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Knowing when to move on
Raulston Nembhard
Thursday, November 05, 2009
It is no secret that there was an uneasy calm between the minister of finance Mr Audley Shaw, and the former Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Mr Derick Latibeaudiere. The signal was clear since the days of the JLP in opposition.
Indeed, one of the most strident criticisms made by Mr Shaw was the inordinately high interest rate regime that was being pursued by the then PNP administration. Implicit in these criticisms was an idictment of the work of Mr Latibeaudiere who, as governor of the Bank of Jamaica, had responsibility for monetary policy. The opposition was determined that when they gained power a low interest rate regime would be critical in their effort to grow the economy.
It should have been no surprise, therefore, to Mr Latibeaudiere and his most ardent supporters that he would not find much favour with the new administration. At the time of regime change he should have resigned, thus giving the new government the leverage they would need to start with a new slate and with new ideas consistent with their policy for economic development.
But why should he when he had the most cushy job in the civil service? Some would say more cushy than even that enjoyed by the chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board. It was clear that Mr Latibeaudiere's intransigence and his commitment to high interest rate regimes would have run counter to the new thrust for economic development that the country needed. Mr Latibeaudiere never seemed to have any other tool in his toolbox of monetary policy than high interest rates. Outside of this there were very few options that he seemed to have to defend the exchange rate from precipitous slippage.
With the help of the former minister of finance, Dr Davies, high interest rates rose to such dangerous levels that we had the collapse of the financial sector in the late 1990s. Even with the collapse of the sector, interest rates remained at dizzyingly high levels, stultifying growth in the economy and taking the energy out of the entrepreneurial drive of Jamaicans who wanted to move forward.
When other countries in the Caribbean were enjoying exceptional growth rates in the good times, Jamaica was lagging behind, registering anaemic growth of under one per cent in some instances, or little or no growth in others. It is not because we had fewer resources than many of these countries, but because we just could not get things right. Any basic textbook on economics will tell you that high interest rates are not intended to become a cultural reality in any ceconomy that wants to grow. They are temporary and in some instances drastic measures which ought to be short-term and should be removed when the job has been done in securing stability in the economy. But they were not removed in Jamaica. How long could this state of affairs persist? How long did Mr Latibeaudiere think he could work with the new government by being tethered to a high interest rate orthodoxy? Now all the fowls have come home to roost and he has had to resign after 13 continuous years of service (the longest for any BOJ governor).
One of the problems that we suffer from in both the public and private sectors is that people do not know when to move on. Like politicians, they hang on for dear life even when they have run out of creative ideas and have clearly become a humbug or worse, a stumbling-block to the progress of that organisation. This goes too for people who have been on boards for too long. One does not say that you cannot, through the power of self-regeneration, reinvent yourself so you can continue to be a reservoir of trust and a profit to the organisation you serve. But if it is the same old stale self that you are and you are prepared to merely drag yourself through from year to year, you ought to be true to yourself and quit. This applies to every sector of the country: the church, public and private sector, unions and the whole gamut of social organisations.
But psychologically, some people's relevance can only be substantiated by how they continue to parade their own self-importance in the eyes of their colleagues. Frankly, many of them have nothing else to do, because they have not reinvented themselves. I remember a gentleman who had served for almost 30 years on a church committee bewailing what had been done to him after he was voted off by people who had become disenchanted with his continued presence on it.
The offices we hold at any given time are larger than those who hold them. People come and go from organisations The longevity of the organisation should never be predicated on the benevolence, goodwill, academic brilliance or even winsome personality of the person who is called to lead at any given time. We have not understood these principles in Jamaica. If you have an expertise that you can contribute, then this can be done through a consultancy arrangement. There is nothing to say that you have to continue to run the show unless you want to have your own psychological needs attended to. You must know when to move on; when you have used up all the oxygen in the room.
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www.drraulston.com
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