Parties skirting the issues

Hugh M. Dunbar, Contributor

On the matter of the general election, I was hoping to retire to the radio and TV stations to hear and see policy statements and discussions of the "new and different" politics, presented to the public by the new political spin doctors.

I noticed the reality of politicians now being held to account for things done and omitted, and thought that, surely, there are new politicians out there who realise that the actions of both political parties have held the country way below its potential over the past 50 years, and are committed to a new Jamaican form of government, based on merit, and proper planning.

I live in a time when the only public expenditure for capital improvement is by way of international loans, a time where the gross domestic product is dwarfed by the size of our debt-service commitments, the output of the educational system leaves much to be desired. So I am looking for a little more from my 'elected leaders' than slogans and empty rhetoric.

I am looking for more than those two Third World juvenile representations, because every day I drive on my neighbourhood roads, there are potholes the size of the national debt. I also have to endure paying taxes for services that are poorly delivered or not delivered at all, which in my mind represents fraud for misrepresenting their capabilities, and stealing for taking my money for services not rendered.

I was hoping that there would be a debate about how we, as Jamaicans, can find a way to fix our roads without foreign assistance, build our schools without foreign grants, make our markets a beautiful place, without having to depend on a business visitor to do it for us. Yet, here we are in the starting blocks of another election cycle, and I am yet to hear from any potential member of parliament how he or she intends to tackle our most intractable problems of education, housing and employment. Our infrastructure has suffered not only from neglect, but gross incompetence.

I wish for those who seriously wish to represent the best and brightest in our country to desist from the Lilliputian tendencies of name-calling and dredging up histories that need to be learned from and not made into focal points.

After this election, there needs to be a debate about how the government is going to:

1.Divorce itself from the practice of doing business, and leave that up to business people.

2.Deal with the informal settlements for what they are - a threat to the health and safety of the very residents who live there, who don't even have the necessary amenities, with parks and open spaces. All politicians need to grow a backbone and either allow everybody to capture land or make everybody have to pay for it, and pay the attendant taxes and service charges.

3. Provide the necessary funds to create good schools with qualified teachers in properly designed buildings that children can do well in. A big step in the right direction would be to remove the education tax from the Consolidated Fund and allow it to develop like the National Housing Trust fund, so making the education tax a fund that could provide the necessary income.

4. The next Government needs to remove itself from the practice of profiteering on the backs of hard-working Jamaicans. It has become debilitating to have to work under such oppressive conditions that create the swarms of robot taxis, and Coaster buses, manned with young men who have no hope of ever finding anything worthwhile that can add to the gross national product, or the exploding vendor sector.

5. Government must empower the many Jamaicans who have to struggle through their days in unsustainable activities. Such activities will not create a pensionable wage for these people, who will one day be old and in need of care, through either the family or the state.

The political class must recognise that Jamaicans are running out of patience, and if their needs are not met, they will find a way to meet them, which will render the political class irrelevant to the future of my country.

Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and hmdenergy@cwjamaica.com.