The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. — Charles-Louis De Secondat

Most Jamaicans know the meaning of the word “hullo”. For the few who don’t, “hullo” refers to a convenient and/or false explanation given especially to the unsuspecting. The “hullo” — thought to be from the English word hollow; just a shell, no substance — is generously used in our politics as a defence mechanism to shield embarrassment. It is a crutch for inadequate planning and or rank ineptitude. “Hullo” is also the primary asset in the deception arsenal of ‘Brer’ Anancy, king of trickery in local folklore.

President of the People’s National Party (PNP) and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller gave undiscerning Jamaicans a big “hullo” last Sunday at a rally in Black River, St Elizabeth. It was the biggest one since Michael Manley told Parliament in 1976 that “new and unique types of violence” [Hansard] had been imported into Jamaica and, therefore, the need for a state of emergency. This was declared on June 19, 1976 and lasted for a year.

Mr Justice Kenneth Smith, then chief justice of Jamaica, headed a commission of enquiry into this most sordid piece of Jamaica’s history. The findings of the Smith Commission revealed that the state of emergency’s calling was predicated upon the facilitation of political opportunism and not bona fide concerns about national security. The Smith Commission also uncovered that the heads of both intelligence agencies of government — the Special Branch of the police force and the Military Intelligence Unit (MIU) of the Jamaica Defence Force — never advised Manley of any potential threat to national security during Carifesta and, indeed, Deputy Commissioner Curtis Griffiths, head of the Special Branch, testified to the commission that he knew nothing about the intention to declare a state of emergency; he read of it in the press, although he was the chief intelligence officer of government. Captain Carl Marsh in charge of the MIU also gave devastating testimony. He advised that there was no need for a state of emergency.

Those who are interested in the truth can consult the archives at the Institute of Jamaica and University of the West Indies, Mona.

“Hullo-ism” is killing Jamaica. The PNP is the king of “hullo-ism” — or it is queen? Retention of State power by any means necessary is the PNP’s core preoccupation. Life chairman of the PNP, Robert Pickersgill, told us as much when he said: “We believe it is best for the PNP to form the Government; therefore, anything that will lead us or causes us to be in power is best for the PNP and best for the country.”

Simpson Miller, last Sunday, reached into the core of the PNP’s “hullo” archive and produced an indelicate piece of sophistry. Like the reasons that Michael Manley proffered for the wretched 1976 State of Emergency, we must never forget the prime minister’s reasons for why there will be no general election this year:

“Comrades, based on the soundings I have been doing around the country, I’m convinced that the youth of Jamaica should be given an equal opportunity to have a say in how their country is governed. Many young Jamaicans just turned 18 years old and are now on the new voters’ list [to be] published on November 30, I’m told.

“They should be allowed to exercise their right to vote in the next election, if they wish to do so, and that is their right, that is a commitment I give tonight to the young people of St Elizabeth and the young people of Jamaica,” said Simpson Miller, who only last week urged supporters to “get ready!” (Jamaica Observer, November 24, 2015)

It was classic “hullo” for the unsuspecting. Humpty Dumpty had indeed fallen off the wall. Notwithstanding promises of a jobs hurricane, Nicodemus-like announcements of investment, and a deluging of the public with false economic indicators, the PNP “couldn’t put Humpty together” for a December 2015 national plebiscite.

Just in case the “hullo” of youth disenfranchisement did not satisfy the appetite of her expectant supporters, Simpson Miller added a few dried fruits, and generous portions of vanilla:

“This country… I am mindful of the strong concern being expressed about a campaign which could affect Christmas season. As a child I was brought up in deep rural Jamaica. And I know the community in which I was brought up, for them, Christmas is a scared time.”

The footage carried by local newscasts told a thousand stories. Many in the crowd reassuringly shouted, “Call it, Portia! Call it!” The disappointment was painfully conspicuous on the faces of many on the platform.

Days before Simpson Miller’s descent from the pinnacle of braggadocio, apparently minus a ‘touch by her Master’, it was leaked that very recent internal PNP polls indicated defeat. The proverbial puss was out of the bag [secret exposed]. Those polls also pinpointed an 11 per cent turn-off factor among PNP voters. Why? There was residual derision among Comrades because of several poisonous candidates’ selection exercises.

Centuries ago, Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman political theorist, posited what many credible social scientists still consider a golden rule of political campaigns: “Before beginning, plan carefully.” The PNP’s refusal to take the election test demonstrates the potency and relevance of this advice.

For those who are not suckers for the aroma and or taste of “hullo”, they remember that it was Dr Peter Phillips who placed the country on election alert during a meeting with supporters in York Town, Clarendon, on July 19, 2015. Phillips was fresh from a junket in Addis Ababa. Only a fool would believe his announcement in York Town was akin to man off on a frolic of his own.

On July 26, 2015, I wrote in this newspaper, inter alia:

“Since his ‘stand behind your blocks’ announcement, I have made contact with some John Chewits, Banana Quits and Black-Bellied Plovers, and the birds are tweeting. I am told that the general election is to be held before the Ides of March next year, or alternatively before ‘back-to-school’ 2016. The unsettled salary issue is one of the bloated flies in the ointment; another is the non-starter economy. If not for those two factors, a general election would have been held November this year. The birds feel another ‘run wid it’ is a necessary evil.

“The PNP is desperate for a halt to the several challenges to, especially, first- and second-time members of Parliament that have become extremely nasty and vitriolic. Putting the Comrades in the ‘stand behind your blocks’ mode is a safeguard used to marshal the soldiers. Party discipline is becoming elusive, the birds say. Their songs are not very favourable to PNP General Secretary Paul Burke. According to a Banana Quit, Burke has not managed his duties with the usual panache and zest characteristic of the office.” (Sunday Observer, July 26, 2015)

In late August this year the People’s National Party had a rally in Clarendon. At that meeting, party president and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said, among other things: “I am putting them [PNP machinery] to the test to see how fit they are; if they can jump high, or if they can walk fast, or if they can run like Sista P; because I am ready. And I hope they are ready, because I am ready. If I say we are ready then the other people will start to fret, because indeed we are indeed ready.”

The reality is simple. The PNP false-started. They have disqualified themselves.

In a face-saving measure last week, general secretary of the PNP, Paul Burke, whose internal party currency is not tradeable enough to stop even a stale bread cart, as rustic folks put it, said: “We [PNP] have not started full-scale campaigning.” Burke opined that the PNP has had only parish meetings, or “soft campaigning”. If Jamaica could export political “hullo”, we would be a First-World country.

It is because of the PNP’s preoccupation with “hullo” why the social fabric of the country is falling party. Since January of this year, 1,120 Jamaicans have been murdered. That is 215 more Jamaicans slaughtered, or a 25 per cent increase over the corresponding period last year. Hundreds of families are suffering emotional, philosophical and psychological pain. For many, their pain is irreversible. Some who are assigned two and three armed bodyguards at the expense of the taxpayers tell us that things were never better. The kings of “hullo” reign.

The details of a health audit ordered as a consequence of revelations in May this year by former president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association, Dr Alfred Dawes, was treated like secrets in the Los Alamos Laboratory for 76 days. On October 16, 2015, Nationwide News exposed the doll house. The rotten underbelly of our ‘health’ system gushed out. Before that discovery, low-voltage thinkers beholden to their political masters like the Praetorian Guard protected their emperor, Dr Fenton Ferguson. It is because of the PNP’s fixation with “hullo” why Ferguson made these catastrophic statements. Jamaica must never forget.

In an address at a ceremony at the Princess Margaret Hospital on Wednesday, October 21, 2015, Dr Ferguson said: “I know a lot of persons out there believe that it is 18 babies or 42 babies who were probably walking around or, in a certain, born well and, therefore, came to the hospital and were infected and died. It is not so. These are babies that were born and had their own challenges by virtue of time of birth and weight.” (RJR News, October 22, 2015).

“When a baby is born seven months, their organs systems are not well developed… Their immune systems are significantly compromised. So I don’t want anyone to give any impression that these are babies in the real sense. I am talking about neonates versus full-term babies, and that is why they ended up in the nurseries because they have special issues.” (Parliament, October 27, 2015)

The country was then told by the minister responsible for information, Sandrea Falconer, that Ferguson had a “slip of the tongue”. The political luddites in the PNP seem not to realise that “hullo”, as young folk say, “nahh wear again” [antiquated].

Jamaica’s longest-serving prime minister, P J Patterson, described our politics as “a fight for scarce benefits and spoils carried on by hostile tribes that seem to be perpetually at war”. Our politics is the single biggest factor inveighing against the development of Jamaica. It sucks the lifeblood and creativity out of our best and brightest. Dr Alfred Dawes told us as much when he spoke at a function last week.

“We all know that there are appointments to public office and promotions based on political affiliations rather than merit. This has led to a governance issue in the Ministry of Health, where decision-makers and those who implement policies are not necessarily good at what they do, nor do they put the interest of the country above that of their party.” (Jamaica Observer, November 25, 2015)

Dr Dawes was talking about corruption. Corruption, as Kofi Annan, former United Nations secretary general, once said: “…is worse than prostitution; prostitution may affect the morals of an individual, but corruption undermines democracy, it undermines peace and security. Corruption affects every sector. It is because of corruption that our roads are not the way they should be, it is because of corruption that our education sector is where it is today, it is because of corruption that agriculture and health sectors are adversely affected. There is nothing as devastating as corruption, and our economy is suffering as a result.” (The Kenyan Star, November 2, 2015) PLO Lumumba, globally renowned scholar and director of the Kenya School of Law Board, may well have said these words about Jamaica.

A front-page story in The Gleaner of Tuesday, February 9, 2002 is testimony to the many scandals that have occurred under the watch of PNP administrations. The root of these scandals is an amalgam of ineptitude and a cruel waste of public resources. The results have chronically impoverished Jamaica and damaged our credibility abroad. Lest we forget:

Shell Waiver (1991) — $29.5 million

Zinc (1989) — $500 million

Furniture (1991) — $10.6 million

Public sector salaries (1998) — $60 million

NetServ (2001) — $220 million

Operation Pride/NHDC (1997-present) — $5.5 billion projected

TOTAL= $6.320 billion

While Jamaica continues to customise and refine “hullo”, other countries — some with less human and natural resources — are achieving meaningful economic growth.

“Growth averaged 7 per cent during 2014 and the first three quarters of 2015, the fiscal position improved, the external position strengthened, and inflation remains low.” (IMF press release, November 23, 2015) “Economic growth is projected to remain robust at about 3.5 per cent (at market prices) in 2015, reflecting expanding agriculture output and solid external demand for Grenada’s tourism services.” (IMF press release, November 25, 2015) Haiti, St Kitts, Honduras, The Philippines, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nicaragua, and I could list several other countries which are not titillating themselves with the ‘happy accident’ of low world oil prices, nor taking credit for what they did not create. They are, instead, busy expanding the productive tentacles of their economies to benefit their populations.

Nicaragua the second-poorest economy in the western hemisphere, after Haiti, is far advanced in building a Chinese-funded $50 billion, 173-mile canal — more than three times the length of the Panama Canal. Jamaica, meanwhile, spends billions on Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme, $350 million to extinguish a preventable fire at Riverton dump, wastes billions at the National Housing Trust, and the Trust’s former board effectively sank near $200 million on Outameni. This reckless decision is costing taxpayers $900,000 per month for maintenance.

Lambert Brown, Sonia Hyman, Robert Budhan, and Percival Latouche were rewarded with reappointment by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to the current board. Billions are carelessly spent at the National Housing Agency and other government agencies. It is not rocket science why our economy is stunted.

Dr Alfred Dawes — and those before him — deserve more than a standing ovation. The present Administration has been in power 22 of the last 26 years. They are responsible for the ramshackle state of Jamaica’s economy.

Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right, decide on what you think is right and stick to it. — George Eliot

Garfield Higgins in an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.