A country of talkers, complainers and miracle seekers

by Byron Blake

The reaction to Tuesday's leadership debate speaks volumes to the state of Jamaica. There is a decision to be made on December 29 to select a government to lead the country out of its deepest and most complex set of crises in its history and in the most hostile global environment.

Navigating a country out of such crises requires a good understanding of the crises, their interrelationships, the most critical constraining or countervailing forces, and the most pivotal actions to begin a process of positive change.

Superimposed on those must be vision; capacity to inspire, include and motivate; and the ability to select and empower generals who will be able to lead effectively in the areas or portfolios allocated to them.

Jamaica has a particular, though not unique, constitutional governance structure. It is a 'collegiate' or 'Cabinet' structure where there is collective responsibility and, hence, the right of each member of the Cabinet to affect the decisions. Jamaica has also voluntarily agreed to be constrained by international conventions and agreements for order in an increasingly interconnected world.

Living beyond our means

In addition, Jamaica has a deep and continuing tendency to live beyond its means, hence its massive debt and a preference for the products of others over its own, leading to its sizeable adverse balance of trade. For these reasons, Jamaica has forfeited almost every degree of freedom in its decision-making processes.

It was in those circumstances that all of Jamaica watched or listened in search of a debater or talker to lead the country - to deliver us from the crises and our miseries.

We came away very disappointed. Neither Andrew Holness nor Portia Simpson Miller produced the words and turns of phrase to expose the shortcomings of the other in oratorical flurry and gave our commentators and 'analysts' the material to declare a victor, thereby relieving us of our responsibility to think.

Two points highlight even more our folly. One, we all knew that neither Mr Holness nor Mrs Simpson Miller are skilled debaters. If my information is correct, Mr Holnesss defeated himself in the debate in his campaign for guild president at the University of the West Indies, albeit years ago. We all know that Bruce Golding, who spent his entire life practising to debate, 'defeated' Mrs Simpson Miller in the similar spectacle in 2007. Mr Golding went on to win the election, but was rejected by the country as a credible leader before midway his term and gave up with more than one year to run.

Two, we accepted a single debate for the leaders with a format in which not even the most skilful and professional economist could internalise the questions and provide cogent answers conveying perspectives on policy. Truth be told, what we really expected were two or three feel-good sound bites in 90 seconds.

In reality, those could never allow for assessment of capacity for critical thinking, the ability to make rational choices under pressure. Any good educator or analyst knows that such assessments require observation over time and open-ended questions with respondents having the time to think, formulate and communicate.

I expect the stock retort that this is the way debates are conducted abroad. To that I would simply say that they are never a one-off event.

Social crisis

The Jamaican economic crisis pales in the face of the social crisis. We have two societies, which are historically distrustful of each other. Endemic inequality and inequity, poverty, exclusion and hopelessness are likely to be made worse by many of the policies being advanced to deal with the economic crisis. Questions and answers to the economic challenges must simultaneously speak to how they will simultaneously deal with the social challenges.

Historical experience and truth is that they will worsen the social challenges. For example, widening the tax base or the increasing use of indirect taxes will increase the pressure on the poor. There are no ifs or maybes about that. At the same time, a hungry and disgruntled mass of people who are disconnected and rootless cannot present a welcoming face either to tourists or foreign or even local investors. They will not work to provide the exports and go home to the continuous cry of hungry children.

Proposals to deal with such situations cannot be explained either in sound bites or abstract statistics as the failure of the British policy of reliance on the private sector to create jobs at this time and their personal experience will be more persuasive.

Jamaicans do, indeed, face a hard decision on December 29.

Byron Blake is a former assistant secretary general of CARICOM. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.