Empty accolades for past PMs can't rewrite history

Olive Nelson, Contributor

There is an oft-repeated anecdote of a beleaguered wife who, while listening to the glowing tributes being paid at the funeral of her husband, asked for the coffin to be reopened so she could ascertain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the occupant was indeed her erstwhile husband.

It is one thing to eulogise persons posthumously when they can no longer benefit from the hypocrisy of those who would wish to paint them larger than the life they lived. It is quite another thing to do so while the persons are still alive, are able to respond, participate in the artwork, and further distort the picture.

Within the last two months, we have been treated to a plethora of anointing accolades poured from Gordon House on two former prime ministers, Edward Seaga and P.J. Patterson, who, cumulatively, have shared leadership of this country for nearly half its Independence and occupied influential party positions for well over 40 - all marked by pathetically marginal or negative GDP growth. The tributes were befittingly superb, and their crafters should be forgiven for the exaggerated, even conflicting, claims thrown in from time to time.

It is the responses, though, which deserve more than a passing glance - their embrace of another opportunity 'fi tek people fi idiot'. While not denying that one or two good things were allowed to happen during their reign, I believe that, on this occasion, some apology for their contribution to the abiding economic woes of this country would have been a much more appropriate response.

Mr Seaga wasted no time in mounting his hobby horse, the pegged Jamaican dollar, as the answer to our economic woes. His claim to have "pegged the rate from 1987 to 1989 and that is how we grew at that time" (Gleaner, October 11, 2012) and his ascription of the comparatively strong economic performance of Barbados and the OECS countries to the pegging of their exchange rates can be readily dismissed as the ruminations of an old man.

pegging currency - old news

He ought to be told, though, that up to September 1991, the Jamaican currency had always been officially pegged to a foreign currency; that a constant relationship between two currencies cannot be achieved by the mere pegging of one to the other where the demand for one consistently, substantially and predictably outstrips the supply.

And could it be that he really has forgotten the chaos which reigned in the foreign-exchange market of the 1980s as we moved from one experiment to another - from dysfunctional foreign-exchange controls, to clumsy foreign-exchange auctions, to dual-exchange rates and parallel markets - in unsuccessful attempts to strangle the vibrant 'street market' and hold the J$-US$ relationship constant?

Mr Patterson's response to his recognition party was no less intriguing. To his credit, he concedes the obvious - we have decelerated post-Independence growth. He is, however, unwilling to go further, to offer any prescriptions, than that "we must resolve to do much better". He would also like to see his former parliamentary colleagues desist from speaking evil of each other, for that was the disincentive operating against the brightest minds being in politics.

But I can see a good number of people on both sides of the political divide whom I could consider quite bright. Mr Patterson is himself a very bright man, and so is Mr Seaga. But the conceptualisers and perpetrators of the lotto scam are also bright people. A fair share of brightness will always help in any venture, but as far as political leadership is concerned, it will only avail to the benefit of the populace when tempered with a good dose of selflessness. Our failure in not having done better at achieving economic independence is hardly the result of an absence of bright minds in Gordon House.

overwhelming mistrust

Moreover, most of Jamaica would hardly agree that people, bright or otherwise, are not opting for political careers because of the disparaging remarks being made by parliamentarians about their opposite numbers. I certainly can think of nothing said, in the recent or distant past, by any of them about another which would weigh as heavily as a turn-off as the mistrust with which they are viewed by the general public.

So deep is that mistrust that one could easily be led to conclude that what is being advocated here is not a behaviour change to attract a better quality of politician in the national interest but rather the promotion of a self-serving cartel - a political club in which the members swear allegiance to each other, no matter what.

"That we must resolve to do much better" is, of course, the understatement of the year. Yes, we must resolve to do much better at insisting on leadership with the moral authority to inspire us to willingly make the sacrifices required for damage control. We must resolve to do much better at leading by example. We must resolve to do much better to resist the craving for imported 'nice-to-haves' which the country cannot afford.

We must resolve to do much better to decrease our imports, increase our exports and narrow the trade gap. We must resolve to improve our rating on the corruption index. And we must unequivocally resolve, with the utmost urgency, to do much better for our human capital and rescue a generation of bright young men now lost to the corner kerbs or a life of crime.

We must be prepared to do much better or prepare to face the consequences of a rude awakening, Arab Spring style.

Olive Nelson is a chartered accountant. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and olivescottn@hotmail.com.