixing Jamaica - will be in a better position to proceed if it has internal cohesion and a clear mandate from the electorate to pursue its policies.

The issue of unity, at this time, is a matter primarily for the JLP, which is notorious for its fractiousness. Indeed, that the party's long knives were out for him helped influence the decision of the outgoing leader, Prime Minister Bruce Golding, to scamper.

Real issues must be addressed

Several potential candidates for the job, swept by the wave of national support for Mr Holness, have thrown in their lot with the man under whose leadership, the latest opinion polls indicate, the JLP (40 per cent) is only marginally behind the PNP (44 per cent) in voter support. Those numbers underline two facts: that Mr Golding's credibility with the electorate, represented in the double-digit lead that was enjoyed by the PNP during his tenure, was shot; and that with Mr Golding's departure, the parties have returned to the close vote numbers of the 2007 general election that gave the JLP a mere four-seat majority in Parliament. That slim majority circumscribed Mr Golding's capacity to act, or so he felt.

Neither the JLP nor the PNP should want such a narrow margin at the next election. And it is certainly not in the interest of Jamaica.

But gaining the kind of majority that gives the leader and Government the requisite cushion and flexibility to fashion and implement the necessary policies will demand that the parties reach beyond their bases and embrace those voters who are likely to respond to issues and ideas rather the noise, ephemera, promises of petty post-election spoils, or campaign trinkets. Indeed, either party can win without this demographic, but can't govern effectively in the absence of their engagement.

It, therefore, behoves the JLP and the PNP to urgently reframe their campaign strategies and begin a frank conversation about the real issues: security, fixing the economy, policies for growth, and job creation. Thinking Jamaicans must, at the same time, insist on not being sidelined.