Welcome back, Mama P

by Din Duggan

Last Friday, the day after Portia Simpson Miller and the PNP easily took candy from 'Baby Bruce', a poor woman walked into a store in search of 'a smalls' while sharing with the owner her displeasure with Mama P and the PNP.

A day earlier, as she had promised, the woman voted for her constituency's PNP candidate. She was told that if she contributed to the PNP's return to power, her fridge would be stocked with food, her pockets would be filled with money, and all her problems - ostensibly caused by the governing JLP - would be relieved. As the woman awoke on Friday, undoubtedly more excited than a child on Christmas morning, her fridge was empty, so too were her pockets, and other problems persisted. Mama P, she grumbled, didn't keep her end of the bargain.

Welcome back, Mrs Simpson Miller, this is the citizenry you've acquired.

Whatever the reason for most people and their neighbours not voting Labour - the Dudus-Manatt saga, the party's arrogance, the incendiary ad campaign against a Jamaican woman, or the horrible economic conditions - reality is the PNP is now in the driver's seat. It is they - a group which has shown no sense of policy direction while in Opposition - who must pilot a nation whose citizens seek full fridges, beds of roses, and a million dollars, by morning.

Should Jamaica progress from a land of empty pockets and extended arms to become a nation of law, order and prosperity, the 'Jamaican Queen' will have to wave her wand and magically balance the pressing demands of a short-sighted citizenry - moulded by decades of regressive and visionless leadership - with policies and programmes that are in the country's best long-term interest.

The following are merely a few particularly pressing examples:

Democratic Reform

Our system of governance is dysfunctional. Jamaica needs a number of constitutional reforms, primarily a republican structure consisting of an executive branch separate from the oft-incompatible demands of Parliament. Under the current system, Dr Christopher Tufton, possibly Jamaica's hardest-working politician, was relegated to the private citizenry while many less-than-savoury, largely useless creatures continue to slither through Parliament. We must seriously seek to separate politicking from governance - Cabinet should consist of appointees shielded from the muddy trenches of representative politics. Their focus would be the country's long-term national interests rather than their own short-term re-election chances.

Serious consideration need also be given to a fixed election date, broader campaign-finance laws, and term limits for prime ministers.

Law and Order

Crime costs Jamaicans tens of billions of dollars each year - indirectly and directly. More costly are the tens of thousands of lives violently destroyed each decade and the countless youngsters being inculcated into a culture of corruption and criminality.

The JLP, its hands forced by its own bungling of Dudus' extradition, managed to significantly dent crime. This was triggered not through pontificating and dithering but by forcefully engaging criminals. The environment of criminality persists, however. We must take all measures to cripple this scourge.

The PNP should intensify the offensive against all criminals - not only petty ones and violent gangs - but also against the greatest perverts of democracy: the crooks roving through Gordon House, Government, the security forces, corporate boardrooms and all areas of high society.

Hospital User Fees

Our hospitals are in an abysmal state. In one case, bags of human waste piled up in hallways because of lack of funds to repair a damaged incinerator. It often takes an act of God to receive a simple painkiller. Bruce Golding promised free health care, but instead delivered a health-care nightmare.

We must now rectify this grave error and make our hospitals places where adequate services are delivered in civilised environments at reasonable prices. We should reinstate user fees for all who can afford them. No one who needs care should ever be denied, but health care, given our current financial constraints, should be free only for children and the very poor.

Other areas of considerable importance exist: education, mainly at the primary level and in science and technology, must be strengthened. We must foster an environment amenable to job creation, and the Reggae Boyz need to return to the World Cup.

If the PNP is to avoid the JLP's fate, and if we are to progress as a nation, Mrs Simpson Miller must eschew politics-as-usual and offer bold, visionary, responsible leadership. May God help her - and us (and the Reggae Boyz).

Din Duggan is an attorney working as a consultant with a global legal search firm. Email him at columns@gleanerjm.com or dinduggan@gmail.com, or view his past columns at facebook.com/dinduggan and twitter.com/YoungDuggan.