EDITORIAL - Azan's spectre haunts the Budget: Is PM a coward?

As is the practice of finance ministers, Peter Phillips climaxed his Budget presentation with a rousing call for national consensus, which he identified as a critical component of any effort to lift Jamaica out of its economic crisis and build confidence in the country's future.

That process, Dr Phillips said, included respect for, among other symbols and institutions, "our leaders".

This newspaper agrees with the finance minister on both counts. For, if the administration is finally serious about bringing the country's Greek-size national debt under control and breaking the cycle of low economic growth, it has to ensure that there is broad support for the many inevitably tough decisions that it will have to take.

But having a good economic programme is not, of itself, sufficient to build consensus around the project. There must be respect and support for the leaders who have to implement it. And leaders have to earn the people's trust.

And that, Dr Phillips, is the non-economic, moral component of the Budget. It, unfortunately, is precisely the area in which, at a time when it may be beginning to get the economics right, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and her administration are opening a wider deficit. In this case, it is called Richard Azan.

In her inauguration address more than 15 months ago, Mrs Simpson Miller promised Jamaicans a "zero-tolerance" approach to corruption in her Government, or perception thereof. Jamaicans cheered. We wanted, after the sleaze of the Christopher Coke affair, to believe that there would be a new approach to governance.

Mr Azan, the junior minister for transport, works and housing, and member of Parliament for North West Clarendon, confessed that without the power to do so and in breach of the Government's procurement regulations, he gave a contractor the 'authority' to build and rent shops in a market in his constituency. He further allowed his constituency office to be used as a rent-collection agency, even though, he insists, without personal gain.

Mr Azan, we presumed, signed on to the code of conduct and the new approach to governance articulated by Mrs Simpson Miller, but now seems too unknowing and unaware to understand his breach. He has failed to resign.

EMPTY WORDS

But worse than Mr Azan's seeming ignorance is the apparent cowardice of our prime minister. Or, it may be in that inauguration address Mrs Simpson Miller merely spoke words.

Under Jamaica's Constitution, ministers serve at the pleasure of prime ministers, who, in accordance with Section 70 (1) of the document, cause their appointment and under 71 (4) (b) the revocation of any such appointment. Not only did Mrs Simpson Miller not fire Mr Azan, but she has declined to take responsibility for her action. She instead finds refuge behind her Cabinet, the ministerial group that, constitutionally, serves at her will.

It is the Cabinet, not Mrs Simpson Miller, that supposedly gave Mr Azan leave to stay in his ministerial job until the Office of the Contractor General rules on his case, which, of course, sidesteps the moral component of the matter.

The larger point is that economic transformation is not merely a fiscal construct, although it is that too. There is the moral component; it is the element that requires people to trust their leaders if they are to endure tough times. That is the missing piece in Dr Phillips' Budget.

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.