Ronald Thwaites | A really slow suicide

Last week, I was trying to help a small-business person renew her tax compliance certification. We waded through excessive pages of confusing forms. Eventually, she was turned down because the attestation clause had been left undated, inadvertently. She has lost a bid to cater for a particular agency as a result.

Then I could regale you with the hassle to get an assessment for the estate of a deceased person, requiring a TRN for a dead man plus original copies of his death certificate long after burial and after the grant of probate or administration by a court. All this to be able to pay revenue to the very Government that is imposing the complications.

Also, try to arrange bail for a person on a Friday and see what happens to you. Or, being a person of limited means, attempt the subdivision of a small property. You had better forget notions about liberty of the subject or the promise of development applications taking only 90 days in either of those cases.

And we won't even take on the Sargasso Sea around procurement or land divestment in this piece so as not to provoke more anger and despair.

There are countless other examples that could be given, all indicative of a state apparatus that talks reform but preserves thick and expensive bureaucracy, thoughtless of the cramp on employment and growth and encouraging rather than deterring corruption.

When simplifying reforms are suggested, there is a replete defense of every detail of the status quo. Habitually, we seem to presume that most Jamaicans are scamps and thieves against whom the state must guard by remaining obtuse and unhelpful.

Behind all this there is a foundational psychological warp. For many of us, long kept down, the exercise of power and authority, no matter how minor, raises issues of self-affirmation, the vindication of how significant we are, or the fear that facilitation will have a negative consequence. In short, all too often, we use power not to assist and uplift, but to cramp and keep others in their place, beholden to us.

This attitude is the opposite of good service. Of course, there are stellar instances of the reverse, of explanation and assistance by public officials that are superior to many other societies. The National Health Fund is reported to be one such agency. But they are not the norm, and so, the national enterprise languishes.

In the end, the best gift of the Jamaican personality, a cheerful disposition for exemplary service - just ask any satisfied tourist - is compromised, and our brand weakened. There is scant chance of successfully transitioning to a service-dominated economy without radical change.

While the malady afflicts both private ad public sectors, at least in theory, the customer of a private service provider ought to benefit from competition. In the public realm, there is no choice.

 

NO REFORM PLAN

 

Nigel Clarke's most daunting task is going to be public-sector reform. Despite all the previous studies, there is no sign of an agreed and comprehensive plan. The announced mergers, divestments, and voluntary redundancies go nowhere near the heart of redefining the efficient, affordable role of the state and the culture of responsiveness and excellent service, which must be its foundational characteristics.

The concept of a 'permanent' job, insulated for the most part from evaluation and accountability, has no place in a service-oriented nation. But with a politics that routinely corrupts this space with its cronies - never more so than right now - appointment to a post is the only, if weak, defence to this corruption.

But then, the politics that should be moving us forward ends up holding us back.

As things are set, by some minor moves and continuing to depress public-service wages, we may well make the nine per cent wage bill to GDP, but that by itself is not going to be sufficient to assure the efficiency and service- orientation that high growth rates require.

My disappointment is that the labour movement, source of progressive change in the past, has proven itself incapable of taking the initiative to lead reform. Successive governments have kicked this can down the road. Parliament exhibits little interest in even discussing the magnitude of the challenge, and the people's cause continues to be choked.

Sadly, it is really slow suicide.

- Ronald G. Thwaites is a member of parliament for Kingston Central and Opposition spokesman on education and training. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com