Dawn Ritch, Contributor
MY COLLEAGUE Marjorie A. Stair wrote a brilliant piece recently. She reported that in another part of the Caribbean the per capita income of St. Vincent and the Grenadines was twice that of Jamaica, despite its small size and being dependent upon agriculture and tourism.
The previous Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines took public transportation she observed, and the current premier himself personally shops in the supermarket, and even in the fish or produce market.
She said she couldn't imagine Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson doing any of that, and wrote, "The members of his (Michael Manley's) party are the new 'backras', living the lifestyle of the plantation owner, or seeking to do so!" Miss Stair then went on to castigate the Government firmly for even thinking that the pay of the Permanent Secretary (to which theirs is pegged) and that of the civil service should be 80 per cent of a CEO's like that of Grace, Kennedy & Company Ltd., which performs and generates profits. She also demanded to know what had become of the education tax which should have been used to pay increases in teachers' salaries.
It didn't take her long to get an answer of sorts. The following week none other than the Most Honourable himself was defending his Finance Minister's slander of the Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF) which had earlier criticised the salary increases to Members of Parliament.
Dr. Davies' remarks were "And when I hear all the Employers' Federation... I know how much money them tief out of the financial sector. They have never heard me condemn it ... I have never heard them take a position on that... They are simply being hypocritical."
Asked at a press conference about the remarks, the Prime Minister replied, "Isn't that a fact?"
The Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF) is just about the widest grouping of the private sector that it is possible to imagine. It is just everybody foolish enough to register a company, employ people and remit every kind of tax including PAYE. For the Prime Minister and Finance Minister to call them a pack of thieves is, therefore, to bite the hand that feeds them. Or as Miss Stair might say, as though the PNP Government is the new 'backras', and the private sector no more than the serfs upon their latter-day slave plantation.
Dr. Davies' claims that no one has ever heard him condemn the alleged endemic theft in the financial sector. This is a lie. He picked a blazing row with the now failed institutions before they were in effect nationalised. He accused them of being corrupt, incompetent, rewarding themselves too highly, and, building too many grand corporate offices.
He was right, however, when he said that he didn't hear the JEF take a position on that. Not even the financial institutions themselves took a position on that. They just lapped their tails between their legs and went off into the sunset. Much as I expect the private sector is going to do in the fourth term.
Nobody said a word, because the Government (read Omar & PJ) held the handle and they held the blade. And in case we needed any reminding, the Prime Minister in backing his Finance Minister said that the apparent harmony in Jamaica is due purely to his (the P.M.'s) not responding publicly "to all the things that have been said against me and my Government..."
These thinly veiled threats are not the kind of treatment to which Jamaicans have been accustomed since Independence. It is, however, what African countries like Zimbabwe have grown accustomed to under Robert Mugabe.
No wonder therefore that Mr. Herbert Lewis, President of the JEF didn't appear affronted and indeed looked a little timid on TV, when he asked for an apology on behalf of the membership from Dr. Davies.
The fact is that Dr. Davies has been most irresponsible, and slandered the entire private sector wholesale, and without exception, and was joined in this by the Prime Minister himself. The Jamaica Manufacturers Association subsequently made it plain that their organisation considered an apology necessary. But within a few days the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica had capitulated, saying that the Finance Minister had apologised in a meeting of their Council of Presidents, and they consider the matter closed.
They have done so without even assuring the country that they intend to hold the Government accountable for corruption. By embracing the Government without this reservation on their part, they have indicated a willingness to get into bed with corruption in pursuit of "an environment conducive to investment and growth". They seem not to realise that government corruption is anathema to investment and growth.
Past experience has taught me that the response of the governed to the governing in Jamaica is doomed to a fatal wishy-washiness. During the melt-down of the financial sector, nobody said a word in their defence except Wilmot Perkins and I.
The most reprehensible accusation, however, has now been made by both the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister, in effect everybody outside the House of Representatives is nothing but a common thief. This shows disrespect for the people of Jamaica on a breathtaking scale, and requires a public apology from them both.
The Finance Minister and Prime Minister have further in effect said that they know who stole and how much they took, but '... is like dem nah go seh nuttin fi a peaceful life'. If they know all of this, then why don't they give the information to the Director of Public Prosecutions? Isn't it corruption to condone it? And if they can't go to the DPP, then there's no basis upon which to delay a well-deserved public apology to the country any longer.
If Dr. Davies wants to call someone a thief, then he must be specific, and take a leaf out of Audley Shaw's book. The Opposition Spokesman on Finance has laid out the details of specific case after specific case of Government money scandals. The specific names of projects and companies are called by him.
Mr. Shaw doesn't tar entire communities in somebody else's feathers, but is prepared to call names and tell it like it is. I think this shows a great deal of responsibility on his part, and recommend to Dr. Davies that he try this approach.
Instead the country continues to be fed on a diet of hysterical statements without a shred of proof, and supported by a Prime Minister who likes to speak about "Values and Attitudes".
The question therefore arises as to whether or not there really is any such proof to be kept a secret. If there is in fact proof, then who are they protecting? And why? Both the Finance Minister and the Most Honourable need to either put up, shut up or suck up to those they have offended. Since this is Jamaica, however, you can always count on it going the other way. Apologies to the country are in order all around if you ask me.
