Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue. — Confucius

Consistent with the proclivities of recycled socialists, several bigwigs in the People’s National Party (PNP) fuelled and operated a veritable fib machine over the last four years. The machine’s exhaust was unrelenting in the release of ‘sixes for nines’ [deception] and moonshine.

“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society,” said Frederic Bastiat.

Maybe in Opposition Norman Manley’s party will begin to understand that propaganda, however brilliantly crafted, now has an effective antidote called the knowledge revolution. Information at the touch of a button is a veritable hydra. Happily, the present Administration seems to understand this new normal.

Recall that in the months prior to the February 25, 2016 General Election, PNP spin doctors told the country overtly and subliminally that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, international rating agencies and friendly governments were more than uneasy with the prospect of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) returning to power. We were even told by the chairman of the PNP’s Region Six, Ian Hayles, that there is a correlation between the numbers of Jamaicans being granted US visas and the PNP being in power. Hayles, of course, is known for his wild imagination. I am sure D K Duncan, the former mobilisation minister in the Michael Manley regime, would not disagree.

This was a strategy straight from George Orwell’s classic allegory,

Animal Farm. Only a few voices, me included, alerted the public to the hidden agenda of our modern-day Napoleon, Snowball, and Moses. Eventually a critical mass listened and acted when they realised that the building of the windmill benefited but a few.

Rustic folks admonish, “What hide inna dark must come to light.”

For those in the PNP who preached and may have even believed their own propaganda that the United States Government had some special love for and/or umbilical connection to 89 Old Hope Road, Kingston 6, and/or the Portia Simpson Miller Administration, I remind them of the words of Henry Kissinger, who served as national security advisor and later concurrently as US secretary of state in the administrations of presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.”

A news story in this newspaper last week is a poignant reminder that what Kissinger said decades ago is relevant today. The banner headline said ‘US says it’s ready to work with new PM’.

The story said, among other things, “United States Ambassador to Jamaica Luis G Moreno yesterday congratulated Andrew Holness on his electoral victory and swearing-in as Jamaica’s prime minister.”

It went further: “I echo Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson in commending the Jamaican people for their dedication to democracy as demonstrated in the free, fair, and calm general election on February 25th,” the US ambassador said. He pointed out that the “United States and Jamaica share responsibility for enhancing citizen security in both countries”, and stressed “commitment to enabling broad-based economic prosperity through growth in the bilateral trade relationship and US direct investment in Jamaica”.

“As President Obama has underscored, the American and Jamaican people share strong bonds of friendship and, across the US Government, we look forward to working with the new prime minister on bilateral, regional and global issues,” Moreno said. (

Jamaica Observer, March 4, 2016)

I hope this example of real realpolitik was sufficient to disabuse the PNP of its Nero-like narcissism.

Another bogeyman, [terrifying spectre; a hobgoblin] of the PNP was its imagined favoured status with the IMF. I heard financial analyst Ralston Hyman say on the radio more than once that the multilaterals were very comfortable with the Portia Simpson Miller Administration and were less than gung-ho about the JLP coming back to power.

According to Hyman and other PNP ginnigogs, the Bruce Golding Administration had left a bad taste in the mouth of the IMF. Some who are milquetoast might have formed the mistaken impression that the JLP to the IMF was the equivalent of what country people call ‘Sybil [Seville] orange’ [an extremely sour fruit]. “They can conquer who believe they can,” said Virgil.

An unequivocal statement by an IMF staff team who visited Jamaica last week debunked a major ‘duppy story’ [ghost story] of the PNP. The IMF team was led by Nigel Chalk, deputy director of the Western Hemisphere Department, and Uma Ramakrishnan, mission chief for Jamaica. It said, among other things: “We would like to congratulate Mr Holness and the Jamaica Labour Party on their election results. The IMF looks forward to continuing to support Jamaica under its new leadership.

“We are conscious that continued strong social support for the economic reform programme remains critical for achieving success. We welcome the prime minister’s commitment to transparency and joint public-private oversight and monitoring of the economic programme.” (IMF/Press Release, No 16/92, March 4, 2016)

Those in the PNP, who sold the belief that the former Administration was the pride and joy of the IMF, must be wringing their hands and or their heads into something I can’t name in a family newspaper. They would do well to read some of Henry Kissinger’s many speeches on foreign policy and American interests.

Another pre-election invention of the PNP was the supposed ‘stratospheric’ growth happening in the economy over the last four years. Only those with their snouts fastened in the political trough and their brains calcified bought that nonsense. The PNP and economic growth are antithetical. They did not meaningfully grow the economy in the 1970s.

The economic catastrophe of the Michael Manley years is a matter of public record: 1970 (11.9 per cent); 1971 (3.0 per cent); 1972 (9.1 per cent); 1973 (1.3 per cent); 1974 (-3.9 per cent); 1975 (-0.3 per cent); 1976 (-6.5 per cent); 1977 (-2.4 per cent); 1978 (0.6 per cent); 1979 (-1.8 per cent); 1980 (-5.7 per cent).

These statistics from the Planning Institute of Jamaica testify to the failures of the PNP’s 18 years in office from 1989 to 2007: 1989 (7.0 per cent), 1990 (6.3 per cent), 1991 (0.5 per cent), 1992 (2.7 per cent), 1993 (2.2 per cent), 1994 (1.9 per cent), 1995 (2.5 per cent), 1996 (-0.2 per cent), 1997 (-1.6 per cent), 1998 (-1.0 per cent), 1999 (1.0 per cent), 2000 (0.9 per cent), 2001 (1.3 per cent), 2002 (1.0 per cent), 2003 (3.5 per cent), 2004 (1.4 per cent), 2005 (1.1 per cent), 2006 (3.0 per cent), 2007 (1.4 per cent).

(NB: The years 1972 and 1990 were momentum years of the Jamaica Labour Party administrations of former prime ministers Hugh Lawson Shearer and Edward Seaga.)

Why has the PNP been so disastrous at governance? Simply, it’s a party that concentrates on and is preoccupied with creating bread and circuses. The phrase bread and circuses is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion, distraction, or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace.

American writer and Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner famously said: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

From 2011-2014, the economy grew at an average 0.4 per cent under Dr Peter Phillips, our former minister of finance and

The Gleaner‘s Man of the Year. The JLP left the economy growing at 1.7 per cent in 2011. This was achieved during the worst global economic recession since the Great Depression of 1929-1939.

Many Jamaicans were shocked at the revelations below last week. For several months prior to the just-concluded general election the PNP gave us a ‘hullo’ and Anancy stories [make-belief] regarding economic growth.

“Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) yesterday reported that the country has experienced sluggish growth of 0.8 per cent for the calendar year 2015.” (

Jamaica Observer, March 4, 2016)

What was sold to the Jamaican people as unparalleled economic growth has turned out to be statistical error-type growth. Recall these lines from that brilliant composition

Tempo by dancehall maverick Anthony Red Rose, “Cyaan seh mi never did a warn you! Oh, Lord, mi tell yuh! Cyaan seh mi never did a warn you!”

Top-ranking PNP operatives must have read Mark Twain’s classic

Huckleberry Finn multiple times. They obviously have not understood the story.

A few weeks before our 17th general election, Jamaicans were continually told that the boom in the stock market was evidence of increased production and flowers blooming in the wider economy. A few, me included, pointed out those pronouncements were rodomontade. The excerpts below from a story in this newspaper, last week, lifted a veil from what should have been obvious all along.

“The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ), in an assessment of the performance of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) in 2015, has concluded that the extraordinary upsurge in stock prices during the period did not constitute a bubble or other phenomena unrelated to market fundamentals.

“ ‘A technical examination of the recent stock market appreciation,’ was published this week as a part of the quarterly monetary policy report for the period ending December 31, 2015.

“During 2015, as noted in the analysis, the JSE Main Index increased by 97.4 per cent ‘to an unprecedented level’, while the value of stocks traded increased by 400 per cent to $64.6 billion from $12.8 billion… The acceleration, the BOJ said, ‘raises the question as to whether the upswing has been predominantly driven by sound economic fundamentals or fuelled by speculation’.” (

Jamaica Observer, March 9, 2016)

This Administration would do well to do a forensic audit of the state in which the country was left by the former Administration. The results must be told to the people. I suspect the former Administration’s fib machine is somewhere buried deep underneath high stacks of dusty files and or in annexes where boxes are labelled “The master’s touch”.

Another viper revealed itself last week also. The former Administration apparently went on a spending spree in December 2015. I wonder why? What event was planned for December 2015 but was postponed?

This banner headline was no shock to me, ‘Jamaica spent $8.3b more than budgeted in December 2015 quarter’. We don’t need Einstein to explain. Life chairman of the PNP, Robert Pickersgill, already told us the mind of his party: “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.” I wonder if similar revelations are to come.

“There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money,” said UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Of course, no story like this would be complete with a little verbal confectionery. It continues:

“However, the institute notes that the spending was not due to preparations for the general election.

“At a press conference yesterday PIOJ [Director General] Collin Bullock addressed concern about whether the previous Administration spent more during the quarter than they would normally in order to complete projects in a bid to appease voters.

“He says the increased amount was due to revenues and grants being $2 billion higher than programmed.

“In August, the outgoing Finance and Planning Minister Dr Peter Phillips said the Government would not overspend in the run-up to [the] general election to benefit constituents.

“Following the 2002 General Election, then Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies admitted to increasing spending on government projects.” (

The Gleaner, March 4, 2016)

Recall the phrase “run wid it”, made popular in Jamaica by Dr Omar Davies. Recall also the catastrophic results of the “run wid it” policies on the economy of Jamaca in the 1990s and into the 2000s. Bullock would have us believe that what looks like “run wid it”, smells like “run wid it”, and spends like “run wid it” is not.

Rural folk would reply this way and I agree, “Mi nuh born big!” [I am not stupid].

Former state minister in the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment Damion Crawford says the smaller Holness Cabinet will have “zilch impact” on the country’s finances. Was the infant mind of the PNP speaking? Rustic folk say, “Tek sleep mark death.” Holness’s smaller Cabinet will save taxpayers $40 million per year.

“Well done is better than well said,” posited Benjamin Franklin. The new Administration has a glorious opportunity to remove propaganda as the focus of government and, instead, focus on good governance. Jamaicans are expecting nothing less. Any attempt to model governance on the failed template of the former Administration will yield similar results.

The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason. — Thomas Paine

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