Recently, Prime Minister Andrew Holness committed that there would be greater equity in the sharing of our impressive macro-economic achievements at the micro level. As I see it, the recent budget debate presentation by the Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke demonstrated that Holness means business.

The ravages of the novel coronavirus pandemic are still in evidence globally. It is not a year yet since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to the pandemic as a global health emergency. On May 10, 2023, the WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus said, among other things: “COVID-19 has exposed political fault lines within and between countries, eroded trust between people and governments, and laid bare searing inequalities.”

The harsh reality of the pandemic is lost on some due to genuine memory lapses, because of the realities of death and other losses that are just too painful, and owing to convenient amnesia. Doubtless, some do not wish to remember that, while many of our sister islands and countries globally buckled under economic pressures, Jamaica was able to ride out the rough waves of displacement. This was not a happy accident.

It was not a happy accident either that not a single government worker lost his/her job during the pandemic. This was not the reality in many neighbouring Islands. Some, for reasons obvious to the discerning, do not wish for us to remember that Jamaica was praised regionally and globally for its management of the novel coronavirus.

Notwithstanding the limitation of resources, Jamaica’s health care workers performed beyond the call of duty and got the job done, many at great personal risk. We owe our doctors, nurses, and indeed all our health care heroes a great debt.

Sadly, many who are drunk on the drug of political hypocrisy bellow that many of the measures which the Administration implemented to save life and limb during the pandemic worsened the conditions of the people. According to the twisted logic of these charlatans, lockdowns, for example, needlessly prevented ordinary Jamaicans from earning a livelihood. Most of these hindsight geniuses maintained a stony silence during the two years of crippling hardships. Today they have all the answers. Now they have the barefacedness to criticise the proven effectiveness of the measures.

I am glad the People’s National Party (PNP) was not the Administration during the pandemic. Why? Recall the excruciatingly painful consequences which we were subjected to because of the very poor preparation for and the mismanagement of the chikungunya epidemic. Recall the country was told in 2014 that the number of cases were few and far between until Delano Seiveright, the then Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) caretaker for St Thomas Eastern, made a startling revelation. It was after this frightening national exposure that the then Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson owned up to the magnitude of the outbreak affecting the country.

Our economy conservatively lost $7 billion, and 13 million hours of production time, according to data made public by the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ).

The chikungunya and dead babies scandals sank the ship of Dr Ferguson as minister of health. His commendable contributions to expanding cancer care, anti-smoking thrust, among other things were buried by these national health catastrophes.

Contrast those catastrophes with the good management of the COVID-19 pandemic and, by any objective assessment, Dr Christopher Tufton has done a hugely creditable job.

Contrastingly, chalk and cheese, as I see it.

Different and better

There is clear night and day regarding the abilities and track record of the Holness Administration and that of previous PNP administrations. Past PNP administrations have made Jamaicans poorer.

Some years ago, I said here that the PNP was playing checkers, while the JLP was playing chess. I believe that is still the case today, albeit that the PNP has since become better at checkers.

The night and day chasm in the quality and content of the recent budget presentations of Dr Clarke compared to that of the Opposition spokesperson on finance and the public service, Julian Robinson, showed clearly that the PNP has a lot of learning to do before they can graduate to chess. As I see it, Robinson’s speech was a ramble and as such lacked direction and emphasis. I gave it a falling grade. After listening to Robinson, words spoken by renowned British lexicographer and novelist Samuel Johnson came to mind; “Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.”

It was blindingly obvious that the two national newspapers struggled to find newsworthy content from Robinson’s speech. Those who were expecting that the on-call finance minister was going to present a spell-binding, substantive, solutions-oriented and ground-breaking presentation were plunged into a sea of disappointment.

The reliable Black-bellied Plovers, Bananaquits and John Chewits tweet that many at 89 Old Hope Road cursed Robinson’s presentation as a great missed opportunity for him and Norman Manley’s party. For months prior to the recently held local government election, Robinson and his party criss-crossed the highways and byways trumpeting mightily that the people of Jamaica were not feeling the benefits of Jamaica’s macro-economic improvements. The PNP under the leadership of Mark Golding has had nearly three years to come up with new and or better ideas.

1) Where are his new and/or better ideas on how to grow the Jamaican economy faster?

2) Where are his new and/or better ideas to remedy the long-standing matters of social decline?

3) Where are his new and/or better ideas to fix the choking issue of major crimes, and murder in particular?

I have been asking these and related questions with iron-clad fixity for just over two years. Those who say I am just beating upon the PNP need to get it into their heads that Golding is the prime minister in waiting. I believe every Jamaican has not just a responsibility but a duty to insist that, at a minimum, he provides viable answers to these and related questions.

I continue also to maintain that the release of manifestos 24 and 48 hours before we go to the poll is a great insult to Jamaicans. We must not continue to ignore this blatant abuse by those who seek high and low political office.

Robinson’s presentation was a great opportunity for the PNP to demonstrate to the country that it had conscientiously devised a better political, social, and economic operating system to that of governing JLP, which would result in more people feeling the macro-economic gains which 89 Old Road screams is the Achilles heel of the incumbent.

The requirement of guarantors for students who need a loan from the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) has been abandoned. Unsurprisingly, Robinson did not present any better ideas to help better finance tertiary education. The need to remove guarantors was put in the public space from as far back as April 2009. Recall this: “The Government will be reviewing the lending policy of the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) to make it possible for beneficiaries to guarantee their own loans. Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, speaking in the House of Representatives yesterday [March 31], noted that while SLB had done a ‘tremendous job’ in assisting people to access tertiary education, there were still a large number of persons, who, because of the poor circumstances from which they originate, were unable to find somebody who was willing to be a guarantor for their loans.” [
Jamaica Information Service (
JIS)], April 1, 2009. Research does not hurt especially when you are searching for truth. A little research would help those who are bellowing that the PNP, first called for the abandonment of guarantors. It is not true! In any event in today’s politics it is successful implementation that matters.

Robinson and the PNP failed to deliver a better and fully-funded option for the raising of the income tax threshold from the coming $1.7 million to the $3 million as Golding promised on the campaign trail.

The benefits paid to pensioners by the Government have not been adjusted since 2009, so when Dr Clarke, in opening the budget debate, announced that pension and age-relief exemptions would move from $80,000 to $250,400, the seniors were overjoyed based on posts that I have seen from many credible people and reportage in traditional media.

Robinson claims that “most Jamaicans are living from pay cheque to pay cheque”. (Jamaica Observer, March 16, 2024), but he did not present any better ideas on how what he says is a great noose around the necks of most Jamaicans would be removed.

I have been warning here that the PNP was on ‘E’ for many months. Robinson’s presentation is recent proof.

No New Taxes, again

The Holness Administration, now approaching eight years in office, has managed to keep inflation and interest rates low, has sensibly repaid/honoured the country’s debt and related obligations, prevented runaway devaluation synonymous with the 70s and 90s, has kept unemployment at historical lows, and has restored Jamaica’s good economic reputation regionally and internationally.

As I understand it, these are some of the major macro-economic improvements which have enabled the Government to present seven consecutive years of no new taxes. Before this momentous reality, Jamaicans cowered in fear and listened in great trepidation for the burden of additional taxes which was a staple of the budget presentation of ministers of finance of the past. Inept economic management was the number one cause of previous perennial tax packages.

Sound economic management is a major prerequisite for a viable State. Yet, in spite of this obvious reality, some among us, for reasons that should be obvious even to the slightly discerning, are busy spreading a false narrative that economic growth is an abstract matter, the preserve of individuals like economists and the so-called ‘big man’.

This kind of oratory betrays our national interests and should be democratically repudiated at every opportunity. The recent and frequent use of this ‘strategy’ is a default position of those who do not get it that one of their Achilles heels is a feeble track record with respect to the management of Jamaica’s economy.

I believe that was the great burden which relegated Robinson’s budget presentation failed to impress. We are now in an age where information is literally at the fingertips of the masses.

Folks know that most of the elaborate promises of Mark Golding can only be delivered through hefty increases in and/or new taxes. The alternative noose is suicidal borrowing. The PNP needs to convince Jamaicans it can make our lives better than the governing JLP. This, to me, explains why Robinson’s budget speech was a dodge and a flop.

Good Job, Major General

Up to last Thursday murders were down by 12 per cent and most other major crimes had declined compared to the similar period last year. Some of the most vicious gangs and violence producers have either been decommissioned or are facing the courts.

Technologically, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is in a far better position than it was six years ago. The police are now much more mobile.

In general I have found police personnel today much more ‘manners-able’, as we say locally. Police personnel today have more humane physical and social facilities to work in and work with. Major General Antony Anderson has left the JCF in far better state than he found it.