Hoping for an honest, effective and efficient government

ID: INTERACTIVE DIALOGUE

David Mullings

Sunday, October 30, 2011

During his swearing-in speech, Prime Minister Holness said that Jamaica could have 'better politics, better policies and better people'. He listed a number of things that we all should work on to make this a reality.

My concern is that in my short life I have never seen an honest, effective or efficient Government in Jamaica. Holness said that we should "ensure that those who commit crimes are assured of punishment, thereby reducing the incidence of crime" and yet he was silent when Christopher 'Dudus' Coke was being defended by his party. Did Holness not believe that those who commit crimes should be punished last year?

What has happened to the investigation into the sand stolen from a beach? No criminals have been punished for that deed. Past PNP administrations also dropped the ball on punishment for crimes, especially punishment of police officers who break the law. They also failed many times to punish their own party members who we involved in corruption.

The same politicians who have failed to punish criminals in the past are still the ones in power and they expect the public to believe that they will "ensure that those who commit crimes are assured of punishment"? If so, prove it through actions, not just words.

Holness said to "let us end poverty in our society" and it is well known that education helps to reduce poverty, yet our school system is still producing illiterate and innumerate students by the tens of thousands per year. We need improved schools and some new schools and the diaspora has repeatedly offered the money, via a bond, and no one has taken it up.

Hopefully, Prime Minister Holness will be the first politician to leverage the diaspora in a smart way and tap into that massive capital base for the good of the country, instead of just asking us for political donations.

He was quite right that claiming to love the poor and then borrowing money and spending in such a way as to not generate enough to repay the loan, and then being forced to tax Jamaicans more was not a demonstration of love. The legacy of the Trelawny cricket stadium is a perfect example of borrowing gone wrong.

At the same time, it is just as unloving to sell off Jamaica and allow its natural beauty to be destroyed. Some of the divestments must be reconsidered and the present administration must do a thorough examination of how the Urban Development Corporation has been divesting assets that belong to us taxpayers of Jamaica because something stinks.

Recent international reports about doing business around the world made it clear that it is a common belief that corruption is rampant in Jamaica; that you can't just play by the rules. Every Jamaican knows this is a fact, but some still don't want to admit it. Holness said "let us build a society where if you play by the rules you will succeed", but his party did not play by the rules to win the election in 2007.

The former prime minister actually admitted that he knew that some of the candidates who became MPs had breached the Constitution of Jamaica by knowingly being dual citizens, ineligible to sit in Parliament, but he took his time because it was politically expedient.

Holness said nothing then about playing by the rules, but now his tune has changed. I do hope he is in fact a changed man. The unfortunate thing is that it was the PNP that brought the breach of rules to light, and not only did it seem like it would never have come to light had they won. The PNP itself had also not played by the rules, having some dual citizens as well!

Surely, while the JLP looked bad for flouting the Constitution, and not playing by the rules, the PNP looked worse for having pointed out the breach while committing the same breach. I can find no better example of hypocrisy anywhere.

How can Jamaica have "better politics" if these politicians who have practised bad politics for so long do not change? How can Jamaica have "better policies" if MPs do not realise that they serve taxpayers and are not little emperors? How can Jamaica have "better people" if our examples of leadership are so poor?

An honest government would mean much more transparency in the way political donations are reported, the way state assets are divested; increased powers vested in the contractor general; a beefed up Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions so more cases could be brought forward; real investment in the court system so that one photocopier breaking down would not cause a backlog; and some politicians ending up in jail for the mismanagement we have seen in the past.

An effective government would be one that sets out policies and actually implements and achieves them in the timelines proposed as well as within the budget set forward. If a policy is put in place to reduce the number of high school students that fail CSEC or are prevented from even sitting them, then it should work, otherwise it is not effective.

Few Jamaicans expect any project to ever come in within budget. There are always overruns. This is not the sign of an efficient government. If the public sector is currently inefficient, reducing the number of staff will not make it more efficient. However, if it was more efficient, there would automatically be need for less staff.

Maybe that is why efficiency has never been a major policy; the public sector provided too many jobs and therefore too many votes.

In Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew made it clear in reference to the national airline that "right from the beginning, management and union clearly understood that their survival depended on being profitable" and it would not be subsidised just to fly the flag around the world like other countries did.

In Jamaica, our politicians have never focused on ensuring that state entities were profitable — the Sugar Company of Jamaica, Air Jamaica, the international airports, tourism attractions like Bath, the Factories Corporation, Caymanas Track Limited, Wallenford Coffee, and the power company when it was government-owned; the list could go on.

The interesting thing, however, is that profitable state entities like the port of Kingston and Wigton Wind Farm are for sale.

I do support better politics and better policies. I only hope that the same set of politicians who have helped to create the problems we have today will change their spots and actually start putting the country first instead of just claiming to, while actually putting their party first.

David Mullings was the first Future Leaders Representative for the USA on the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board. He can be found at facebook.com/InteractiveDialogue and Twitter.com/davidmullings

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Hoping for an honest, effective and efficient government