EDITORIAL - Mr Shaw piped up his bellows

We applaud Prime Minister Andrew Holness' call for the imminent general election to be the most peaceful in the history of independent Jamaica, as well as his commitment to throw out of his party people who embrace, incite or promote political violence.

It is in this context that we call on Mr Holness to publicly reprimand his finance minister, Mr Audley Shaw, for his intemperate accusations against Peter Bunting that will unduly heighten tensions and run the risk of emboldening the hard men of violence on both sides of the political divide.

Mr Bunting is the general secretary of the People's National Party (PNP) and member of parliament for the Manchester Central constituency, which he narrowly won in 2007 and for which he is now being challenged on behalf of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) by Mr Danville Walker, lately the head of customs and formerly director of elections.

Mr Walker recently began his campaign in the constituency. In that short time, he has had a little taste of the seamy underbelly of Jamaican politics, which, happily, his tenure at the Electoral Office contributed to lessening. A Walker campaign billboard was damaged.

No one knows who is responsible. Mr Walker, however, said Mr Bunting should bear some responsibility for the defacement. Mr Bunting condemned the act and claimed violence against his own supporters four years ago would underline his wish for a peaceful campaign.

Now comes Audley Shaw.

In an address at a JLP regional conference on Sunday, he did little, in our view, to help build the kind of climate to make an election such as Mr Holness wishes foregone, rather than a mere hope. Mr Shaw accused Mr Bunting of what, on the face of it, would have been criminal acts, when he was previously a candidate in Clarendon South East and later in Manchester Central.

If Mr Shaw has evidence of the behaviour he ascribed to Mr Bunting, he should have, forthwith - and should still - share it with the police and insist that Mr Bunting be prosecuted. In that, he would have our backing.

We expect better

If, though, this is politicking of the kind that is too often thoughtlessly spouted from Jamaica's political platforms, we had hoped for better from the country's finance minister, presiding over a crisis-riddled economy and who has for months been unable to agree to a new standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the one that collapsed.

Jamaica, up to the end of August, owed its creditors $1.6 trillion, or more than $600,000 a piece for every citizen of the country. The debt has increased by $86.55 billion for the first eight months of the year, or $408 million a day.

Our debt, as we should now be aware, is not sustainable. The IMF says so. The rating agencies say so. Standard and Poor's has warned of a likely downgrade. As is happening in Greece and Italy, where technocrats have taken over the leadership of their governments, tough decisions have to be taken if Jamaica is to claw its way out of this crisis and prevent a meltdown.

Outlines of the Government's programmes for achieving this are what, frankly, we expect from Mr Shaw and his counterparts in the Opposition. We know already of the utility of their vocal cords as bellows. We have no need for demonstrations of their use to crassly fan political flames.