IF you move around the country and talk to people as I did this week, you encounter a cloud of desperation and hopelessness that has enveloped the lives of many. Not only is there a sense of hopelessness, but of resignation that things will not get any better any time soon.

This is coupled with a debilitating inertia which suggests that people do not know how to pull themselves out of the economic quagmire in which their lives are enmeshed. Each person carries on in his own little corner, some finding it harder than others to eke out a living in his allotted space. There is a palpable sense of an absence of faith in any kind of leadership to provide a way out. This is the unifying consensus of those with whom you interact — with the possible exception of political diehards who will hold on to any string of hope that their party can provide a way out of the wilderness.

One of the things that has bedevilled political leadership in this country is the inability to get little things done which could ease the pressure on people and take the grime out of their faces. One gets a strong sense that things could have been so different for many people if government could get simple, little things fixed.

There is absolutely no reason for a pothole to remain for months on a major thoroughfare. There can be no excuse for the overgrown verges, the clogged drains, or the deteriorating roadways. In a country overrun with parish councils, many of which it could easily do without, it is embarrassing that these things are not attended to. Yet the Government seems more interested in playing the cosmetic political game of entrenching local government in the constitution when it has failed for years to do effectively the things for which it was appointed.

The system needs serious reform, not entrenchment in the constitution. The limping, archaic system that operates in the country has not justified why it should be so entrenched.

Like a raging river bringing debris from wherever it can find it, the uglification of Montego Bay, the tourist capital of Jamaica, is in full spate. Before Mayor Glendon Harris gets his dander up, let me hasten to say that this is not a commentary on his performance — although no serious inroad has been made to dent the problem. This uglification has been written about by no other than the deputy speaker of the House. The process began a long time ago and has now reached critical mass.

And Montego Bay is not the only town suffering from urban decay. Go to any major town and you see blight characterised by unpainted buildings, the absence of sidewalks, and embankments overrun with shrubs. If our visitors did not love the products we offer we might not be seeing the number of tourists coming as they have done year after year. If keeping well-swept, painted towns with clean streets were the overarching reason for them visiting, we would be in dire straits.

Of our own doing

The cry, of course, is that there is no money. I do not buy this argument. For what we are talking about is routine maintenance, which should be accounted for in the national budget. What we are dealing with is a misallocation of admittedly scarce resources to Government’s pet projects. It was okay for President Obama to drive on or see clean, well-surfaced streets, but the contempt for the Jamaican people does not allow them this luxury.

Why is there not the same passion to take some of the grime out of the lives of people, especially the poor whom we claim to love so much? Why instead of removing the zinc fences in his community and building decent perimeter walls, has the leader of the Opposition decided to save his constituency funds for a project of more lofty proportions that would no doubt be a monument to his own ego? The “little man” whom Wilmot ‘Motty’ Perkins, of blessed memory, used to refer to as the “little dutty trousers man” can hug his zinc fences morning, noon, and night. The removal of pit latrines from schools was a noble project, a small thing that should have been done a long time ago.

We talk about economic growth, but part of the frustration of people is that they do not get the feeling that Government is doing enough of the small things to encourage this. Take, for example, the amount of money that Government spends on private rented spaces when there are thousands of square feet of government property that are not being used. If the Government was willing to show that they are genuinely concerned about growth, they would do an audit of unoccupied office spaces throughout the country and then carry out a process of rationalisation to ensure that these spaces are used. The “one house” concept where the varied functions of a particular ministry or ministries could be housed under one roof could be the model. This would at least save the beleaguered taxpayer some money and contribute to savings on the part of government. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, are being spent on security and maintenance of these buildings while government officers and their agencies rent expensive properties in plush commercial areas. It is not enough, Minister Paulwell, to reduce the cost of electricity in government buildings, as important as this is.

Plain old furniture

This takes us inevitably to the size of the present Cabinet. Whenever the Government is criticised on this, they cry politics and petulantly point to what has been done in the past. It was wrong when the Jamaica Labour Party had a large Cabinet, and it is certainly wrong now.

We could easily reduce the Cabinet to 12 people with the prime minister, without realising that anything extraordinary or life-changing has taken place. The fact is, many to whom we have given the title “minister” are mere profilers who would be hard put to show you any real measurable achievement in one year. It would be hard for them to justify that what they had done could not have been accomplished if their so-called ministry was a mere department of another ministry — as agriculture is of labour.

When you have a large Cabinet presiding over the lives of 2.8 million people, the people are really being played for suckers. Ministers in Jamaica, whether junior or ‘senior’, do not come cheaply. They are provided with a vehicle, chauffeurs, and other privileges and perquisites which the ordinary Jamaican could never ever think about having. Some love the limelight and the euphoric sense that comes from being waited on and pampered. But all of this is changing as people realise the game that is being played and how they are being taxed and exploited to allow ministers to drive around in high-end vehicles, some of whose engines are understood to be left to idle while the minister is doing what some of them do best — profile.

Who would not want to fight to ensure such perks and privileges? Do the tribalists in each party who hit back vehemently at those who dare to criticise their masters recognise the extent to which they are being played like a banjo? Yes, I can hear some people, especially the tribalists, accusing me of envy. My reaction to this would be to laugh if it were not such a serious matter.

The truth is that we are at a hard place in this “wrong jungle” called Jamaica. The Government has called for all hands to be on deck, but does it have its hands on deck? By the stroke of a pen, PM Portia Simpson Miller could reduce the Cabinet, order an audit of all government buildings, and integrate ministries in unoccupied spaces. But is she going to do this? Do not hold your breath.

But if by some divine intervention she should summon up the courage to do so, she would send an important signal that the Government is also willing to make sacrifices in the harsh economic climate in which Jamaica exists. One of the best characteristics of good leadership is leadership by example. Many do not feel that this is the case with this government.

In the bubble in which members of the political directorate live, they may think that they are doing the right things, but people will not be convinced about this until they see the simple, small, but irritating things being attended to. Perhaps the public workers would be more willing to take the wage deal being offered by Government if they too could demonstrate that we are living in austere times and that they really understand people’s pain. Taxing every ant that walks is no way to inspire confidence.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest and social commentator. Send comments to: stead6655@aol.com