In his speech to manufacturers last week, Prime Minister Bruce Golding spoke of the potential dangers to Jamaica from the global financial crisis with a sense of realism that had hitherto been lacking from his administration.

But while Golding altered the tone of the conversation, we do not gather from the Government that sense of urgency with which we expected it to act.

Of course, the PM announced that a group of technocrats from the financial sector regulatory monetary policy oversight agencies will meet regularly with the finance minister to review the global crisis and make recommendations on how Jamaica ought to respond. That is good, but not sufficient.

As we warned earlier, what started off as a problem of banks and financial markets has evolved into a far uglier monster. It is now a global economic crisis that has the weak and vulnerable underfoot, preparing to stomp down. For, even if the measures being pursued by the United States and western European nations are successful in taking stakes in banks and unfreezing credit to stabilise markets, the die is already cast on a global recession. People already feel themselves poorer.

Prospects not too bright

So, the Jamaican authorities have already lowered their generous forecasts for tourism growth and other key areas of exports will soon feel the pinch. The US$2 billion in remittances, the largest inflow of foreign exchange, will probably hold up this year, but the prospects are not too bright going forward unless the United States and Britain can dig their way out of recession faster than most people predict.

We do not expect the administration, faced with these realities, to panic. We would hope, however, that Golding and his colleagues would see it as an opportunity to mobilise Jamaicans, at all segments of the society, into more than the passive response that is evident. We expected the kind of mood that was captured briefly at budget time when oil prices were soaring and Dr Christopher Tufton was preaching new approaches to agriculture.

It is not too late, however, for the Government to capture the moment. Golding can start by acting on our proposal for a 'war cabinet' on the economy, comprising the ministers with responsibility for key economic sectors. This group would be charged with identifying, outside the big weekly gathering of ministers, critical recovery programmes and have them implemented with urgency.

Dealing with this crisis

Second, we do not believe that all wisdom rests with the Government. As we suggested previously, it would make sense that the Vale Royal talks between the Government and Opposition be reconvened to deal with this crisis, removing it, hopefully, from being a partisan football that it is threatening to become.

Such a meeting, of course, would not preclude a parliamentary debate called for by the shadow finance minister, Dr Omar Davies. Except that such a debate would be more about exploring options and ideas and bringing the public into the process, rather than taking partisan shots. We believe, too, that the Government ought to initiate a broader national dialogue on economic and investment strategies with a clear and single-minded aim of achieving growth.

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