EDITORIAL - Telling voters the truth and saying 'no'

Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan, the Labour Party socialist and architect of Britain's post-war National Health Service, is hardly the figure to whom you might look for inspiration on solving Jamaica's fiscal crisis.

In his monumental biography on his mentor, the former Labour Party leader, Michael Foot, quoted advice that Bevan attributed to his parents, which we commend to the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP) in their campaigns for the December 29 general election.

Bevan recalled: "My Methodist parents used to say: 'Have the courage, my son, to say 'no'.' Well, it takes a good deal of courage, but we shall have to say 'no' more and more, because only by saying 'no' more and more to many things can you say 'yes' to the most valuable things."

The point here is that whichever party forms Jamaica's next government will have to say 'no' to many of the expectations of voters if the country is not to slide irredeemably deeper into an economic abyss.

Unfortunately, despite allusions to the crisis by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and hints that there is "medicine" to be taken, this newspaper has discerned neither a clear nor coherent strategy from either the JLP or the PNP for tackling the fiscal problems, generating growth or creating jobs. If voters are to have a choice between the parties, it is time they move beyond the ephemeral to specific solutions.

There are some things, wiggle and contort as the parties and their leaders are wont to do, that cannot be escaped. The most critical of these, and emblematic of the crisis, is the country's debt, which at August was $1.6 trillion, or 130 per cent of the value of all goods and services produced in Jamaica. When off-book transactions are taken into account, that debt is perhaps closer to 140 per cent of GDP, not far behind Greece's and worse than Italy's, where governments collapsed because financial markets felt that their debts were unsustainable.

IMF limbo

Jamaica's is. Indeed, for a year our Government has pretended that the standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund was not seriously off-track, when in fact that arrangement is effectively in abeyance until we craft a credible plan to deal with the fiscal disequilibrium.

Indeed, the difference between what our Government spends and what it earns in taxes and grants is around eight per cent of GDP. In the last fiscal year, after the Government serviced its debts from its earnings, the $84 billion left over could pay only two thirds of the wages of its employees.

Indeed, fixing the problem demands reforming the public sector, including cutting jobs, raising the retirement age of government employees, and asking them to contribute to their pensions. The Government also has to collect more taxes, especially by targeting those people who have either dodged taxes altogether or have not paid their fair share.

Dancing around the issues won't do. It is not enough for Mr Holness to attempt to assure us that "every little thing will be all right". Nor should the PNP feel that by failing to address facts and details it can win by default. Both positions are irresponsible.