In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke was reported as saying, “Though there was significant damage in sections of the island, in many other parts, including much of Kingston, the ackees and mangos remain on the trees.”

Watching the nightly television news or travelling throughout the most-affected parishes of Clarendon, Manchester, Westmoreland, and St Elizabeth, one is struck by the extent to which not only are the ackees, mangos, bananas, and other tree crops on the ground, but so, too, are utility poles and lines that transmit electricity to homes, institutions, and businesses. The extent of the damage to the electricity infrastructure was detailed in a post-Cabinet media briefing by Minister of Science, Energy, and Telecommunications Daryl Vaz: 4,287 conductors, 2,602 poles, 134 transformers, 94 transmission structures, 2,185 pieces of transmission, and distribution equipment.

The perennial cry of “We waah justice” has given way to “We waah light!”, aptly captured in a July 17, 2024 headline of this newspaper. Tempers have reached boiling point, spilling over into noisy protests, including blocking of roads in a few affected communities. Prime Minister Andrew Holness stood on the floor of the House of Parliament on July 16, 2024 to defend the beleaguered Jamaica Public Service (JPS) and to plead for patience with the pace of recovery.

In what could be construed as a dove-and-hawk strategy, Holness being the dove and Vaz the hawk, the latter has been given free rein to go for the jugular in attacking JPS, ostensibly to protect the rights of consumers. In addressing the vexing issues of the timeline for full restoration of electricity and the kite-flying proposal by JPS to issue estimated bills, the minister has not minced words, going as far as reminding the light and power company that the licence under which it operates is coming up for renewal and adjustments could be made to protect the interest of consumers and not just that of the company.

Although lacking the fiery oratorical skills of former Prime Minster Michael Manley, the minister’s rhetoric is virulent enough to be reminiscent of Manley’s threat in the 1970s to take control of the commanding heights of the economy. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

This raises a question that is bound to be uncomfortable for neoliberals who subscribe to an economic philosophy based on blind and pervasive privatisation of government assets in a country of Jamaica’s circumstances. In arriving at the decision to privatise what is arguably an essential commodity, was enough thought given to the implications such a decision holds for consumers at the base of the social and economic pyramid? As some are belatedly learning, the implications of government ownership and private sector ownership differ in important ways. One of these is the relative ease with which multilateral and donor resources can be mobilised by Government to ease suffering in times of disaster when it owns the assets.

The minister of finance and well-thinking Jamaicans are justly proud of the fiscal improvements and noticeable absence of huge cargo planes bringing relief from donor countries to a poor and desperate nation as well as the multilayered financing the Government has put in place to help the country recover and rebuild after natural disasters. But the reality is that, particularly in the case of JPS, which was owned by Government at the time of Hurricane Gilbert but is today majority owned by private investors, the country needs help with restoring this critical infrastructure.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Disaster Report FY 1998 speaks to the type of help that’s needed and where it can be had. The report states in part: “Representatives of Florida Light and Power (FLP) Company were in Jamaica throughout late September surveying damage to Jamaica’s electrical network. Their assessments indicated that poor maintenance and improper installation of electric poles amplified the physical damage from Hurricane Gilbert. On October 12, a FLP team arrived with equipment and began immediate repairs. The United States Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) paid the initial assessment costs and for transport of the team. The other expenses were funded by the U S government rehabilitation package granted on September 28.”

Why not send an SOS, a distress signal, to the American Government and Florida Light and Power Company to again come to our aid in this the darkest hour (pun intended) of the post-Beryl recovery?

Are there technical impediments because the company is majority owned by private investors, or could it be that we are too proud to beg for outside help, as was the norm in the not-too-distant past?

Dr Henley Morgan is founder and executive chairman of the Trench Town-based Social Enterprise, Agency for Inner-city Renewal and author of My Trench Town Journey: Lessons in Social Entrepreneurship and Community Transformation for Development Leaders, Policy Makers, and Academic Practitioners. Send comments to Jamaica Observer or hmorgan@cwjamaica.com.