EDITORIAL: Rewriting the script for 2011

Unfortunately for Jamaica, bold ideas, courage, respect and integrity were in short supply in 2010.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding and his Cabinet colleagues have emerged from the past year battered by the weight of the economic, political and security challenges that confronted our country. Mr Golding's prime ministerial authority evaporated in the face of his inept handling of the Christopher Coke extradition request and to many he lost his bearings as a leader. Now, he appears overcautious and seems to be tiptoeing his way through government. Mr Golding, as leader of Government, needs urgently to find the compass to navigate the country out of its present malaise.

History always sees what we cannot see in the present and years from now, with the aid of hindsight, generations may find that we have judged this Jamaica Labour Party government too harshly. But we must call it as we see it. Indeed, it has been a year of public disillusionment. Old prejudices and rancour continued to play out in the Parliament and the Opposition appears unwilling to consider issues on their merit. The short-term thinking and expediency of the Opposition was sadly too predictable. The main feature of the Opposition's response to every government initiative has been negative. And partisan bickering has dominated the regular sittings of the House.

Surely, a lesson to be learnt from this disappointing year is that the development of imaginative policies, bi-partisan cooperation and genuine communication between the people and their government must be the essentials of national politics in 2011.

Credible answers

The economic security of our country must be of paramount importance as we begin this second decade of the 21st century. The Ministry of Finance must avoid the kinds of wrong calls that we have seen this year and find credible answers to our many economic challenges. The Government must somehow rise above short-term management and demonstrate that it has other answers besides taxation and borrowing strategies.

And ranking with equal importance is the security issue. Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington is a man on a mission and he deserves all our support for he has inherited a rather corrupt Jamaica Constabulary Force. As he purges, transfers, promotes and dismisses, we hope his actions will earn the desired results so that more Jamaicans can live in peace and prosperity.

We must also press on and strengthen the regulatory apparatuses in place so that we can increase transparency and the ability to implement measures to improve accountability in government.

The Romans understood very well that human beings needed to draw a line in the sand that could divide the past from the future and that is why at the start of every year, we look forward to better prospects and see it as an opportunity to assess and start afresh with renewable hopes and dreams.

It's a welcome idea that we can start over in the new year. We can 'white out' the ugliness of last year's script and try again.

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