Jamaica salt! Fe true!?

Errol Hewitt, Guest Columnist

"Jamaica was one of those spots on which fortune shone with the full warmth of all her noonday splendour. That sun has set; whether forever or no, none but a prophet can tell', but as far as a plain man may see, there are at present but few signs of a coming tomorrow, or of another summer."

These words are from the first page of a book written around 1864 by Anthony Trollope titled Miss Sarah Jack of Spanish Town. It is incredible that a comment on Jamaica written nearly 150 years ago is still as relevant as if it were written this morning. Trollope was a well-respected and much-sought-after British writer who had visited the Caribbean between 1858 and 1859 and whose negative comment on Jamaica at the time is above questioning.

What has kept us going in circles all these decades? Why haven't we been able to break free from this fixation to drag ourselves (and each other) down and instead place ourselves united on the path to sustainable development? Must we always flatter to deceive? The most-often-heard response to these questions is that we have consistently underperformed because of the paucity of our leadership.

The following 98 years since Trollope's comments, Jamaica continued to be under British colonial rule and commandeered to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water" while its socio-economic development remained secondary. It is no secret that Jamaica was undeniably a comparatively huge contributor to the financing of the industrial revolution and with it the spread and deepening of education to considerably accelerate the building of Britain's wealth.

Under colonialism, Alexander Bustamante and Norman Manley fought for political Independence as the base from which real freedom could be attained. Their legacy to us in 1962 was political Independence, and their challenge to us was to secure economic independence.

It is now 2013 and the signed International Monetary Fund Agreement (IMF) this year has struck a gloomy note that, despite many positives, much more should have and could have been accomplished. Wi salt! In a sense, this agreement reaches across the past 150 years since Trollope's comments and seems to say to him, "It's either Jamaica gets it right this time or the sun truly has set."

The question now to be asked is, therefore, "Is our leadership competent and committed enough to rescue us from national bankruptcy and place us on the path to morality in our social life and economic independence?"

URGENCY FOR GOOD LEADERSHIP

The truth is that while external factors have contributed to our underdevelopment, our political leadership has been a major factor. The process to determine parliamentary representation has drawn substantial numbers from the ranks of the masses and through a lengthy internal process, determined the candidates for parliamentary elections. There are occasions when the party leader will parachute in his/her protégè into a constituency, but this is most detested because it jumps the queue and belies the necessity to pay one's dues.

Historically, this is essentially a political exercise to determine the best option for winning a seat and obtaining national political power; governance is not an essential consideration at this point, and, therefore, ministerial competence is a distant thought. Little wonder then that competence in government has been so difficult to attain. For the last few decades, winning power and personally and party-wise grasping the benefits seems to have become the be-all and end-all.

The harsh reality is that our leaders seemed to have had very little confidence in 'we, the people' - but every confidence in themselves. As such, they ensured that they, not us, were the focus and pivot of the Constitution. It was their will which was to be satisfied (masters?) and not so much that of we the people (servants?).

To cement this, it was understandable that the strategised politics of scarce benefits (e.g., contracts, jobs, etc.), fanned by the politician and fought for by two warring tribes of political party supporters, would have disastrously emerged. This, in turn, further deepened the dependence by so many on the party as their only means to progress economically and realise social mobility.

Complementing this was the projecting of the politician with godlike qualities accompanied by an evangelisation drive - with party lyrics added to the tunes of popular Christian hymns, to convert supporters to become a core which unswerving devotion warps into worship and even dying sacrifice - a sacrifice which consistency and depth is not readily offered even for country. Conservative estimates see about 35 per cent of the population as locked into this converted lot, with unwavering commitment to one or the other major political party.

What else but ignorant worship does one call the channelled mindlessness of these fanatic supporters, where reason is not allowed traction and the politician/political party is identified as the one hope of securing socio-economic redemption? This is idolatry, no less in its essence than that orchestrated by Moses' brother Aaron (Exodus 32:1-8) and just as costly to us here as it was in the wilderness then.

In response, there has been a quickening of the continued migration and a steepening increase of those no longer interested in politics and politicians. We are in a politico-socio-economic and religious crisis and at a crossroads, an important base of which is the politics. We cannot go forward with the same old self-serving political system and timbre of political leadership and politicians which have served us in the past.

ERRORS IN JUDGEMENT

This IMF agreement may well be a watershed for the country and will certainly determine our immediate future, but governance has been an ongoing difficulty and government's credibility has been heavily questioned, underscoring the masses' disaffection and diminishing trust of governments and demand for a new approach.

But succeeding administrations over the last 40 years have:

• Continued in the same pattern of governance which has failed to move the economy forward in a sustained and inclusive manner;
• Continued an approach which has huge sections of the masses excluded from the means of production;
• Continued witnessing social issues multiplying - poverty, youth unemployment, crassness, immorality, violence, crime.

With no fundamental change in government's approach, the social fabric will continue to unravel and its evidence will continue to increase in the cost of lives and money.

A valued past asset of Jamaica and indeed the entire region has been a lifestyle which portrays an inherent happiness with life, neighbourliness, a quality of life which, while not then matched with a high standard of living (washing machine/dryer, Audis, etc.), was the envy of the rest of the world and even an attraction in its own right.

All this is rapidly evaporating and in its place an individualism, non-interest in history, immorality, mediocrity and proneness to violence, etc., which is at almost epidemic proportions in the midst of which (oxymoron like) is the unmistakable evidence of much wealth of source unknown and yet a slowly degrading, debt-ridden society.

Our agriculture is marked by myriad small farmers, yet a private-sector/government marketing partnership still continues (despite its obvious logic), to be hampered by a politics which seems unable to overcome its own narrowness and selfishness, rather than to break the bands of poverty which enslave the masses and drag the society down.

Its reticence to uphold the zoning laws has reduced the value of homeowners' highest lifetime investment.

There are housing and factory shells/warehouse shortages at a time of an estimated 800,000 squatters; this latter responded to by innumerable unapproved (take-it-or-leave-it) housing extensions. William Demas pleaded for the adoption of a construction policy as an important socio-economic attribute in any development plan, especially given its impressive creation of employment, both directly (construction workers, etc.) and indirectly (housing fixtures, furniture makers, etc.).

And yet the sector is grossly underutilised and underperforming, although the responsible agency has been awash with funds at a time when the economy is contracting and substantial numbers are still losing their jobs.

Ingratitude is an awesome burden which reflects how the Government's insensitive, uncompassionate and blinkered legalistic system deals atrociously with even, for example, notable achievers in Government and its agencies that, despite this, are deprived of a pension and declared to have abandoned jobs because resignation letters cannot be found on file.

And there is the parachuted ghetto across from the University Hospital on lands designated for a regional trauma centre and which is a public-health challenge. This is compounded by the fact that a patient in an ambulance can die in a traffic jam 50 metres from the hospital's entrance because a driver of one of the innumerable red-plate taxicabs is purchasing two cigarettes from one of the several vendors sited by the roadside.

HOPE OF REALITY

The IMF agreement has signalled what the country has known for a long time: that our policies over the last 30 to 40 years have been leading us down slippery slopes to penury - Haiti's cellmate in the socio-economic cellar of the region. To face the realities of the present and create hope for the future, we need to become a unified country, working to make agreed policies succeed for the benefit of all our people.

As a people, we should have a shared vision, a philosophy to inspire, and an abiding love for neighbour and country. Would to God that our leaders would at last understand the abundance of the resources encrypted into our island home and the potential for greatness deposited in our people.

We were not created to be pronounced 'salt', but rather to be the salt of the earth.

Errol Hewitt is an information and communication technology planning consultant. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and estahewitt@yahoo.com.