OUR Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller might have already convinced herself and those closest to her of the astoundingly excellent job she did delivering her budget speech in Gordon House last Tuesday, March 24, 2015. It may not take a great deal for her colleagues to place festoons on her ego tree or issue encomiums, however undeserving. The motivator-in-chief went missing last Tuesday; this was particularly unfortunate for an Administration that continues to lead the country through one of its toughest and most obdurate economic reform cycles.

There were a few good items in the prime minister’s presentation. She brought good news such as the inflow of US$707 million in foreign direct investment in 2014, the reopening of Alpart, and the long-term concession agreement to finance the expansion of the Kingston Container Terminal. The sections on labour productivity, training, and on energy, particularly initiatives to diversify the energy portfolio, were as relevant as they were encouraging. This was good, especially within the context of our overreliance on imported energy and our comparative disadvantage vis-a-vis oil-rich Trinidad with which we trade and compete.

That notwithstanding, I am not the only one who feels the presentation was wide of the mark. The rest of Jamaica, at least those who bothered to listen, remain unimpressed and disappointed by her lacklustre performance. No one expected her to soar rhetorically, because everyone knows that she is not given to rhetorical flourishes. Similarly, no one expected her to engage in political point-scoring or intellectual pugilism because that is certainly unproductive, but her light ownership of the spoken words did little to instil confidence or to mobilise continuous support for her Government’s economic reform programme that remains in treacherous waters.

Yet, it was not only the stylistics of her presentation that were exasperating, but also the content, thematics, focus, and reach. The presentation was neither aspirational nor inspirational. There was hardly anything memorable about the speech. Except the sections quoting IMF chief, Christine Lagarde, about the involvement of US Congresswomen and one man convincing the IMF to help Jamaica, and the poem allegedly written by Aalivahn about what she would like Jamaica to be, the Prime Minister was unpersuasive. I listened to the speech expecting her to raise a single issue on and around which she intends to build her legacy, but I was sorely disappointed — again.

Her presentation was flat and “chaka-chaka” to an extent. Having listened intently to the rest of her speech, I now know not to invest much hope in the Jamaican aphorism that says, “the older the moon, the brighter it shines”.

Where is the grand vision, Madam Prime Minister? It is certainly not in that rather unnecessary and weird soliloquy of appreciation you delivered to the private sector leaders for investing in Jamaica. Madam Prime Minister, as if you do not already know, none of those private sector firms or individuals invest in Jamaica because they love the poor or feel any great pity for Jamaica. People and firms invest because they assess the opportunities flowing from their investments to be greater than the inherent risks. In other words, they invest to make profits.

Madam Prime Minister, if you doubt the saliency of my argument in this regard, all you need to do is to review the declaration by the world’s first free market capitalist and economist, Adam Smith. Smith correctly posited: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.” There was no conceivable reason for that long and rambling vote of thanks to private sector individuals whose names you, yourself, could not even remember, except to waste parliamentary time. Moreover, nothing that ensued during that “blonde moment” will inure to the country’s benefit in terms of economic growth or development.

My gripe with the prime minister is not because of her affinity to overcompensate in her acknowledgement of virtuousness; my gripe with her is her lack of focus on the critical issues of the day and her overindulgence in mindless banalities. There are many things affecting the country that require the commander-in-chief’s immediate attention. Issues to do with the residual health effects from the recent fire at the Riverton dump, the senseless spate of murders, general hopelessness, high pension costs, and a bloated public sector, to name a few.

It is all well and good for the prime minister to delegate and defer to her ministers in strict accordance with the law rules governing the executive branch. However, as the head of the government, she must step out in front, take control and instil confidence and hope in a people crying out for such. It is frightening that no one in the prime minister’s office, or in the ministries of environment, local government and health possesses the “fierce urgency of now”. If it were otherwise, someone would have marshalled private and public interests, as part of a crisis management team (if even to ideate) to formulate an immediate implementation plan on the immediate way forward for the Riverton disposal site. Quick and decisive actions do not require years of study or “long-bench” arguments. Quick action requires competence and decisiveness. We take far too long to get things done in Jamaica. We have to fix this chronic disability if we are serious about empowering our people.

The prime minister’s scant mention of the Riverton fire and her decision to focus almost exclusively on issuing “thank you” cards to first responders, and to remind GSAT students how proud parliamentarians are of them, underscored how little her Government cares about the environment. It also ignored the constitutional rights of citizens to a clean and healthy environment as set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. It is not ridiculous to expect our prime minister to lead on this important issue. She could have told the country of at least one short-term solution her Administration is contemplating to correct the situation at Riverton. Yes, she did say the ministers of health and local government would speak further to the issue, but Portia, “where there is no leadership the people perish” both metaphorically and literally. These fires are not new, therefore, the solutions should have already been accepted by Cabinet and transmitted to the Jamaican people.

The prime minister did acknowledge the crusade of crime and violence against the nation’s children and promised “that the law is to be amended to allow for stiffer penalties where a girl is murdered and the perpetrator knew that she was pregnant and that it is to be treated as an aggravating feature in imposing sentence…” However, she gave no time frame. She did not tell the country what additional steps, if any, Government is considering to catch these perpetrators in the first place. The singularity of focus on “perpetrators who knew” that their victims were pregnant tells me that nothing is going to happen because pregnancy is not always visible and prior knowledge of a pregnancy could be hard to prove — sometimes not even the pregnant mother is aware that she is with child, let alone a paedophiliac murderer.

The focus ought to be on strengthening existing law-enforcement capabilities, improving socio-economic conditions that oftentimes cause deprived teenage girls and boys to engage in early sexual activities. Yes, the prime minister’s presentation could not have covered every conceivable issue; however, there was no mention of the current spike in murders or gang-related violence. The commander-in-chief cannot brush these issues aside because her minister of national security will address them when he makes his budget contribution. People want to hear from their prime minister, it is from her that they take their cue. There cannot be sustainable growth, higher productivity, job creation or economic development in a crime-infested environment, where businesses cannot operate around the clock, or where labour cannot move freely around. The crime situation is symptomatic of a deeper social issue; we need to pay keen attention and do all we can at the highest level to tame and correct the causation. Consistent prime ministerial focus cannot hurt this cause, hence my disappointment with Madam Prime Minister’s exclusion of the subject from her Budget presentation.

Burnscg@aol.com