Dear Editor,

Reformist politicians seem to be quite popular everywhere these days — except Jamaica

Although some may praise this Administration for adopting bold measures, the reality is that our reform programme is quite tepid. Fiscal austerity is necessary for debt-laden economies like Jamaica, but beyond this policy parliamentarians on both sides have little interest in reinventing the State.

For example, we do not get the impression that the finance minister is passionate about his job, he seems to be merely pleasing the International Monetary Fund (IMF), therefore it is apt to say that when the present reform programme ends, Jamaica will revert to its old statist ways.

It is such a disgrace that even our young parliamentarians embrace the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), with some wanting its budget to be increased to $50 million. However, these young politicians, like Raymond Pryce, have tricked the public into thinking that they are enlightened; claiming to be spending money on education. Even if they are being truthful, the CDF is still wrong in principle. Members of parliament are expected to debate on the issues that are affecting their constituents in parliament, although some parliamentarians are doing positive things with their funding from CDF, its doesn’t change the fact that this facility is only fostering a dependency syndrome.

Politicians who brag about building sports clubs and providing students with scholarships should be ashamed of themselves, because they are only shielding the State from its original function, which is to preserve individual liberties. By embracing the CDF our parliamentarians are making charity a legitimate function of governance.

If a politician wants to use his private funds to sponsor a student financially, that is quite commendable, but to use State funds for this purpose is an aberration of its duties.

We don’t seem to be learning from the Nordic states like Denmark and Sweden that have reversed many of their statist policies. For example, Sweden has eliminated taxes on wealth and inheritance, and public spending as a percentage was reduced from 67 per cent in 1993 to 49 per cent in 2013. Denmark has reduced unemployment benefits. Both countries are also improving on the economic freedom index.

Based on the pronouncements of some politicians, it is quite clear that IMF reform programme is only for this period, and when it ends we will return to our statist past.

Lipton Matthews

lo_matthews@yahoo.com