Dear Editor,

I would be hard-pressed to find a country that has had the kind of attention from the leadership of international finance capital in the world over the past 10 months as our country. This fact is underscored by the visits of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief, Christine Lagarde, in June 2014, Inter-American Development Bank head Luis Alberto Moreno in December 2014, and the coup de grace, that of US President Barack Obama two weeks ago.

All sang the same sankey of “staying the course”.

What has resulted is a deeper pauperisation of ordinary Jamaicans, who have taken the “bitter medicine” applied by the Portia Simpson Miller-led PNP Administration. This dosage has resulted in high unemployment, especially among our youth; wage freeze in the public sector; NDX cuts; lay-offs in the private sector; drastic compression of capital spending; a sliding dollar; and deep cuts in social services.

This Greek-style application of an austerity programme has seen us commit to a primary surplus target of 7.5 per cent, which is almost twice that of that beleaguered country — largely, only oil-rich states are able to maintain that kind of surplus.

Paradoxically, though, this sacrifice by our people provides us with a unique opportunity. So desperate is the gendarme of international finance capital, the IMF, for a success story among the peoples of the developing world, we are being heavily handled.

They allow us concessions that would enable us to free up more capital to stimulate growth in the economy, while unleashing the creative energies of the Jamaican people that will result in job creation and enhance development. This freeing up of more resources to grow our economy is of abso ute necessity, when taken against a background of our country’s debt being approximately 140 per cent of what we earn (debt to GDP ratio) — one of the most onerous in the world. This is further underlined by the fact that, even with an IMF agreement firmly in place, and us consistent passing quarterly tests — which is good for our international reputation — last year (2014), alone, we paid out US$138 million more to them in debt repayment than what we received.

“Sista P”, you, and by extension your Administration, has expended significant political capital in order that the IMF can look good. This to the point where you have conceded political ground — albeit to a fractured Opposition. You have kept the peace, as there is no ‘burning and looting tonight’ to quote a popular refrain from the “Gong”.

Let’s use our new-found status as a “poster child of the IMF” to the world to our advantage and as a leverage to improve the lot of our people. There is no better time than the present.

Trevor G Brown

trevorgbrown@hotmail.com