Now that Jamaica has been approved for an IMF deal that will unlock funding from other multilaterals, the real work is going to start. There, however, is a major concern that I have, and I get the sense that many others share it — will it be politics as usual?

Politics as usual has got us into the position we are in today. There is a long-held belief that when political parties come into power, they stop all the projects under the previous Government and implement their own. This, however, is not always true, since we have had initiatives like the NHT, PATH and Heart Trust continue under both parties, with improvements made instead of replacing them.

The fact that this has happened more than once clearly shows that it is possible for ideas to be implemented by one party that are supported in some way by the other. Our last IMF agreement fell apart for reasons that have never been clarified by the JLP, and that has made the IMF more cautious this time around, insisting on specific “prior actions” before even considering Jamaica’s application.

This time must be different. Jamaica is unlikely to have a third chance to go back to the IMF, and our debt situation has been among the worst in the world, so this really is possibly the last chance to take corrective measures with the support of multilaterals. Therefore, the way forward cannot be left to only one party where we risk the Opposition coming in and undoing what has been done before.

The monitoring group that has been named to oversee the implementation of the IMF agreement is a good start at building a coalition, because it includes representatives from unions, the private sector, especially banking, and the Government. However, civil society and the Opposition must be consulted and have a role to play, otherwise the decisions will be seen as coming from that group and ultimately the current party in power.

The way forward requires some amount of consensus on policies to be implemented, areas to be reformed and economic drivers to be put in place. I am not calling for a coalition of the two parties to govern Jamaica, but I am suggesting that all policies to be implemented during the time of the IMF agreement should have input from multiple sections of society (and we hopefully continue that after).

It is understandable that a party that wins by a large margin may be averse to involving the Opposition other than the debates in Parliament, but let us be honest, parliamentary debate has generally been split along party lines and the party in power does as it pleases anyway. That is not the way to get buy-in for the measures that will have to be taken.

All Jamaicans are going to suffer and benefit from the coming changes, not just those in PNP constituencies. This means that every MP will have to communicate why the changes are coming, how they will affect their constituents, and when things are expected to get better. No buy-in from the JLP MPs will reduce the chance of buy-in from sections of the public. The more support, the higher the chance of success.

Over the last few years, we have witnessed many protests over austerity measures around the world. We have seen governments collapse because of the policies they had to implement under European bailout conditions and implementing IMF agreements. Jamaica has been fortunate so far. Despite a widely held belief that we are a very undisciplined society, we have proven to be far better behaved than some developed countries in dealing with our dire situation. How long that continues will depend on how future policy changes are communicated and whether we can reduce the chances of national strikes and protests by leveraging a coalition that represents everyone.

Jamaica has had very low growth for over 30 years, our competitiveness in many areas has suffered, we have routinely had among the highest debt servicing as a percentage of GDP in the world, our trade deficit has ballooned and we have been unable to adequately invest in healthcare, education and security. There can be no turning back from the critical decisions which must be made and implemented over the next four years. We can leave no stone unturned and must consider every hand that reaches out to help.

There may very well be a temptation to focus on winning the next election when it comes in a few years, to either use some of the coming policies for political gain or to delay implementing some to retain some popularity. A recent episode of The Daily Show went to Australia to show Americans how a similar country implemented gun control in order to reduce gun crimes, especially mass shootings, even though they had a strong gun culture (watch here – bit.ly/ZSFoKJ).

The most telling parts were two interviews, one with the aide to Harry Reid, a major Democratic US politician, and the other with the Honourable Rob Borbidge, a former Australian politician. The interviewer asked what makes a politician successful. The Australian replied, “Making society a better place”, but the American aide said “Getting re-elected by his or her constituents”.

How many of our local politicians are more focused on getting elected instead of making Jamaica a better place? This is now the time to focus on improving Jamaica instead of partisan bickering, political point-scoring and focusing on improving election chances.

If the ship sinks, everyone goes down, not just the other party. All hands on deck!

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