Morris Cargill

THERE IS nothing new about the forward sales of bauxite. The JLP did it when they were in power, and the PNP carried it on. Indeed, I remember Michael Manley in his second term of office defending the JLP regime for doing it.

These forward sales, however, were for relatively short periods, and for relatively small sums. The recently announced forward sale of five years of our production is a somewhat different kettle of fish. This is carrying the mortgaging of our future too far, and indicates the financial desperation of the Government. Having gone this far, why does not the Government offer five-year leases of the entire cities of Montego Bay and Kingston? They would have to confine the leasehold to New Kingston, of course, because nobody would touch the rest of it with a barge pole. If the Government is going to put a large quantity of our assets in hock to foreign pawnbrokers, they might as well go the whole hog.

Seriously, however, we must worry about the forward sale now proposed to plug the hole in the budget, for what are we going to do to stop a similar hole in the next budget a year after? There is no indication that the Government is doing anything effective to avoid huge budget deficiencies, nor is there any evidence that the economy of the country will improve. As I have written before the Government's frantic borrowing from our own people makes it inevitable that high interest rates will have to be maintained to induce Jamaicans to lend. The recent bids on government paper have come out to over 23 per cent, and as the Government continues to scrape the bottom of the financial barrel, those interest rates will probably increase. This means that our high interest rate regime will continue, and so will the stagnation of our economy.

I have no doubt that the Prime Minister will continue to talk about the Government's intention to stimulate our economy to growth, but the facts indicate that his sweet whispering means nothing at all, and are simply designed to keep the minds of people away from the abject failure of the Government. Even Butch Stewart who in the past has done his best and is still doing all he can to help us out of difficulties is now beginning to lose his cool so far as the Government is concerned. He is trying his best to be polite, but quite obviously he feels, as I do, that the Government is a sorry bunch of incompetent wimps.

From the very beginning those whom we call our founding fathers were typically Jamaican fathers who omitted sensible plans for the support of their children, and ever since we proclaimed an Independence, handed to us on a platter with a sigh of relief from the Colonial Office, Jamaica, with one short promising interval, has been wallowing in poverty. We are the most economically backward country in the Caribbean with the exception of Guyana and Haiti, although our natural physical advantages were and are greater than any. It's all rather a pity, isn't it?

Female priests

As a result of an opinion that I expressed in a recentcolumn to the effect that some future Pope of Rome will probably consent to permitting women to enter the priesthood, I have received a number of rather conflicting comments. However, they all seem to me to miss an important point. The Roman Catholic Church insists on celibacy for its priests. Most males in general and certainly most male priests have considerable difficulty with celibacy, and in consequence there are many cases of male priests breaking their vows and causing embarrassment for the Church. Women have far less difficulty with celibacy.

During my long life in Jamaica, there has been only one case of a nun who was guilty of sexual indiscretion. She was a young and very attractive woman which no doubt contributed to her difficulties. The poor soul paid for her indiscretion with her life.

The new millionaires

The Prime Minister appears to be taking a strong stand concerning the public sector millionaires. He has already limited salaries to not more than $3 million a year, though I am not clear whether this limitation is to apply only for the future or whether all salaries now will be limited to this figure and held there. However, the Prime Minister says that a full examination will now be made, not only into salaries, but into allowances as well, but he gives the impression that many of the executives have not come clean about their weird allowances. The Prime Minister gives the impression that these allowances will be carefully scrutinised.

The Prime Minister always says the right thing at the right time, but he is apt not to take the right action.

Quite clearly, many of these allowances should also come under scrutiny by the Income Tax Commissioner, for it seems quite clear to me that they amount to tax evasion, and should either not be allowed at all, or be fully taxed. Here again we must keep a sharp eye on events.

JLP Conference

The weekend conference of the Jamaica Labour Party went off very successfully. I was pleasantly surprised and relieved, and I think most people in the country were too. It has been a long time since all that sweetness and light had been spread around by the internal operations of the JLP. Although Mr. Shaw won the contest between himself and Pearnel Charles, the result is still uncertain, for a recount is to take place. Whatever the final result is, I hope that the two contestants will accept the verdict gracefully, and that they will now concentrate on unity within the party.

Eddie Seaga got 80 per cent of the votes in favour of his continued leadership of the party. That has now settled the question of his continued leadership once and for all. We must all hope that the Labour Party will now become a suitable and constructive Opposition, and will be able to prepare itself to be a fit party to take over the government if and when this is necessary. It is encouraging to note that recent public opinion polls show the JLP to be ahead of the PNP in public acceptance.

Eddie Seaga appears to think that the next general election will be called a good while before the present term of the Government expires. I think he is unduly optimistic, for I have never known any party or politician in Jamaica voluntarily to resign. It is, however, just barely possible that if the Government finds it impossible to fund the next budget, it may decide to call a General Election, but if this were to happen, I would be extremely surprised. There is still a question mark concerning Eddie Seaga's debts. If indeed the JLP were to win the next election, and Eddie Seaga were to be put into bankruptcy, the JLP and the country would be faced with the disturbing necessity of replacing him as Prime Minister. We must hope for the best.

What the country is crying out for is efficient and straightforward administration. Most of our institutions are simply coming apart. The good laws we have are either inadequately enforced or not enforced at all, and in addition we are getting a really idiotic and dangerous law in the form of the Corruption Bill. The administration of our prisons would be comic in the extreme were it not also distressing, and the administration of our finances has become so chaotic that it is bringing the country to a standstill. Even FINSAC, a well intentioned exercise, has bitten off more than it can chew, and in consequence is suffering from chronic indigestion.

Even our tourism is faltering, and the profits from bauxite have been mortgaged for five years. Any hope that we might have of obtaining foreign investment has probably been greatly diminished by the justified indigestion of OPIC. But let me not go on. Some form of leadership will have to be found to dig us out of our troubles, and it is quite apparent that that leadership cannot be provided by the present Government.