“No better herring, no better barrel,” exclaimed the vendor in Broadgate, St Mary, who I chatted with about local, national politics and related matters for nearly an hour as I ate a delicious and sizeable portion of jackfruit last Sunday.

“Yes, man, di two ah a dem [our two major political parties] ah di same ting,” the small entrepreneur declared.

Based on recent scientific poll findings and anecdotal evidence, scores of Jamaicans seem to hold the view that the vast majority of our political representatives are as bad as each other, and that the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) are nearly indistinguishable these days.

I think this gaping hole in political education needs much more immediate and concentrated attention. If these major deficits are not substantively addressed, I believe they will result in near catastrophic voter apathy, and/or a further rapid hardening of an existing voter position which says, “Let me just stick with the devil I know, irrespective.” The consequences of one and or both lacerations will likely have nearly debilitating results for our democracy. We have to halt the slide now.

Not the same?

The JLP and the PNP are quite dissimilar. I believe the leaders of our two major political parties, Andrew Holness and Mark Golding, have rather dissimilar political values.

Here are some fundamental differences between the JLP and the PNP, as I see it.

To me, the JLP is an economically, socially and ideologically conscientious conservative party which subscribes to the credo: By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread… (Genesis 3:19). The ‘let off something’ and ‘we ah sufferah’ mentality are not countenanced and/or romanticised in the JLP.

The PNP, by contrast, is a socialist party. Socialism, irrespective of its variant octopus-like tentacles, whether originating in Marxist doctrinaire, be it Christian or Libertarian socialism or Fabianism — the rotten dogma from which former Prime Minister Michael Manley’s democratic socialism was hatched — all subscribe to the foundational template that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should/ought to be owned and/or regulated by the State.

No matter how socialists spin it, and no matter how hard they camouflage themselves these days with sanitising terms like progressives and democratic left, they are all cut from the same cloth.

Socialist leaders, whether initially or eventually, often come to see themselves as the equivalent of philosopher kings, in Plato’s republic — meaning they are best placed to direct the operating systems of the polity or the State in every way. They seek to disguise this awful foible in modern politics with variant slogans of ‘people power’.

John Stuart Mill, English philosopher and political economist, said: “Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces, which make it a living thing.”

One cannot, therefore, correctly and/or convincingly, espouse societal liberation and freedoms by means of socialism. These are mutually exclusive. Socialists pretend not to understand this.

Sixty-two years of evidence shows that the JLP is a firm adherent to economic and fiscal prudence. There are no strong countries with weak economies, and there are no weak countries with strong economies. The economy of Jamaica has only achieved sustained growth during periods when the JLP formed the Government. These are the 1960s, 80s and for the last eight years.

Economic growth matters. Those who say otherwise are deceivers. The fact is, without economic growth there are fewer tax receipts. There are poorer public services and lower and/or stunted remuneration for, especially, public sector workers, plus higher, much higher taxes for everyone — whether gainfully employed or not.

Lack of economic growth means greater hardships and reduction in the standards of living for everyone, whether they sell coconuts, jackfruit, ripe bananas and melons near the side of a major corridor or they own a small, medium or big business uptown or downtown.

Some among us, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with a modicum of common sense, are busy spreading a vicious and false narrative that economic growth is some kind of highfalutin matter.

“Cho, dem deh ah ‘big man’ ting,” they deceivingly howl. This kind of deceptive ‘oratory’ — here I am being kind — betrays our national interests and should be democratically repudiated at every opportunity by all well-thinking Jamaicans.

Nature abhors a vacuum. That is a settled matter. What replaces the premium of economic growth in the political space when socialism is at the helm? People are bludgeoned with banality and falsehoods. The deadly trail of disasters left by socialist parties that have formed administrations worldwide cannot be successfully hid under a bushel. There is no successful socialist regime anywhere in the world. Caution: Please don’t come with the examples of the Scandinavian states. None is socialist. I have shown here previously that the Scandinavian countries that experimented with socialism were brought to near ruins. Socialism debilitates. Venezuela is a tragic and mournful case.

Since Independence the PNP has demonstrated a reckless disregard for fiscal and economic prudence, except for the watershed period of 2012 to 2016. Why? By 2013, according to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “Jamaica’s public debt had reached a historic high of about 147 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), making it one of the most indebted countries in the world.”

We hit rock bottom economically in 2013. In local parlance, we were barely able to stop a stale bread cart. Consequently, Jamaica had to adopt one of the most stringent IMF programmes in the world. Dr Peter Phillips, the then minister of finance and the planning, was essentially guided by the IMF in the implementation of that programme. It is to his credit, albeit he was under supervision, that he did not drop the ball.

But how did Jamaica get to the edge of the 2013 economic precipice? It was the culmination of tragic borrowing at high interest rates; squandering of prior economic gains; scorched-earth economic policies; and highly inimical feel good, make work programmes over many years, mostly presided over by the PNP.

The period of the 90s, was especially deleterious to Jamaica’s economic health. I believe Dr Omar Davies, the minister of finance and planning in the 90s and early 2000s, will go down in infamy for presiding over what former Minister of Education and Youth Deacon Ronald Thwaites called: “The most massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich since slavery.”

During the 90s our black business class was nearly wiped out. The late Wilmot “Motty” Perkins, journalist extraordinaire, famously noted that: “Jamaica was sapping up liquidity in Japan, Indonesia, and in fact all over the world.”

One does not need a degree in economics to figure why Jamaica nosed-dived in the 70s and the 90s. Fiscal and economic prudence were sacrificed on the altar of politics. The inevitable consequences of this fatal formula was chronically high inflation, massive capital flight, rapid devaluation, crippling unemployment, rising crime, stifling social decay, institutional rot, widespread abuse of citizens, and the dilution of the rule of law to the detriment of especially the poor and the down-trodden majority.

Another major and critical difference between the governing JLP and the Opposition PNP is that the JLP has a clear strategy for the growth and development of Jamaica, while the PNP does not.

In Golding’s budget debate presentation last month, he kept on saying: “I will… I will…” This does not mean squat if he cannot viably say how he is going to fully fund his plans to make them into reality. I stand by my description of Golding’s speech. It was a nothing burger, full of lame bromides, lacking even basic economic lucidity.

Well-thinking Jamaicans would be remiss in our duty to ignore the fact that after three years of criss-crossing Jamaica and listening to the people, as the PNP says, Golding is yet to provide a viable strategy for the growth and development of Jamaica. This is a humongous failure.

The country’s civil society groups that parade as the judge and jury of all matters that centre on public accountability have remained silent on this foundational matter of good governance. We need not light a lamp to see why.

Modernisation is the JLP’s primary national strategy for the growth and development of Jamaica. Only those who suffer with deliberate blindness, intellectual dishonesty, and/or ‘bad mind’ would deny the rapid and sustained pace of Jamaica’s modernisation in especially the last 8 years.

Except for the 1960s, Jamaica has not seen any other period of equivalent rapid pace of modernisation. The modernisation of especially points of entry, including Kingston Harbour; several cruise shipping ports; Sangster International Airport; ongoing improvements at Norman Manley International Airport; expansion of Ian Fleming International Airport in Boscobel, St Mary, not (Ocho Rios); and massive expansion and improvements at aerodromes across the country is unprecedented in our history.

It has been accepted for centuries that countries which are able to transport goods, services, and people, fast, safely and efficiently, have a distinct advantage to grow and develop. The construction of new highways and other major corridors in the last eight years is unparalleled. Good roads are also a matter of national security. It should be obvious why. It can be easily substantiated that our security forces are more equipped, better trained, more mobile, and have more comfortable working spaces than at any other time. The ongoing transformation of the security forces is happening in tandem with a transformation of the national education system, the courts, health facilities nationally, constitutional reforms, and broadband high-speed Internet, country-wide.

I could point to numerous other areas in which modernisation is positively transforming Jamaica’s place in the world faster than ever before.

To form the Administration in a functional democracy a political party has to have a strong leader who is electable, a good team, and a clear strategy. The JLP, as I see it, has all three; the PNP does not. If the PNP did it would have provided fundable and practical answers to these and related questions:

1) Where are the PNP’s new and/or better ideas to grow the Jamaican economy faster?

2) Where are the PNP’s new and/or better ideas for fix the choking issue of major crimes, and murder in particular?

As I see it, one of the biggest challenges for our politics, going forward, is figuring the best ways to meaningfully engage citizens who don’t attend political meetings, don’t pay much attention to especially credible media, and are almost innately apathetic.

Anyway, the mentioned vendor was more hopeful about politicians and Jamaica at the end of our chat. I took his number to get him some help to expand and formalise his business and off I went visit relatives in Highgate, St Mary.

Garfield Higgins

Garfield Higgins is an educator, journalist, and a senior advisor to the minister of education and youth. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.