FORMER Prime Minister Edward Seaga has countered People’s National Party (PNP) official Delano Franklyn’s assertion that there were no big ideas at work during the 1980s when Seaga’s Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) formed the Government.

Seaga, in a letter to the editor, insisted that it was the ‘big ideas’ of his Administration that restored growth after the economy plunged to its lowest point ever during the 1970s under the PNP Government led by Michael Manley.

“The direction of growth was reversed from decline to incline after the most turbulent period in the Jamaican economy, a monumental achievement, as a result of the fresh strategies of the 1980s borne of ‘big ideas’,” said Seaga, who is now Distinguished Fellow at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus.

Franklyn, an attorney and advisor to the current Government, had countered a claim by letter writer Ken Jones in which Jones said that successive governments have found it difficult to think big, as Seaga did and still does. “They have become so accustomed to begging and borrowing that it has become a nasty habit that shames us and makes nonsense of the claim of Independence,” Jones wrote in his letter published on December 14.

However Franklyn, in his response, pointed readers to an assessment by Timothy Ashby, director of the Office of the Caribbean Basin from the US Department of Commerce in which Ashby wrote that “despite one billion in US dollar development assistance… Edward Seaga failed to transform Jamaica’s economy during more than eight years in office”.

Franklyn also made reference to an article by the late Carl Stone in which he said that “despite the massive external assistance to the Jamaican economy under Seaga’s leadership, production levels in 1987 were still below real output years between 1970 and 1976”.

But Seaga, in his response, poured cold water on both assessments, describing Stone’s as “a bit of sophistry”.

Here is the full text of Seaga’s letter.

Dear Editor,

I refer to a letter to the editor by Delano Franklyn published on December 18 in the Jamaica Observer. Mr Franklyn denies that there were any “big ideas” at work in the 1980s as expressed by Mr Ken Jones, also in your paper.

He cites the writings of Dr Timothy Ashby of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative institution operating in Washington. I quote from my autobiography My Life and Leadership Volume 11 page 166.

“Dr Ashby had set the extreme position of conservative thinking in privatisation and investment as the goals by which to measure the success or failure of my Administration. As set out in chapter 26, our approach to divestment/investment was not cast in concrete. It was pragmatic enough to allow it to meet the urgencies of the moment as in the case of acquiring Esso and operating Jamalco. Since these instances did not meet the standards of a Reagan approach, as determined by Ashby, I was dubbed by Ashby “a Caribbean con-man” who failed in my attempt to be another Reagan although my policies, while mostly conservative in economic matters, were decidedly liberal in social objectives.

On the other hand, according to Ashby, Michael Manley was a social democrat who was succeeding in his struggle against the far left of his party. This was quite the opposite of the truth as Manley was very much the radical leader.

Franklyn should have read in the autobiography further and he would have recognised Ashby’s lack of credibility. I quote again:

“Whether of his own accord or prompted by others, Ashby then produced another monograph which was entitled: ‘The Rise and Fall of Edward Seaga’, in which he implied impropriety of the Government of Jamaica in accounting for funds generated by USAID programmes. Since these were allegations about the handling and accounting of funds by the Government in a published document, I referred the allegations to Mr William Joslin, director of the USAID in Jamaica. Joslin replied:

“Regarding the allegation that $27 million was unaccounted for… the USAID/Jamaica subsequently conducted an independent review of the Government of Jamaica’s accounting and auditing systems utilised to account for local currency programmes and activities, and found that those systems are acceptable. Based on the assessment… the USAID/Jamaica is satisfied that the $27 million worth of local currency was properly used and properly accounted for by the Government of Jamaica.”

Ashby was no longer employed by the Heritage Foundation thereafter.

Professor Carl Stone was also quoted as stating that the GDP of the late 1980s was less than the early 1970s. This is a bit of sophistry as Dr Stone was aware that the GDP at the beginning of the 1970s, under the JLP, was at the highest point ever and then plunged by the end of the 1970s, under the change of Government, to the lowest point ever. It was from this record low performance that the “big ideas” of the 1980s rescued the economy and restored growth.

The economy had made a definite turnaround.

Based on data prepared by the Bank of Jamaica:

* The fiscal balance was in surplus in 1989 ($257.6 Ja mn). This was the lowest fiscal deficit since Independence.

* In 1989, inflation was 6.7 per cent. This level of inflation was five per cent lower than that of 1979. Note that 1989 was the year after Hurricane Gilbert.

* The investment ratio was the highest in 12 years (20.6 per cent — 1987);

* Some 100,000 jobs were created between 1985 and 1989, the largest amount ever in a five-year period.

* Unemployment rate (18 per cent) was the lowest in 17 years.

* Within a 14-year period, 1973-1987, economic growth reached its highest level.

* Real GDP growth rate was eight per cent in 1987 and seven per cent in 1989.

* In the 1972-1980 period, GDP growth was negligible in two years and negative in every other year.

The direction of growth was reversed from decline to incline after the most turbulent period in the Jamaican economy, a monumental achievement, as a result of the fresh strategies of the 1980s borne of “big ideas”.