EDITORIAL - Learning from the past

We note that segment of her speech where the prime minister suggested that while the Government will do its part to get the jobless into employment, ultimately people need to take responsibility for their own future. We applaud this sentiment, for we believe this to be the ultimate show of people power.

When Michael Manley was swept into the political wilderness in 1980, he clearly understood what had taken him there. By the time of his second coming as Jamaica's political leader in 1989, he had shed his democratic socialism garments and was clothed in the robes of capitalism, which signalled that Jamaica was now pro-business and understood the value of a market economy.

If Mr Manley had persisted with the ideology of democratic socialism, he would have demonstrated a gross ignorance of history and insensitivity to the feelings of the majority of Jamaicans.

Now we have the second coming of Mrs Simpson Miller who, although only serving a short stint as prime minister from 2006 to 2007, has been part of this country's political life for nearly 40 years. The fight for Jamaica House is over, and Mrs Simpson Miller and her team now have the challenge of providing leadership that can craft a workable economic programme.

focus on economy

All are agreed that in the context of a faltering International Monetary Fund (IMF) standby agreement and a parlous world economy, the nation's eyes must now be trained on the Jamaican economy.

We need all hands on deck, as the prime minister noted in her inaugural address, if we are to successfully plot our way out of this current mess. But we also need to make some candid assessments of what has happened in the past. How have we failed to make correct economic policy decisions and what have been their impact on the country? An American politician has become famous for stating: "More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them."

When we take a backward glance, one of the success stories of the defeated Jamaica Labour Party government was the Jamaica Debt Exchange (JDX) programme. Hailed as one of the most successful sovereign-debt restructuring initiatives ever undertaken in any country based on a 99 per cent acceptance, the JDX enabled the Bank of Jamaica to slash interest rates and helped reduce the cost of government debt. There was also stability in the foreign-exchange market.

Could such a solution to our public debt situation have come sooner? Were there strident voices against attempting this initiative? And are these persons likely to be inserted into the process once more? These are important questions in trying to understand important factors in the management of the Jamaican economy.

Only time will tell what we remember and how much we have learned from the past.