EDITORIAL - Give PM free hand to restructure gov't

Today is to be the second and final day of a special session of the Cabinet to deal with what the Government has dubbed its growth agenda. It will have been the fourth such extraordinary meeting of ministers in the nearly 14 months since the People's National Party (PNP) regained the Government.

We previously advised the minister that they should stay wherever they are now holed up, and not emerge, until they not only have a fully defined economic strategy, but clearly defined tactics for its implementation as well as articulation to the Jamaican people.

Now, we offer the Cabinet an alternative, should they be incapable of the demands we have articulated in echo of the Jamaican people. Ministers should resign en masse, allowing Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to reshape her Government without having to confront the internal political dilemmas of having to fire party people, some of them stalwarts.

Indeed, this newspaper has previously, and more than once, highlighted the several members of this administration, in the Cabinet and out, who are caught in the net of the Peter Principle. They were long since promoted beyond their level of competence.

In not so bad times, it may have been tolerable to continue to muddle along. But Jamaica faces a domestic crisis at a time of global turbulence.

A measure of just how troubled we are as the ratio of our debt to gross domestic product, now at 140 per cent, but which we are supposedly committed to reducing to 100 per cent in seven years. This will require borrowing less and tightly managing government expenditure while reversing four decades of essentially stagnation in growth.

This is no easy business. It will require consistent policies that balance the seemingly competing expectations, tough political decision-making and executive oversight, supported by a skilled and technocratic bureaucracy. It will also demand plenty of honesty and truth-telling.

Residual talent

Not too many among Mrs Simpson Miller's current crop of ministers can make the cut, and unfortunately, there are not too much residual talent among the elected members of the legislature.

But all is not totally lost. Constitutionally, the prime minister can appoint four ministers from the Senate. She now has three, whose departure, with the exception of the mis-assigned, Mark Golding, the justice minister, would hardly be noticed. By using the Senate, Mrs Simpson Miller can tap the private sector and elsewhere, in and outside of Jamaica, to infuse her administration with the requisite skills to undertake the job ahead.

Further, even a cursory look at the public sector should convince the prime minister that several ministries, agencies and departments can be collapsed into each other, and eliminated because they have nothing to do or duplicate the work of others. That would guide the PM on the shaping of a new Cabinet and the structure of Government.

Then there is the PM's own role. When she and Finance Minister Peter Phillips announced the latest round of debt rescheduling, they promised to mobilise Jamaica around the economic-reform project. Little concrete has happened. The Government seems uncertain and unsure.

There is no more persuasive communicator with the majority of Jamaicans than Mrs Simpson Miller. That is political capital she must now spend.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.