Dear Editor,

Politicians are often blamed for our present conundrum by persons who created a conduit for political failure due to their apathy. The issues of mismanagement and waste in the public sector are perplexing for many, but what have we done about them?

Criticise America all you want, but at least it has been fertile ground for politicial advocacy. Our civil society leaders are merely political henchmen who are able to echo public sentiment in a somewhat enlightened manner.

For example, most people can agree that corruption is a major problem, but none has been brave enough to monitor expenditure in the public sector. Some of us fear political victimisation and others would love to occupy government boards in the future. We must admit that it is difficult to change the populist culture of Jamaica, where it is a sacrosanct belief that Government must be the provider of all services. Therefore, a coalition for fiscal reform could infuse the political system with new ideals.

Jamaica needs pragmatic political leaders, not demagogues whose noble intentions will burden future generations with debt. When funds were diverted from the National Housing Trust to finance a politically expedient programme, JEEP, there was no voice to defend the rights of contributors. Our leaders seem to care more about intentions and not actual results, notwithstanding the track record of initiatives like JEEP.

According to American tax expert Chris Edwards: “Federal programmes for the unemployed and disadvantaged workers now cost $18 billion a year, yet the Government Accountability Office recently concluded that ‘little is known about the effectiveness of employment and training programmes we identified’. Indeed, many studies over the decades have found that these programmes — though well intentioned — don’t help the economy much, if at all.”

Even when the Government is being forced to reduce spending, they have the temerity to increase the budget of JEEP from $740 million to $1.04 billion. Programmes like JEEP are not economically sustainable, therefore this Government is not really serious about fiscal reform. The Government should divest idle state-owned buildings and spend less.

The sad reality is that Jamaican voters are hostile to free-market economics, and politicians who do not conform to these ideals will not win an election. So maybe we should stop complaining because we are the architects of our own demise, or better yet citizens who really care about the future could start their own lobby group “Coalition for Fiscal Reform”.

Lipton Matthews

lo_matthews@yahoo.com