Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition Mark Golding does not know when to put his head above the parapet, it seems. For all the Opposition’s big talk about “repatriation for slavery, now, right now”, getting rid of the Office of the Governor General, the representative of the Queen of England and de facto head of State in Jamaica, and public hand wringing that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council should be replaced by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as Jamaica’s final appellate court, the People’s National Party (PNP) nimbly announced last Monday that it would participate in events to commemorate the visit of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Last Monday’s Jamaica Observer said this: “Opposition leader, Mark Golding, has shared that, given his constitutional office, he will be present at the events scheduled by the Government of Jamaica during the visit of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

“Golding said that he has been invited to participate in various events during the Royal visit, including The Duke and Duchess’s arrival at the airport, a visit to his constituency, and a State dinner.”

“The PNP, in the mentioned release, also noted that: ‘It is in the interests of the Jamaican people that the Opposition be present and able to make our views on these fundamental issues known to the Royals. Constructive dialogue is the best way to move this process forward, and attending these events provides an opportunity for this,’ Golding said.

“ ‘The issues at hand are not about current personalities, but rather about the imperative of a principled reckoning with the past, and I intend to directly communicate our position on these issues.’ ”

Decoded, this sounds to me like Golding is making sure to keep his head below the parapet.

I don’t think Golding understands the zeitgeist of today’s Jamaica.

Straightaway some are going to bellow in rage, “But why single out Golding and the PNP?”

There is a local saying, “He who has raw meat must seek fire.” Scientific polls, approaching seven years now, have repeatedly found that the PNP has trailer loads of political raw meat for which it has not been able to find any fire. I believe this Royal visit was another opportunity for the PNP to demonstrate that it recognises that Jamaica requires bold doing, not flaccid doublespeak.

Thanks, but, no thanks!

From what I gather via reports in sections of the media, the Royals requested to visit Jamaica and are paying part of the cost associated with their trip.

I believe Jamaica, should have told them, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Quite frankly, we have bigger fish to fry, in this country.

For those who don’t agree, maybe they should acquaint themselves with the deadly realities of our supremely abnormal murder rate. Those who are protected by the Praetorian Guards, and/or otherwise live in a bubble, might not understand the deadly impact of crime and violence on our economy.

This news item from The Gleaner October 13, 2017 might help to enlighten their darkness. It said, among other things: “Crime does not pay, but it certainly is costing the Government of Jamaica a tidy sum; amounting to $68 billion per year — a dollar figure National Security Minister Robert Montague says could fund the construction of 16 new schools.

“Addressing the first Jamaica Geographic Information System (GIS) User Conference on Tuesday, Montague cited ministry data revealing the monetary impact that the high levels of crime have been having on Jamaica’s fiscal space.

“ ‘Crime is costing us a lot of money in this country. It is estimated by the World Bank that crime is costing Jamaica five per cent of GDP [gross domestic product] per year, which translates to about $68 billion per year,’ said Montague.

“It costs the Government approximately $400,000 per day to keep a gunshot victim in intensive care. Jamaica sees, on average, approximately 2,000 gunshot victims per year, according to the minister.

“ ‘So, if you do the maths, it gives you an idea of the cost of crime in Jamaica and how it affects you, because as much as the prime minister and the minister of finance gave back to our public servants the $1.5-million tax-free, that money is being sucked by the persons who [are] in our hospitals,’ stated Montague.

“ ‘So even if you are not a victim of crime, you are also paying for the cost of crime in this country,’ Montague added.

“Juxtaposing the value of crime against what he said was much-needed national infrastructure development, the security minister said that, in reality, the $68 billion could fund the construction of 16 high schools in addition to 30 new hospitals.

“ ‘We could build some 30 hospitals, furnish them, and staff them. We could upgrade and put Barber-Greene on 100 of our Grade-A roads in Jamaica, and every one of us knows what that means,’ he reasoned.

“ ‘We could repair every clinic and every school and have money left over. We could repair and furnish every government office. That is the cost of crime, not only to the country, but to every single one of us,’ Montague said.”

Add to the dreaded consequences of crime the horrendous social and economic fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic, which are sending shock waves through nearly every nook and cranny of this country. Add also the destructive consequences of rising inflation, soaring gas prices, surging prices in the supermarket and market, and the spiralling costs of critical goods and services. These are all reeking havoc on the working poor and the middle classes.

Except for those who are blinded by tribal cataract, all will admit that Jamaica is in very choppy waters. For nearly a decade, I have been warning in this space about the rapidity of social decay in this country. Many months ago, after witnessing a horrific incident at the entrance to the Papine Market, I noted, among other things: “There is a foul, mean spiritedness, and grotesque obsession with unenlightened self-interest which seems to have penetrated even the deepest recesses of daily life. If we don’t become uncomfortable, extremely uncomfortable, and arrest the hugely deleterious social decline all around us we can kiss goodbye all hopes of Jamaica becoming ‘the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business’.

This is still our reality.

Where’s the ROI?

The Royals are coming as part of the celebration of their grandmother being on the throne for 70 years. So where is the return on investment (ROI) for Jamaica, an emerging economy with a lot of troubles?

Then there is this trillion-dollar question: When are we going to get a full and formal apology and just reparation for the 400 years of enslavement of black peoples?

Europe’s development is a direct consequence of the pillaging of Africa’s resources, especially her human resources. Numerous Caribbean scholars, like Sir Eric Williams, former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, in his seminal work, Capitalism and Slavery, and the late Dr Walter Rodney, in his groundbreaking book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, have factually demonstrated this.

Those who still believe that plantation slavery ended because of the generosity of missionaries like William Wilberforce need to read Capitalism and Slavery.

Professor Hilary Beckles, the Vice-Chancellor of The Univeristy of the West Indies, has also done a tremendous amount of work in this and related areas.

“When wi ah guh get wi money?” I want a direct answer from the Royals. This does not require a physical visit to Jamaica.

Some years, ago, in this space, I condemned the actions of our parliamentarians who cheered when then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron, whose family owned slaves, insolently submitted to a joint sitting of our Parliament, in September 2015, that we needed to just “move on from the painful legacy of slavery”.

Many among us, too many in fact, still, just do not get it, that the socially, politically and economically debilitating consequences of slavery are great burdens upon the minds of our people. Slavery is also a great burden on our very souls.

I believe Jamaica and the Andrew Holness-led Administration made a very injudicious decision when it agreed to the request of the Royals to visit.

Holness’s score!

Two Thursdays ago, Prime Minister Andrew Holness made what I thought was a very good Budget presentation. To me, his delivery was centred on long-term strategic thinking. He commendably went for the long view of growth and development. Of all the budget presentations I have heard from Holness, his most recent came closest to satisfying my designation for a “people’s budget”. In many past budget presentations, several of our former prime ministers kowtowed to the economically disastrous dictates of short-term interests, which benefited only a few. I am very glad that tattered approach is being disposed of.

We must never, ever go back to the lunacy of “run wid it”. We must never, ever go down that derelict, socialist road again. Were we to make that death-dealing error again we would be the laughing stock of the Caribbean and permanent castaways, globally.

I believe Holness’s long-view approach is exactly what our country needs at this time.

I said it before, but it bears repeating, that when Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore, sat with his team to build a new culture and economy, they unanimously agreed that most of what they were setting out to do would not benefit their generation. They agreed that their decisions would only bear the desired national fruits after 20 years in some cases, and even 50 years in other instances.

On the subject of national fruits, I think that one of the highlights of the Holness presentation was the lifting of the regulations under the Disaster Risk Managmennt Act [DRMA]. We cannot live like hermits forever. Thousands of Jamaicans who live from pay cheque to pay cheque, who manage households with numerous mouths to feed, and have to attend to obligations of rents, mortgage, car loan payments, and have to simultaneously contend with the skyrocketing increases in the cost of living are breathing a sigh of relief. More than ever, we need to be our brother’s keeper and double up on measures to protect each other — sanitisation, mask-wearing and physical distancing where appropriate, consistent with the advice of health experts.

Holness’s announcement that up to three National Housing Trust (NHT) contributors will shortly be allowed to apply for a benefit from the NHT is a good move. Owning a house is one of the biggest aspirations of most Jamaicans and also one of the best ways of establishing ‘stakehood’. If “one has no stake in one’s own country, said Lee Kuan Yew, “Why would you fight for it?”

Holness’s bold move to make $10 billions available to startups and micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and $2 billion in targeted support for Jamaicans who are feeling the biting impact of the spiralling increases in gas prices is timely.

Potentially game changing

To me Holness’s long-view approach was most evident in his announcement of the setting up of an Education Transformation Oversight Committee — which is along the lines of the very successful Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) model that has gained international recognition. If we are to really achieve our real potential as a county we will have to revamp many aspects of our current education system. Numerous reports over the last 30 years have pronounced our education system as woefully underachieving.

All well-thinking Jamaicans should be happy that 78,024 hectares of the Cockpit Country has been declared a protected area. This is great news. I think the designation of the Black River area as protected is a potential game changer. The inclusion of the Great Bay Area in St Elizabeth and the Dry Harbour Mountains in St Ann on the list for protection, makes sense. It seems the message is reaching the very top that we do not have to make a Faustian-type bargain in order to achieve sustained levels of especially economic development.

I give Holness an interim B+, while I wait and watch for the strategic implementation of all his announcements.

Last year, I severely criticised Holness for being weak on institution building. His Budget speech this year was much improved in that area. More anon!

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