Dear Editor,

‘Job losses ahead’ screamed the headlines of one of the country’s major newspapers, foretelling the potential woes that lie ahead for some 15,000 Jamaican public sector workers. It does not help that less than 24 hours earlier the courts granted the Government’s injunction to bar the island’s more than 8,000 rank and file members from taking industrial action after their soft sick-out.

At the same time, waiting in the wings are the island’s thousands of teachers who have been locked in ongoing discussions trying to find a bridge over the huge chasm that exists between the Government’s offer and their expectations.

It is essentially deja vu, as we have been here so many times before, with different administrations. After 54 years, it has become even clearer that both sides are completely bankrupt of ideas of how to create an environment that promotes entrepreneurship and on which fresh economic activities can be developed to absorb more Jamaican workers.

For decades the country has been slow marching towards a halt with the twin-policy combination of strangling the free movement of currency and trying to manage the exchange rate, while rewarding holders of funds with high yields on government paper, thus discouraging any prospects for sustainable economic growth. The net effect has been that real investment was completely discouraged and, in turn, the economy has become overrun with pushers of paper without adding value or creating sustainable employment.

Beneath that, the informal economy hobbles along through the efforts of informal importers and small-time traders prepared to grease the wheels of the system by grafts and payouts beneath the table.

Jamaica’s reality is that such a state of affairs prohibits the potential for business creation and is the incubator for the second coming of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its recolonisation of Jamaica. Today, the real boss on Jamaica’s plantation is the IMF and since “he who pays the piper calls the tune”, we have no option but to dance to the music that they provide.

Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips had been having a great time playing sweet drives on the front foot during the early part of the innings vs the IMF; but now the wicket has worn and is playing with lots of turn and bounce, and as a result he now finds himself and the Government trapped at the crease. Now we will see how much of a batsman and a stroke-player he is to a less friendly environment.

All Jamaica needs to be aware is that it has been more than four years since some public sector workers have seen any real changes in their pay packages and the IMF is dead set on reducing the size of the local bureaucracy without concern for the impact of such a decision on the workers, in much the same way that it has no concern for local support infrastructure including hospitals, schools, and our police/security apparatus. This was the medicine that the hapless JLP baulked at swallowing.

One gets the impression that they, too, are still unprepared to deal with the withering attack from the current bowling and may not be too eager to approach the wicket at this time. One thing is clear, though, we are in a quagmire at this time. The PNP needs to find a good obeah man or else dawg nyam di whole ah wi suppa.

Richard Hugh Blackford

Coral Springs, Florida, USA

richardhblackford@gmail.com