Portia's speech lost amid drama

Orville Taylor, Contributor

Perhaps because of the uncertainty of the 381MW project and the dismissive and accusative middle finger pointed by the IDP on the procedure leading to its selection, we did not pay full attention to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's Budget presentation.

It could also be that the negligible 0.1 per cent tax on withdrawals left the Jamaican women and men so disappointed and feeling so cheated that they didn't want to hear of anything else with P in it. Indeed, the Jamaican people were flat-footed and felt somewhat steamrolled by the finance minister when he tried to balance the books but added a single blade of grass and threatened to break the fabled camel's back.

And it didn't help much that the Government back-pedalled and found more ingenious ways of obtaining the increased revenue that it needs. True, it demonstrates the creativity of the administration, but the question now lingers as to whether or not the Government was thinking at all, and why didn't it get it right the first time. This recanting and apparent post-facto thinking of the 'victims', whose lives we should be balancing, reminds me too much of the tax dance of the Labourites a few years ago. Then, this strident People's National Party (PNP), then in Opposition, righteously took the gutsy 'Man-a-Yard' to task. A Government elected by the people and which claims to be in touch with them must get it right the first time to inspire confidence and maintain the goodwill. Too often, the people-sensitive decisions come as afterthoughts.

JUTC: WHAT NOT TO DO

Then, we have the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC)) painted appropriately and allegorically in national colours. An entity that serves the more than a million residents and commuters who traverse or reside in the Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA), it has come to epitomise what a Government should not be doing. Doubtless, the management duo of Comrades Colin Campbell and Garnett Roper want to make the JUTC make money, and Campbell is a good man to come up with ingenious ways of doing so. But a company that has a deplorable record of complying with the various laws and paying over statutory deductions cannot even properly take care of the welfare of its employees. Thus, if it cannot forward the National Housing Trust and National Insurance contributions on behalf of the workers, how will it balance anything except the tyres at the alignment stand?

Justification in law

One is still trying to find justification in law, not expedience for the discriminatory apartheid lane, on the ironically named Nelson Mandela Highway, dedicated solely to the colour-prejudiced JUTC. Despite the guidance of officers within the constabulary, who know more about transport law than the ubiquitous Radcliffe Lewis, and a judicious reading of the Road Traffic Act, there is nothing to convince me that the statute gives the company such a right or privilege in law. Yes, any patriotic Jamaican must be anxious to see the JUTC make money, because any loss it suffers is not going to be felt in the pay cheque of Campbell or Roper's collection plate. It is the public and the workers at JUTC, with a double whammy, who will have to suck coarse salt from a long wooden spoon.

But law is law, and one cannot use unlawful means of obtaining a positive result, even if it is for the benefit of the people in the end. While Sista P, whose fame has appropriately found its way to the TV show 'Jeopardy', where people pose questions instead of providing answers, was preparing and reading her eloquent presentation, my email and on-air phone lines were flooded by disgruntled commuters and transport operators.

These electors felt that the JUTC, in tandem with the Transport Authority and police, were violating their rights and making them suffer, while doing what is right and legal. Rural bus operators, already relegated to a Bantustan along the Mandela, have lamented that they have been stopped, persecuted and even had their buses unloaded. One unidentified driver complained that his bus was stopped and emptied and his passengers appropriated in Henry Morgan fashion, like illegal booty. This was despite their licences giving them explicit permission to set down passengers at any appropriate or designated stop, en route to their terminal point into the KMA, and to similarly pick up, on the way back to 'yunchery'.

On national radio, before an audience of around 100,000 listeners, Roper rubbished the claims, suggesting that the complainants are mere rabble-rousers because the authorities only target those decadent maverick drivers who rob the public of both revenue and service by not completing their routes, driving just a few kilometres to the outer limits of the KMA, such as Stony Hill, and then turning back.

Doubtless, these 'crooks' need to be caught, punished and possibly removed from the system. However, any proper inspectorate with a team of dispatchers could easily 'time-pedal' these deviants and pick them out, quicker than a crack head removes your ackees and mangoes from your trees. Either the people who email and call are liars or Roper is misguided. I am not on the streets, but you readers know what the truth is.

Now back to the EWI project, which was smelling like a combination of red herring and jackfruit since day zero. In September last year, Contractor General Dirk Harrison did his job and raised questions. The Office of Utilities Regulation also raised its nose. These concerns were replicated this year but, characteristically, made light of by Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell, who has had more than his fair share of controversies regarding lack of transparency. Now the IDB has caused more egg to reach his face, despite his not wanting to be a sitting duck and get an 'F' as a minister. Nonetheless, something is wrong.

So people, this is the dilemma. The prime minister's speech was a good one, but these distractions have prevented a proper discussion on it until next week.

Damn, I must ask the PNP!

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in sociology at the UWI and a radio talk-show host. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.