EDITORIAL - Rough road ahead

Frankly, both Andrew Holness and Portia Simpson Miller, the leaders, respectively, of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP), were underwhelming on the big issues facing Jamaica when they debated on Tuesday night.

They waffled on the specifics of their plans to get to the heart of the country's debt crisis which, of necessity, demands a high-wire act of keeping the fiscal deficit in check, while stimulating growth and jobs.

At around six per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), Jamaica's deficit is double the normally acceptable limit for a prudently managed government, whose borrowing demands won't crowd out the private sector and become a drag on growth. Indeed, it is big deficits over a long time that are the primary basis of our debt of $1.6 trillion, or around 130 per cent of GDP. Clear plans for fixing these problems are crucial. But on the details, party officials have failed to take voters fully into their confidence.

Of course, we know from the parties' manifestos and the remarks of their various spokespersons that whichever one forms the Government will push ahead with public-sector reform, including the pension arrangements for government employees which, for the majority, is a non-contributory scheme.

All these will be done, the parties say, within the ambit of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund. In the case of the JLP, the incumbent, it proposes to repair, if possible, its US$1.3-billion standby facility with the Fund, which ends next May, and then move to a new one.

The existing agreement has been off track for a year over the need for the administration to show, after wage adjustments this year, how it will reduce the public-sector wage bill from nearly 12 per cent of GDP to nine per cent over the next three years. That is in a context of economic decline over the past three years.

The PNP says, should it form the Government after next week's general election, it will renegotiate the agreement with realistic performance targets and timelines.

Two things are clear. Even if they fail to make declarative statements to that effect, both parties recognise there is a crisis. Second, whoever forms the Government will not be able to fix the problems on their own. Nor do we believe that there exists in the public sector the pool of talent that will be necessary to address all the complex issues with which they will be confronted.

Against that backdrop, it makes sense that the next Government be inclusive, fully engaging all stakeholders, including the Opposition. The Opposition must know, too, that Jamaicans, including those it may perceive to be its constituents, won't tolerate obscurantism or obstructionist behaviour.

The Government must also look beyond its supporters for people of competence to help formulate policies and programmes to lift the productivity of Jamaican labour, rebalance the fiscal accounts, while maintaining an affordable safety net for the poor.