EDITORIAL - Partnership doesn't free Government of obligation to lead

We welcome last week's signing of the so-called Partnership for Jamaica agreement between the Government and representatives of the private sector, the labour movement and civil-society groups.

While we are disappointed that the Opposition declined to formally ink the pact, we are encouraged by Andrew Holness' undertaking that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will continue to be part of the deliberations.

In a way, we appreciate the JLP's tactic. Not being an official signatory gives the party plausible deniability. If the partnership talks achieve good outcomes, the JLP can portray itself as party to the consensus that made the gains possible.

Failure, on the other hand, will be the Government's. At the same time, the JLP will be free to attack policy prescriptions, thus, it believes, maintaining its integrity as an opposition party and alternative government.

In the context of the foregoing, we advance two points.

First, the JLP has to be careful with its strategy. For while the Opposition might have disagreements on emphases, timing and sequencing, it is a cold fact that there is little room for differences on the fundamentals of economic policy if Jamaica is to fix its long-standing crisis.

The crux of Jamaica's problem is its debt of J$1.8 trillion, representing more than 140 per cent of the country's annual economic output. Servicing the debt consumes more than 40 per cent of the budget and, more critically, 55 per cent of projected revenue - including grants. When the wage bill ($157 billion) is added, all the Government's projected revenue is insufficient to meet the cost - by nearly 20 per cent.

Greater Balance

Such are the realities that face the country, demanding tough and, perforce, painful action to begin to bring the fiscal accounts into greater balance. The Government has to borrow less, collect more taxes, reform the public sector to make it more efficient, even as it insists that its employees contribute more to their pension and, perhaps, delay retirement.

Such actions are more easily framed and executed in a context of consensus. This makes the partnership agreement, as a framework for dialogue towards consensus, a laudable idea. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the broad economic policy goals of the partnership agreement closely mirrors those in Jamaica's extended fund facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) —debt to GDP and primary surplus ratios, economic growth and unemployment projections, and so on. The document also outlines social and other benchmarks that impact on economic activity.

This brings us to our second point. That is, consensus in the partnership forum does not obviate the elected Government of its responsibility, indeed, its obligation, to lead. That, unfortunately, has been a deficit of this administration.

There are, of course, the perfunctory declarations of the difficulties to be faced - as by the prime minister during the signing of the partnership agreement. But there has not been, it seems to us, a wholehearted embrace of tasks or a mobilisation of the country to confront the challenges.

Nor do we sense in the actions of the Government a commitment to moral government, in the sense posited by Singapore's Tommy Koh: educate the society, zero tolerance of corruption, strong rule of law and the practice of meritocracy. On this score, Colin Campbell's appointment as CEO of Jamaica Urban Transit Company does not inspire confidence.

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