In his opening address at Tuesday’s economic seminar, Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) President William Mahfood noted that Greece was “in a crisis that we can’t imagine getting into”, meaning that its banks were closed, and all a customer could get was 50 euros. Referring to the topical issue of austerity, he noted that past PSOJ President Sam Mahfood had always told him to “cut the material to fit the suit”, adding, however, that this was “not something we want to do for too much longer”.

Following the PSOJ president’s presentation, Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips did not mention Greece directly, but after noting that he had kept the banks open, suppliers paid and ensured basic stability, he defied anyone to argue that “chaos was a better option”.

The idea being rejected here is that somehow Jamaica can vote “no” to austerity, as occurred in Greece last Sunday. This idea has little relevance to Jamaica’s situation. Greece is a member, for now, of three very important ‘rich world’ clubs: the European Union, the Euro and NATO. The leadership of the Syriza party calculated that this gave them enough leverage to strike a new deal, including debt forgiveness, specifically an actual debt write-off by their EU partners.

After a seemingly failed negotiation, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsirpas invoked the desperate tactic of a referendum, essentially kicking the decision to the Greek people, thereby temporarily ending the negotiations. While he got 61 per cent support for ‘no’ to further austerity, the referendum appears to be regarded as confirmation that Greece wants to leave the Euro.

The irony of the situation is that both sides are not being straightforward with their voting publics. Despite one European minister of finance calling debt relief absolutely impossible, the European Union has already given Greece very substantial debt relief, in the form of much lower non-market interest rates, and heavily extended maturities on loans, and the private sector has already suffered a haircut on Greek debt.

On the other hand, Mr Tsipras has held that the referendum was not about whether Greece would get to stay in the Euro, when all major international financial market participants believe the chance of exit has risen up to 85 per cent, and with virtually all but two European countries now confidentially reported as in favour of a Greek exit.

If Greece is forced to exit the Euro, the result is likely to be very painful, with at least a 50 per cent devaluation of a new drachma.

For Jamaica, therefore, Greece appears more to provide a lesson in what not to do, as that highly divided society appears to be on the verge of currency collapse, debt default, and overall chaos, an extremely damaging cocktail for a people who have already suffered so much.

Greece may, however, provide some lessons for the multilaterals on what not to do, particularly in how to deal more fairly with Jamaica. Just as there is a legitimate case for “more” debt relief in Greece, perhaps in the form of even lower interest rates and a further extension of maturities, there is a stronger case for such debt relief for Jamaica as a reward for our strong implementation of the IMF reform programme.

Such debt relief, as part of a kind of Marshall Plan for the Caribbean, would be even more compelling if tied to other improvements in governance. Such a change in policy would allow at least some good to come out of Greece’s immense tragedy.