Illusions, wastage, and losses — The story of a failed Administration
Don’t be afraid to be bold and don’t be afraid to take on the status quo. — Brian Mueller
An excerpt from Aesop’s fable The Seaside Travellers:
“Some travellers, journeying along the seashore, climbed to the summit of a tall cliff, and looking over the sea, saw in the distance what they thought was a large ship. They waited in the hope of seeing it enter the harbour. But as the object on which they looked was driven nearer to shore by the wind, they found that it could at the most be a small boat, and not a ship. When, however, it reached the beach, they discovered that it was only a large faggot of sticks, and one of them said to his companions, “We have waited for no purpose; for after all there is nothing to see but a load of wood.”
Moral/Interpretation: Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities
THE People’s National Party (PNP) constantly plays a cruel game of economic cartomancy with the lives of the Jamaican people. Earlier this month Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips reached into the crumpled card pack of his party and played one of the jokers. ‘The Jamaican economy remains on course to turn the corner — Dr Phillips’ [Loop, January 22, 2016]. I have heard this ditty ad nauseam.
Recall that some years ago Dr Paul Robertson, the then minister of industry and investment and a senior member of the PNP’s Cabinet, famously alerted the country that a flood of investments were “in the pipeline”. He, like Dr Phillips, promised that our economy was about to “turn the corner”. Doubting Thomases at the time were branded as troublemakers and naysayers. Robertson’s “pipeline” turned out near empty; maybe because of concentrated corrosion. He became the butt of many jokes. The expectations of thousands were dashed.
Meaningful economic growth is achieved when the majority of us ordinary folk feel it in our pockets and see it on our dinner tables. That is not happening.
Meaningful economic growth and the PNP are antithetical. The evidence below speaks for itself.
The growth figures for the last four years — 2011, 1.5 per cent; 2012, -0.5 per cent; 2013, 0.2 per cent; 2014, 1.1 per cent; and 2015, 1.4 per cent — are mirrors of PNP misgovernment.
All Jamaicans want our economy to grow. All Jamaicans want an improved standard of life. These objectives cannot, however, be achieved when we continue to repeat the formulaic mistakes that increase poverty. Wishing for different results whilst employing the same strategies, in the same ways — vigorously applied by intellectual dinosaurs — will give the same results. Einstein warned us about this insanity decades ago. Madness seems a permanent feature of how we continue to misgovern our affairs of State.
Unabated misgovernment by this Administration is costing the country dearly. The various forms of industrial action [preventable] by our air traffic controllers over the last two years makes Jamaica look like a banana republic. I blame this Administration, not the workers. “The Government will be spending $2.3 billion (US$22 million) over the next two years to improve aviation safety and security, by upgrading or replacing ageing technology in keeping with international standards.” (Jamaica Observer, March 24, 2014) Was this another three-card trick?
Two Fridays ago, aGleaner a headline screamed, ‘$250 million spent preparing for an election that never happened’.
“…Tom Tavares-Finson said that a ‘significant portion’ of the $250 million spent preparing for a general election last year that never came has been lost. Tavares-Finson, who is the leader of Opposition business in the Senate, said that based on things that were publicly said, and privately disclosed to the ECJ [Electoral Commission of Jamaica], a general election was anticipated in the last two months of 2015.
“The senator said that the ECJ, in anticipation of the election, requested a particular sum from central government, $250 million of which was spent. He said the bulk of the money was spent training electoral workers and renting property. Tavares-Finson said that ‘waste of public funds’ is another compelling argument for fixed election date.” [The Gleaner, January 22, 2016].
Far too many of us are blinded by the magnetism of the political trough, therefore, we see nothing wrong with the shameless squandering of public resources. This is happening while 34 per cent of our youth are joblesss, the security forces are massively underfunded, and much of the country’s infrastructure is in shambles. Up to last Thursday, 59 Jamaicans were slaughtered since the start of the year. This number is lower compared to the corresponding period last year. Some are busy celebrating it as a great achievement. Thomas Paine said, “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.”
Appleton Sugar Factory in St Elizabeth closed its doors last week, albeit temporarily, some are saying. Some 700 jobs are on the cutting board. Nowadays, temporary closures soon become permanent. Dozens of affected citizens blocked roads for two days and have promised similar actions if they lose their jobs. Folks need jobs, not redundancy monies.
While I don’t agree with the blocking of roads — there is a competing reality — after 53 years of political independence, we the citizens seldom get attention unless we can create dislocation. In less than five months, over 1,250 sugar workers have lost their jobs. Nearly 19,000 citizens will be impacted, directly and indirectly, across seven parishes as a consequence. These are not mere numbers. These are living, breathing Jamaicans. We don’t need Pythagoras to calculate the impact on the total economy.
In the 1990s the PNP wrecked the economy with their scorched-earth economic polices. Recall that these companies capsized under the P J Patterson/Dr Omar Davies time at bat: (This is an abbreviated list) Mutual Life, a company that operated locally for over 100 years; Goodyear Tyre Company; West Indies Glass; Homelectrix; Workers’ Bank; Raymar’s Furniture; Charley’s Windsor House; Thermo Plastics; Berec Batteries; Century National Bank; Crown Eagle Insurance; Crown Eagle Insurance Commercial Bank; Island Life Insurance Company; American Life Insurance Company; Eagle Merchant Bank; Ecotrends; Times Store; Things Jamaican, which had its location turned into a prison by the PNP. Add to those another 45,000 small- and medium-sized businesses that went under during the 1990s.
In 1971, the Jamaican economy grew by almost 12 per cent in that one single year; equivalent to the cumulative growth under Dr Omar Davies’ entire 14 years as minister of finance between 1993 and 2007. This Administration’s sole priority is the passing of the necessary International Monetary Fund tests.
Some 1,000 Jamaicans at the Noranda Bauxite Plant in St Ann will likely join the ranks of the unemployed if Dr Peter Phillips stays on his high horse inhaling the rarefied air of his own creation.
“Were we to accede to Noranda’s demand, the country would be realising, in nominal terms, the same amount of taxes that we were receiving prior to the introduction of the bauxite levy in 1974. And we would be doing so while allowing the exploitation of a depleting, non-renewable resource.
“This would be dishonouring the legacy of Michael Manley, and the generation that struggled for this. Our obligation is not to a particular company, but to the people of Jamaica,” Phillips added, pointing out as well that the Government was confident that, while doing this, it will be able to keep the “employees employed”. (Jamaica Observer, January 27, 2016)
Phillips’s argument is counterintuitive, at best, when judged against the Nicodemus-like manner in which transfer pricing legislation was embraced by this Administration. Regarding transfer pricing, I recently said, inter alia: “In simple terms, transfer pricing is a mechanism devised by multinational entities and their ‘friends in high society’ — to borrow a phrase from Bob Marley — that enables them to evade paying just levels of taxation in developing countries where they operate. Those who wish to be educated on the consequences of the one-armed bandit called transfer pricing need to examine its devastating impact on Zambia and that country’s copper industry which accounts for 75 per cent of GDP. Other African and developing economies are haemorrhaging from ‘the most unkindest cut of all’ [Shakespeare], conveniently called transfer pricing. (Sunday Observer, January 3, 2016)
This Administration, it seems, has disabled its own hands.
Phillips says the Administration has favourable options. “It can’t be, if there are alternative operators, that we sacrifice the Jamaican taxpayer in order to be the saviour of Noranda, if they are not managing their affairs… That’s the principle that we want to establish. We are not hostile to Noranda, we are not hostile to any company. But we are not giving away the Jamaican resource.” (Jamaica Observer, January 27, 2016)
Is this a ‘hullo’? A hollow promise, especially for the upcoming election? If not, Dr Phillips has a duty to name these “alternative operators” so as to allay the fears of the over 1,000 workers at the St Ann plant.
Some months ago Phillips warned public sector workers who then harboured thoughts of double- and triple-digit salary increases, thus: “It nuh mek sense man try bruk empty shop.” It was a succinct economic analogy. The Government could not afford the increases demanded by the unions. They accepted the seven per cent, which the birds — those ubiquitous John Chewits, Banana Quits and Black-Bellied Plovers — had shrieked about many months before. “Thus far, I have heard from the grapevine and other sources that the Government is offering five per cent in year one and two per cent in year two, and very little else with regard to fringe benefits that will have, let’s say, monetary consequences.” (Sunday Observer, December 28, 2014)
Notwithstanding the Administration’s success at arbitration, Phillips would do well to heed the same advice which he gave public sector workers. Phillips would do well also to discuss some kind of deferred payment arrangement with Noranda in order to stave off the dust-bowl effect that the closure of the plant will almost immediately have on the parishes of St Ann, Trelawny, St James, Westmorealnd, Hanover, and the wider economy.
Country people say, ‘When you have your hand inna lion mouth tek time draw it out.’ Similarly, we should tread carefully, even when, as rural folk say, we have the handle and counterparts have the blade.
But maybe Dr Phillips is correct. Maybe there are indeed younger lions ready to take over the pride now controlled by Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation. If that’s the case we should also remember what happens to the cubs of a dethroned lion.
For pedestrian thinkers my primary interest in this matter is the jobs of the workers.
Dr Phillips took refuge in economic frugality during last Tuesday’s sitting of Parliament. Did he have a Damascus Road experience? Or is this Saul pretending to be Paul? The good book says, “By their fruits we shall know them.” I believe Phillips was simply posturing; no more, no less.
The PNP’s squandering of public resources over the last 23 of 27 years in office makes theBible‘s Prodigal Son look like a saint of thrift. Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is. — Winston Churchill.
Recall a front-page story inThe Gleaner on Tuesday, February 9, 2002, which listed major money scandals that have occurred under the watch of PNP administrations. The root of these scandals is an amalgam of ineptitude and a cruel waste of public resources. The consequences have helped to chronically impoverish Jamaica and damage our credibility abroad.
Shell waiver (1991) — $29.5 million; approximateky $68 million in today’s terms
Zinc (1989) — $500 million; approx $1. 3 billion today
Furniture (1991) — $10.6 million; approx $ 35 million today
Public sector salaries (1998) — $60 million; approx $137 million today
NetServ (2001) — $220 million; approx $785 million today
Operation Pride/NHDC (1997-present) — $5.5 billion projected; approx $10.8 billion today
TOTAL= $6.320 billion; approx $13.3 billion today
In more recent times the PNP doled out over $350 million to extinguish a preventable fire at the Riverton dump that blanketed the commercial and political capital for days. The effects were billions of dollars in production losses, school closures, and major negative consequences for thousands of citizens’ health.
Near $200 million was spent to bail out Lennie Little-White in the Outameni scandal. Lambert Brown, Sonia Hyman, Robert Budhan and Percival LaTouche were rewarded with reappointment to the present National Housing Trust board by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. According to Agriculture Minister Derrick Kellier, hundreds of millions were “misused” at the National People’s Co-operative Bank of Jamaica as evidenced in an audit conducted by the Agricultural Credit Bank. Former Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson made inadequate preparation for the arrival of the dreaded chikungunya virus in Jamaica last year. His actions, or lack thereof, were subsequently defended by the prime minister. Under Ferguson’s watch there was country-wide suffering, which cost the economy, conservatively, $7 billion and 13 million lost man-hours of production time, according to data from the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica. In any self-respecting democratic country Ferguson would have been history. Ferguson remains in the Cabinet.
It’s time that we soar to better horizons. On the matter of soaring, the birds have warbled that the key to the date of the general election is to remember the date when the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D Eisenhower, announced he would seek re-election.
They again whistled that millions are being spent to “shore up key seats”. Recall: “The warm-blooded vertebrates serenade that organisers and major fund-raisers for Norman Manley’s party were preoccupied with their political Rubik’s Cube during the Christmas season. My feathered friends chirp that some PNP ginnigogs also spent much of the Yuletide studying the old Western favourite How the West Was Won and volatility in the South China Sea.” (Sunday Observer, January 3, 2016)
We now know who is Simpson Miller’s master. Let the people vote in the poll of polls, a general election.
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. — Edmund Burke
Garfield Higgins in an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.