EDITORIAL - Is PNP up to Norman Manley's mission?

Their breastbones may well be in danger, but we do not begrudge government officials their chest-thumping over the acknowledged success of events to mark Jamaica's recent 50th anniversary of Independence.

The feel-good factor, of course, was compounded by the grand performance of Jamaica's athletes at the London Olympics, which was skilfully intertwined with the celebrations.

But while we, like anyone, appreciated the fête, we are haunted by the question: After the euphoria, what?

The point is that although the members of the Simpson Miller administration may not yet recognise it, the sense of elation that accompanied the celebrations, and the exploits of Bolt and company, has begun to ebb.

Or, put another way, the hard issues are forcefully returning to the agenda with little sign that the administration is either keen, or equipped, to tackle them. The most pressing of these is the state of the Jamaican economy.

This, for a PNP government, ought to be ironic, assuming that its leaders are reflective and possess a sense of moment, or history. For it is ironic that its party's founder, the national hero, Norman Manley, as he came to the end of his political career towards the end of the first decade of Independence, declared that the mission of his generation was political Independence. The job of the next, to paraphrase Manley, was to build an economy.

In that mission, Jamaica's leaders have failed spectacularly! Half a century on, our economy, in real terms, is hardly bigger than when the politicians of Manley's generation were in charge.

Over the last four decades, national output has, on average, been at less than one per cent a year and per-capita GDP is essentially the same as at the end of the first decade of Independence.

We had hoped, though, that this year's jubilee celebrations would have concentrated minds beyond the bling and hoopla. Moreover, after a four-year hiatus from nearly two decades in office, it would be an opportunity for the PNP Government to exculpate itself from the charges that it had previously presided over a period of economic sterility.

The immediate mission was clear. It was to put back on track an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that had been derailed under the former administration. An agreement with the Fund would help unlock capital markets - private and multilateral. But, more important, it would set the framework upon which Jamaica would address the most fundamental element of its economic crisis: its debt.

PAYMENT CRISIS

That debt is 140 per cent of GDP, which puts Jamaica in the league of Greece and worse than most of the other European countries that are faced with a payment crisis. Indeed, the more compelling fact of the Jamaican debt is that servicing takes up more than half of the Budget. What is left can hardly meet public-sector wages, much less finance other services.

So the Government has to fashion a programme to bring its costs in line with what it can afford, and, at the same time, earn more. Tax reform, pension reform, public-sector reform were part of the agenda.

Maybe we missed it in the euphoria of the past few weeks. But this newspaper is yet to discern from our Government a path towards either immediate or long-term economic independence.

We wonder what Norman Manley would think!

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