Opposition parties generally have a lot in common with ambulance chasers, undertakers and life insurance agents. Their livelihood depend largely on the possibility of calamity. In the end, ambulance chasers secure a client on whose back they hope to make some money, the undertaker gets a body and profits from its handling, and the insurance agent secures a commission on our certain knowledge that we will die and we do not know when. Opposition parties, if they are without vision, hope that governments will crash and burn so they can secure State power, regardless of the national cost.

Just like the Jamaica Observer’s October 5 editorial, I quite naïvely believe that “the priority for political leadership is the saving of the nation, not whipping up hysteria”. In the face of said hysteria over the chikungunya outbreak on the island, the editorial is well worth reading. It says, in part: “…Dr Ferguson, the health minister, deserves all the licking he took for what is palpably poor leadership on his part… Not that we support Opposition Leader Andrew Holness’s foolish call for the health minister’s resignation. The JLP too has shown no leadership quality in this whole affair. Scoring political points in the face of danger to the nation might be therapeutic to the rabid party supporter obsessed with the coming general election, but it is definitely not leadership.”

Yes, Ferguson handled the issue like a typical Jamaican politician: He sought first to downplay the reality in a misguided attempt to prevent hysteria and to protect his image. He probably calculated, too, that since this is not a virus with a high mortality rate it would not have generated the obsessive media coverage it has. He miscalculated on all counts, and suddenly chikungunya starts looking like the wave that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) could ride back to the seat of government. Mark Wignall implied as much in his Wignall’s World column in the Sunday Observer Agenda mazgazine, titled ‘The JLP needs a hot-button issue to pounce on’. The suggestion that the outbreak might be it, made me profoundly sad. I understand our politics, but things are really more hopeless than they seem, if in a time of deep social and economic challenges, the best hope for the Opposition is that the ruling party will crash and burn, particularly on an issue like the health of the nation. Surely, we should hope for a little more?

For example, the devaluation strategy that the Government has embraced as a part of its agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is creating extreme hardship. Unemployment is around 14 per cent. I cannot fathom how people are expected to afford their basic needs with no income, or limited income, and high cost of living. While the Government seems resolved to look toward a magical better day when Kingston is a logistics hub, the country is humming with ICT activities, and the austerity programme is a thing of the past, the tension and despair among the people remains palpable. But does the JLP have a better plan? Would it be a continuation of the IMF programme? If not, what is the alternative? How will they contain the people’s suffering?

These are questions that a party hoping to regain State power should be prepared to answer in the face of serious questions of our ability to provide for our own needs now and over the long haul, irrespective of our relationship with the IMF. Our size, limited natural resources, and susceptibility to natural disasters make us especially vulnerable. Plus, there are the social problems that our political leadership have exacerbated over the years rather than correct, and now have morphed into the hydra-headed monster we are unable to tame.

A dispassionate presentation of our problems collated by The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), United States Department of State, in their 2013 crime report on Jamaica, provides some interesting insight on how we are presented to the outside world. Kingston, it says, is rated “critical” for crime due to a high frequency of criminal activity. In 2012, it says, Kingston saw a reduction in the murder rate and other violent crimes, but overall, “…the number of murders and other violence places Jamaica in the top five tiers of the highest per capita homicide rates in the world”.

Of our driving habits and road conditions, it said nightime driving is especially dangerous and should be avoided where possible. “Roads are often subject to poorly marked construction zones, pedestrians, bicyclists, and, occasionally, livestock. The lack of …crosswalks requires special vigilance…Driving habits range from aggressive speeding and disregard for others, to inexperience and over-polite behaviours creating uncertainty and hazards to pedestrians.” And, it warned that comprehensive emergency medical services are located only in Kingston and Montego Bay. In Kingston, the University Hospital of the West Indies is specifically recommended for United States citizens. Ostensibly, if Ferguson does not have a clue, how will a new JLP Government address these issues?

I reiterate my sincere belief that Andrew Holness has something to contribute to Jamaica. A part of that comes from what I feel is his genuine belief that the mass of our people deserve much better than they have to date. What I would love to hear, though, other than the “silly skirt” approach to problem solving — that is, veering clear of the core issues to focus on measures that are merely symptomatic or marginal — is a vision of how we can solve these systemic problems, with or without an IMF agreement.

Grace Virtue, PhD, is a social justice advocate.