Dr Phillips must not be derailed

Daniel Thwaites, Contributor

Let me begin with the pretty superstar D'Angel's recent wardrobe malfunction at a performance in Temple Hall, St Andrew. Essentially, it was a panty derailment and it's all over the Internet.

This was before the economic stimulus of the Government-sponsored Sting where she clashed with Ninja Man. Speaking to The STAR, D'Angel was straightforward: "When I am performing, I just go all out - gyal clean, gyal good. Mi just performing. Anything goes."

As a fan of D'Angel, my question is: why can't we have that level of honesty from political leadership?

I would say we need to remember this formula like an anthem, because truly if 'anything goes', then we are guaranteed derailment, no question about it. I thought of it when I heard Mr Andrew Holness calling for an "economic stimulus" from the Government, because one of our problems is that traditionally 'anything goes' when it comes to Government borrowing and spending, particularly when elections are creeping up, and time after time that has caused Jamaica's drawers to derail and expose de ting.

But I'm feeling optimistic in this 2014, particularly because this newspaper has determined that the economic programme ought not to be derailed. And I believe there is broad public sentiment in support of that as well. To my mind, The Gleaner is in no small way responsible for what must be an unprecedented public recognition of the peril we face if we go off the rails again.

Consider the editorial that called for Andrew to draft an economic thinker if Audley won't play anymore, and another which came in the wake of Mr Holness' call for stimulus which, to my mind at least, establishes firmly that the economy is not Mr Holness' strong point just yet. The Gleaner has asked for further and better particulars, and in truth, the country awaits.

I think it important to acknowledge that, as Mr Holness is quick to remind everyone, he hasn't chosen the path of 'nightmare'. But beyond just avoiding nightmare, I wonder if the country's politics can at least have consensus that we want to move beyond the debt-ridden dependency occasioned by politicians finding ever more creative ways to spend resources the country hasn't earned. When Andrew starts to sound like my comrade Paul Burke, you come to realise the danger that Jamaica could end up with one political party with two left wings.

Shaw scores valid points

It was also instructive to see Audley Shaw, who bore some of the editor's ire regarding the economic failure of the last administration, come back on Tuesday to score some runs with a few valid points swimming in a soup of overstatement. Shaw pointed out that he reduced transfer tax and stamp duty on real estate transactions, abolished estate taxes, and abolished stamp duty on the transfer of loans, all designed to get the economy moving. He divested entities that the previous People's National Party administration appeared unwilling to touch, however much they were bleeding the country's finances. That entailed bringing hidden debt on to the books, which I imagine took courage. Plus, Audley achieved the orderly default known as JDX and one of my personal favourites (because mi mek a money outa it) set up the Junior Stock Exchange.

So far, I agree. I see no reason to deny that Audley was dribbling down the field nicely before he decided (or was pressured?) to kick weh de ball. The thing is Audley wants to talk about the nice dribble, not the terrible dash weh. But, switching metaphors, the reality is that you can't praise a man too much for inflating a couple of tyres and changing the oil if you know he ultimately jumped into the vehicle and drove it off a cliff. Audley's apologia nowhere acknowledges that ultimately de ting did derail, and badly at that. If you look closely, D'Angel suffered only a half-derailment, whereas by late 2011, Audley had exposed Jamaica completely.

Throughout my whole conscious existence, Jamaica's economy has been stagnant or shrinking. You would think that my generation is tired of being bruk, and would therefore welcome Dr Phillips' reintroduction of basic maths into our national reckoning. As a clear-headed thinker in the Jamaica Labour Party, and a man who knows how to read a balance sheet, explained to me recently: the "best case scenario" is that Jamaica's debt profile will come to resemble Barbados' in seven years, yet observe the steps Barbados is taking to avert crisis, steps which are politically impossible here.

So I would respectfully suggest to Andrew that it's too early for cake and ale and 'anything goes' from the Government, and the Opposition shouldn't call for anything like that in a populist pander. Mr Karl Samuda was more on point at the recent Belmont Road conference when he explained that the Government needs to close-mark the Chinese interests and get the economy moving from investment. Otherwise, the Government can get out of the way of businesspeople by releasing its bureaucratic chokehold on the many investment projects awaiting approvals. For example, how many billions of dollars worth of construction projects are tied up in the labyrinth of the KSAC and parish councils?

We cannot keep making the same mistake. The Gleaner's conclusion that, "the Government must, at all costs, maintain fiscal discipline lest it squander painfully earned gains" has to be correct. Only by stubbornly maintaining a commitment to fiscal propriety do we stand any chance of emerging from the mess of four decades of stagnation. Dr Phillips must not be derailed.

Daniel Thwaites is a partner of Thwaites Law Firm in Jamaica, and Thwaites, Lundgren & D'Arcy in New York. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.