“There is no shortage of them that can talk in this world. But it is action that sets the great ones apart, Margaret, not words.” This was the advice given to a young Margaret Roberts by her father and chief political mentor at the beginning of the movie Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk to Finchley.

Unfortunately, for decades Jamaica has had a tragic oversupply of skilled talkers — and simultaneously a woeful scarcity of conscientious doers — in politics. The greatest talker was undoubtedly Michael Manley, our fourth prime minister.

When I was about age nine, Manley had a political meeting in Richmond square, St Mary, one Sunday evening. Anyway, as was customary most mornings during summer visits, I helped my grandfather in his ‘grung’, as we say in the rural parts. Tilling the grung was often a community-type activity. So it was not a surprise when a friend of my grandfather soon joined us and began helping with the work. He had attended the Richmond meeting. He waxed warm about Manley’s great ability with words.

“So what did Mr Manley say?” I asked my grandfather’s friend.

I remember it well. He was obviously enraptured by the adrenaline rush he got from hearing Manley speak that he did not even “pay me bad mind”, as we say in the rustic parts.

“What did Mr Manley say?” I asked, again.

“Mi bwoy Manley was great!” he beamed with excitement.

I never did get a sensible answer. In later years I found out why.

I met then former Prime Minister Michael Manley when I was a student at The University of the West Indies, Mona. At the time, I was a member of a small co-curricular group — the Political Science Society on Taylor Hall. As was our custom, we invited leaders in various fields of influence to share their ideas. I remember well the rap session with Manley. It was scheduled to last for an hour. It ended a shade under two. His views were most engaging, especially with regard to the ideals of democratic socialism.

Manley had tremendous presence, though his charisma was evidently not as electrifying certainly compared to what I had seen in archival footage which I had researched.

I formed the impression that Manley had a real, genuine love for the people of Jamaica. I still believe that. There was an admirable humility about him.

As to the genuineness of his humility I will defer to the first-hand accounts of those who knew him personally. I found his humility a bit surprising. Why? As I see it, people with Manley’s exceptional verbal dexterity, more often than not, are adroit at disguising the great damage of political shrapnel.

Anyway, during the meeting Manley, among other things, admitted he made mistakes in the 70s. Unlike some today, he did not claim omnipotence. Those who are obsessed with mythologising Manley do his memory a great disservice. They would do well to earnestly learn from Manley’s mea culpa.

Manley, if nothing else, had the gift of the gab. In a society with overwhelmingly oral traditions he was political gold dust to the PNP. It was during this unforgettable meeting that I fully understood why my grandfather’s friend was so giddy.

Words are important, let us not fool ourselves. Words are the vehicles that ignite and then transport feelings or emotions, which then germinate into actions in the brains of people. The result of that transport system can be immensely beneficial if the vehicles are serviced in a timely manner and driven by prudent drivers. The results can be tragic if the opposite is true. Words minus prudent and consistent actions are recipes for disaster. We must not delude ourselves about that.

Indeed, we have seen time and time again in this country the tragic consequences when words are wrongly equated with actions. This is the nucleus of performative politics. Political pyrotechnics seldom make the lives of the majority better — certainly not in a sustained manner. That critical lesson and related ones became only too obvious to thousands of Jamaicans, unfortunately, after much personal pain and suffering in the 1970s and 90s, especially. Actions, undergirded by meaningful and sustained results at the macro and micro levels of our society, as I see it, are the prudent way forward. Jamaica needs to avoid like the plague the merchants of empty ‘chattins’. As we say in the streets, “A nuh chattins ah dweet.”

In the run-up to the recently held local government election, Leader of the Opposition and president of the People’s National Party (PNP) Mark Golding trumpeted an increase in the income tax threshold.

Consider this from Loop Jamaica News, September 18, 2023: “He [Golding] said it was “time to increase the income tax threshold from the current $1.5 million to at least $3 million.”

Golding continues to tempt especially the unsuspecting with big bunches of roses. We would do well to examine the stems. They are covered with jagged thorns.

Dr Nigel Clarke, minister of finance and the public service, says Golding’s proposal would cost the country upwards of $45 billion.

Golding, how will you fund this? Promises of adherence to fiscal prudence by Golding are totally out of sync with his mountains of unfundable promises. I suspect Golding has even more costly promises to release from a certain pipeline which former Cabinet minister, the late Dr Paul Robertson told us existed at 89 Old Hope Road.

There is no Aladdin with a magic lamp in politics, believe it. This $45 billion would have to come from somewhere. As I see it, there are only three ways of funding Golding’s $3-million threshold promise. Either it is fully financed from the budget. It is financed through borrowing. Or it is financed through additional and/or new taxes.

The Andrew Holness-led Administration has delivered seven consecutive years of no new taxes. This is a phenomenal achievement by any objective measurement. I suspect those who equate additional revenue intake from existing means of taxation and nimbly called it additional taxes, departed mathematics at long division. Even those who still use the most archaic form of the abacus must know that such miscomprehensions run totally counter to common sense. ‘No new taxes’ is a major paradigm shift. Any party which tries to interrupt and destroy that shift will find out “how water walk guh a pumpkin belly” (rude awakening).

Based on the calculations of Dr Clarke, which no one has said is incorrect, the resources of the budget, at this time could not finance Golding’s $3-million promised threshold without huge dislocation.

Why not just borrow the money, some may say. People in this country have seen the deleterious impact of borrowing especially high-cost money to pay salaries and take care of day-day housekeeping needs.

Jamaicans are no longer impressed with the borrowing ditty. Like a tragic love song it has caused much pain and hurt over many years. The awful lessons of the debilitating high interest rate experiments, suicidal borrowing, and scorched-earth economic policies of who I believe to be Jamaica’s worst Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Omar Davies are still very fresh.

Approaching seven weeks after the PNP was defeated in our 17th local government election since universal adult suffrage in 1944, Golding has not conceded. Neither has he come back to explain to the country how he would fund his promised tax threshold increase.

“Mouth mek fi talk,” my grandfather often said. He was right!

Anything for power

Too many Jamaicans blindly trusted the mathematics of Manley and P J Patterson and the results were almost catastrophic. And that is a cogent reason for a thorough interrogation of Golding’s mathematics.

If Golding cannot get his sums right when he in Opposition and has the luxury of time, what hope is there that he will if he were burdened by mountains of stress that come with leading Jamaica?

Jamaicans have not just a responsibility but a duty to question the actions of those who are elected or selected to preside over public decision-making. Those who come to the public and strenuously seek political office, having got it, cannot then be protected behind hallowed walls, far removed from the critical eye of public analysis and evaluation. Those who entreat us not to dig up the past and/or speak about the negatives of our political history are part of a grand and sinister deception.

The good, the bad, and the ugly, especially of our public officials, among other things, must serve as critical signposts. Otherwise we are like ostriches with our heads deep in the sand. This behaviour is a proven formula for backwardness, mediocrity, and poverty.

Some will say Manley’s democratic socialism was a natural reaction to the Cold War. He did not have much in the way of an alternative. I reject that. Manley was an intellectual. His administrations (1972-76 and 1976-80) had numerous intellectuals and graduates of some of the best universities in the world. They could have chosen a different route. Fabian Socialism was not the only game in town. There were clear and better alternatives.

In the vein of the advice which Margaret Thatcher’s (née Roberts) father gave to her, going forward, we here at home must focus on the actions and achievements of our political representatives. “Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty,” said renowned American economist and novelist Thomas Sowell.

Reparation are a must!

I have heard a great deal of chattins regarding reparation for the enslavement of our ancestors.

It is now a settled matter, except maybe to those who suffer with acute facts aversion, that the economies of most of Europe became rotten rich because of the blood, sweat, and tears of our forebears. It is past time that reparation be paid.

For those among us who say, “Let us just forget and move on” I say to them, you forget if you want to, but discerning folks will not join you in self-delusion.

To date, the Jews, deservedly so, are still being paid reparation for the more than six million who were murdered by the maniacal dictator Adolf Hitler and his degenerates.

It is time to increase action on our behalf, especially in the international bodies like the United Nations (UN), where African and Caribbean countries have huge voting power and hold influential posts. More anon!