THE backlash of the Jamaican people against the 2012-2013 Budget would not have come as a surprise to those who truly understand the nature of Jamaicans.

We are a people who have survived and progressed against tremendous odds; unafraid to take on tough times and challenges; an audacious nation of people willing to be bigger than what others tell us we should be. Ask Mr Usain Bolt, and Mr Bob Marley were he alive.

This year, having attained 50 years of political Independence, we have embarked upon a process of deep introspection and retrospection, from which we hope to emerge with a clearer appreciation of what we have done right and where we have gone wrong. It is a critical process, because whatever we find must inform the script we write for the way forward over the next 50 years of nationhood. And it is a process that demands unusual courage and the best of what we are as a people.

Which brings us to the role of the Budget as a catalyst that encapsulates the vision and statement we wish to make about the way forward towards the next 50 years in which we should speak now of our economic Independence.

Instead of reflecting the boldness of our people, and our well known audacity to take on seemingly insurmountable tasks, the Budget as outlined is hardly anything more than a reflection of a people in retreat, waving the white flag of surrender and betraying the fighting nature of the true Jamaican man and woman.

Those who justify their national cowardness on grounds that we are in great indebtedness and beset by an ailing economy clearly don’t know that this has been the history of our people. We did not arrive in 2012 on an easy ride. Need we remind anyone about chattel slavery in the dark years from 1655 to 1834; about Paul Bogle and William Gordon in 1865; about the labour struggles in 1938; about the fight for Universal Adult Suffrage culminating in 1944; and onto political Independence in 1962?

We are a nation that has come through the fire and we fight on. The figures tell us that we should not be surviving as a country. Thank goodness that we have not listened.

It is ironic that it is the party which prides itself on leading the national movement, whose founder is regarded as father of the nation, that has now chosen the path of surrender.

There is nothing in the Budget that rallies the country to arms; nothing that appeals to the tried and proven energy and courage of our people; that says hardships there are but the land is green and the sun shines.

The architects of the Budget appear not to have considered that a growth path is not outside of the capability of Jamaicans. As an example, we have suggested that the tourism industry might well have been chosen as a growth leader, empowered to compete aggressively in a cruel marketplace and create jobs while earning foreign exchange for our country.

That by no means suggests that the industry ought not to share the burden that we all must bear. On the contrary, tourism has been the one industry that we can point to as a light in the long dark night of recession. Putting that light out doesn’t sound like economic sense to us.

When we have had time to crunch the numbers based on the finance minister’s announcement yesterday in parliament, we will see if the situation has changed in any substantial way.

Without a vision and hope our people will perish. To what great cause does our leaders now summon us? Certainly not to rise up and unleash all our productive talent and genius, but rather to take the mindless, unthinking road to failed austerity.