Principles are for application not decorations. Knowledge is not self-adornment, it must be put to practical use, to benefit people’s lives, especially ordinary citizens, in a material and meaningful way.

I am a subscriber of the view that Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robin Givhan posits for patriotism as against nationalism. She said: “Patriotism is like the love that a parent has for a child; nationalism is akin to believing that one’s child can do no wrong.”

I have said here several times, but it bears repeating, that those of us who have the knowledge and/or access to platforms which can assist our countrymen with accurate information have not just a responsibility, we have a duty to help in this respect.

I am not talking about the dangling of false knowledge. I discussed that here last Sunday with reference to celebrated playwright George Bernard Shaw. False knowledge is dangerous, Shaw said. The fact is, when those of us who have a duty to warn ignore/abdicate that duty we become the modern-day equivalents of Jonah in the Bible. Applicable here too is the proverb: “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” Wilful ignorance is a sin.

TOTALLY UNTENABLE!

Eight days before eligible Jamaicans went to the polls this was a banner headline: ‘PNP promises no income tax on earnings up to $3.5 million’. The news item said, among other things: “The People’s National Party (PNP) is promising Jamaicans who earn $3.5 million or less that their income will be income tax-free if it forms the Government after the September 3 General Election.

“PNP President Mark Golding made the announcement Sunday night before thousands of orange-clad party supporters who crammed into Mandeville Square, Manchester, for a mass rally, as the election campaign intensifies.” (Jamaica Observer, August 25, 2025)

Even those with only a modicum of understanding of how we do politics in this country would have seen the PNP’s craziness coming from a mile away. Seven months before general election day, three Wednesdays ago, my The Agenda piece was titled ‘Tighten the guard rails! We need a constitutional debt brake to prevent profligacy’. In it I said among other things: “During the last three years, Golding has been up and down the highways and byways of this country promising a new heaven and Earth. Up to the time of writing this piece he had not indicated how he would fund his promises. Rural folks say, ‘A promise is a comfort to a fool.’ I agree. I don’t believe a future PNP Government will safeguard the fiscal stability of the last 13 years. They simply don’t know how. Fiscal responsibility is not in their DNA.” (Jamaica Observer, March 16, 2025)

People’s National Party (PNP) General Secretary Dayton Campbell (right) speaks at a post-election press briefing at the PNP headquarters on Old Hope Road in St Andrew. Looking on are president of the PNP Mark Golding (centre) and PNP Member of Parliament for St Andrew Western Anthony Hylton. (Naphtali Junior)

In subsequent pieces I reinforced my call for Jamaica to have a constitutional debt brake similar to, but not the same as Germany’s. In a nutshell, Germany’s constitutional debt brake allowed for borrowing which did not exceeds 0.35 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). World Economics estimates Germany’s 2025 GDP at US$5.78 trillion. Germany has the strongest economy in Europe and one of the strongest in the world.

Earlier this year Germany relaxed its constitutional debt brake; note, Germany did not abandon it, they relaxed it, this as a means of stimulating faster economic growth. Prior to the relaxation of its constitutional debt, German principally funded itself through means of taxation, exports of goods and services, etc, and not necessarily through extra borrowing.

On this matter of funding, happily a critical mass started to pelt the PNP with questions about how they would fund their income tax relief promise. Recall this: “Opposition spokesman on finance Julian Robinson has declared that the People’s National Party (PNP) would not impose new taxes to fund its slate of initiatives, including the promised tax-free income of up to $3.5 million for Jamaicans, if it forms the Government after the September 3 General Election.

“He said the PNP will fund its initiatives by increasing economic growth beyond the projected one per cent.

“ ‘We [the PNP] will fund the commitments that have been made within the existing envelope of the budget, including the projections for growth, without any need to impose any new taxes or burdens on the Jamaican people.” (Jamaica Observer, March 16, 2025)

Fortunately, a critical mass did not swallow the PNP’s poison pill. Why? Among other things, the PNP has no record of growing our economy in a meaning and sustained way since political independence in 1962, yet it was promising to turn water into fine wine. When the PNP’s initial promise of turning water into fine wine did not attract desired drinkers, the PNP took refuge in the promise of more accessible spirits.

This was literally cheap moonshine: ‘PNP says its promised $3.5m income tax threshold is now easier to implement’. The Gleaner item of August 31, 2025 said, among other things: “People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding has declared that financing his party’s ambitious plans to raise the income tax threshold to $3.5 million has become more attainable, following confirmation that the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is on track to hit its long-sought target.” A critical mass was not duped.

Finance and Public Service Minister Fayval Williams was among scores of Jamaicans who publicly highlighted and exposed the PNP’s flip-flopping. In the mentioned news item Williams sounded a national alarm: “Initially, the PNP said they would phase in the increase which they had strongly opposed before. When pressed on the issue of how they would fund it, the PNP then said organic growth of the Jamaican economy would fund their fake promise,” said Williams, who successfully contested the St Andrew Eastern constituency for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). She said that the PNP’s “flip-flop” on the issue indicates it “clearly has no clue how they will fund their fake promise, which is nothing more than a desperate attempt to win votes”.

PREVENTABLE TUG-OF-WAR

The kerfuffle over this income tax issue could have been averted. Instead, just days before citizens voted in our 19th general election since universal adult suffrage in 1944, 63 years after political independence, and smack in the middle of the Information Age, critical national energy was being expended on a problem which some developed countries solved many years ago.

Some of our national leaders seem intent on dragging Jamaica along a path which will only result in making especially ordinary Jamaicans poorer, weaker, and less respected. Do they understand that the avoidance of catastrophes, as far as is humanly possible, is one of the benchmarks of sober national leadership?

Decades ago some developed countries implemented near bullet-proof measures to deter and prevent proponents of fuzzy maths and/or worst, from selling smoke and mirrors to their populations, especially at election time. I discussed some of those models here on March 23, 2025. I noted among other things, “In the Netherlands, the Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis, (CPB), among other things, costs manifestos. In Ireland, political parties can ask officials in the Department of Finance to cost their manifestos. In England, top-ranking members of the three major political parties — the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberals — have publicly voiced the need for Britain’s Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR), the general equivalent of our IFC, to take on the function of costing the manifestos of all parties.

“Netherlands’ CPB was founded in 1945 by Jan Tinbergen, the First Nobel Laureate in economics (1969). Research at CPB is carried out on its own initiative or at the request of the Government, Parliament, individual Members of Parliament, national trade unions, or employers’ federations. The Department of Finance in Ireland is the equivalent of our Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. This means that in Ireland civil servants do the lion’s share of the work regarding the costing of manifestos. Think tanks usually do independent verifications, etc.” A rich reservoir of models exists.

Jamaica is not rich. We have been suffering from anaemic economic growth since the mid-80s. Why? Among other things, some of our national leaders have been addicted to profligacy. Recall, for example, Dr Omar Davies’ now-infamous “run wid it” speech, which set off a national firestorm of criticism in the aftermath of the 2002 General Election when he implied that, despite clear danger signs, some government spending had been done with an eye on another electoral victory for the PNP. The best way to prevent profligate spending by a future Administration is via the institution of a constitutional debt brake, I believe. The severely debilitating financial collapses of the 1970s and 90s must never be revisited upon Jamaicans. Never!

SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS ON STEROIDS

Happily, during the cut and thrust of the general election season some of us were not dazed and/or too busy to notice this: ‘IFC says law bars it from assessing alternative tax plans ahead of election’. The Gleaner item of August 28, 2025 gave these and related information: “The Independent Fiscal Commission (IFC) says it is restricted by law from considering or evaluating ‘any alternative policies’ other than those proposed or implemented by the Government.

“The IFC is Jamaica’s non-partisan fiscal oversight body created by law to monitor, assess and report on the Government’s compliance with fiscal rules. The scope of the IFC’s remit was outlined on Thursday in a public statement by Fiscal Commissioner Courtney Williams.

“It comes as the two main political parties unveil a slew of economic policy proposals — including their respective income tax plans — that have triggered calls for an independent analysis amid a fierce political campaign.”

Here is another example of short-sightedness on steroids. It begs the question: Are we really serious about First World status? It seems that the primary function of the IFC is the regurgitation of numbers. There is a vacuum here. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Consider this: Days before the general election I heard two economists on a radio news programme answering questions about how the PNP might fund its ‘3.5 income tax promise’. One gave a candid answer. It’s impractical,” he said. The other dilly-dallied. I understood why. Politics is blood sport.

We need, like yesterday, an independent body to assure Jamaicans that the parties’ manifesto proposals are fundable. It’s our money. The costing of all party manifestos would be a win-win for the incumbent, the Opposition, and voters would also get verified information. Functioning democracies depend on citizens being properly informed. How can we seriously talk about, let alone achieve real economic independence when our political parties, 63 years after political independence, are allowed to present manifestos which are not fully costed, and released manifestos mere days before we cast our ballots? Fully costed manifestos should be released no later than 14 days before election day.

VOLUNTARY COMPLICITY

People who keep silent about matters like these are involved in voluntary complicity which can only result in Jamaicans being poorer, weaker, and less respected globally. I will not be one, because I love this country.

Paul Bourget, celebrated author, said: “There are conditions of blindness so voluntary that they become complicity.” That’s the kind of blindness that those whose trade is fake news, superstition, and pedestalisation of ignorance encouraged during the election season. We must continue to reject these quacks with every sinew.

Three consecutive terms is a rare opportunity in a participatory democracy. It must be treated with sincere respect. The trust which has been given to this Andrew Holness-led Administration must be reciprocated in the form of continued material advances which will ensure that Jamaica is better off socially, economically, and politically for generations to come.

History will not be kind to the JLP if it fails.

The message was clear from these JLP supporters outside Gordon House last week. (Naphtali Junior)

Garfield Higgins

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