Positioning Jamaica for success
published: Wednesday | August 27, 2003

Delroy Chuck

WHERE ARE the strategies, policies and vision to position Jamaica to compete globally, to inspire our people to high ideals, to improve the quality of life and to take us on the road to success and sustainable development? The mindset, policies and habits, which are responsible for Jamaica's decay and decline, are still active and continue to strangle the country into perpetual underdevelopment. We can easily discern the mentality of failure, as we listen to the perennial excuses of our leaders, the rehash of failed policies, the repeat of vain promises and the reliance on public relations and spin doctors to eke out and declare success, progress and achievements, when in reality they are so minute and temporal.

Jamaica has the resources, the opportunity and the need to position itself for success. Yet, it is being kept undeveloped by leaders in all spheres, whose agenda and interests are more self-serving, fanatical and narrow instead of being national, open, broad, and transparent. Political parties, for example, believe the country cannot be led and managed well unless their leaders occupy the political kingdom. The fight for political power is not to secure the best candidates, policies and platform to take Jamaica to higher heights but, more often than not, to see who can better destroy and undermine the character and integrity of their opponents, and make the more promises to better deliver and distribute the resources of the state.

Jamaica has not made much progress. In truth, our political ideals are wrong. Listen to the buzz words and ask how can they become realities ­ social justice, values and attitudes, emancipation, independence, equitable distribution of resources, quality education, and so on. Apart from a million words of talk, what gallant effort has been made to implement any of these ideals? It is nice to speak of social justice and economic equity but what meaning do they have and how can they be achieved? Can we position ourselves for success without massive investment, large inflows of capital, national priorities and a strong determination to compete with the best globally?

Jamaicans need to understand we must get the economics right. Ten billion US dollars of capital and investment would not be enough to put Jamaica into a competitive environment. We need close to a hundred billion US dollars of investment and production over the next decade to lift our towns and cities from the rot and degeneration, to provide the needed jobs and opportunities for our people to become self-reliant, to increase our housing stock by the over one hundred thousand units needed, to build overhead bypasses and a road network to serve the increasing vehicular traffic, and to take Jamaica from the bottom half of the economic ladder to a first class environment. But, are our leaders dreaming of economic success, progress and development or of control of the political kingdom?

Success tends to come in small doses before it booms into huge doses but, in life, nothing succeeds like success, and Jamaica surely needs small successes. Tourism is a breadwinner but what are we doing to enhance the product and ensure that visitors come again, and again. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we engage the population on a national campaign to make Jamaica the cleanest country in the Caribbean? It wouldn't take that much money and imagine what it would do for tourism, and our pride! Are we inculcating in everyone the importance of service, assistance and courtesy to visitors that can boost our image as a warm and friendly people? There are many Jamaicans who detest and are against tourism, with its service and catering to white people - they view it as inconsistent with the ideals of self confidence, emancipation and dignity of black people and they definitely need to liberate themselves from such ill-considered feelings.

More importantly, Jamaica needs many more breadwinners, industries and products that can compete globally and earn huge foreign exchange benefits, and a safe environment for multimillionaires and billionaires. Our national priority must be to put economics first, to shift the support and benefits to real exporters, to remove the bureaucratic hostility to investment and production, to create an economic ambience for businesses to prosper and grow, and to send the clear and unmistakable message that Jamaica is open, ready and attractive for business. To be sure, a new mindset in our political leadership is the first step to economic success, progress and development.

Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at Delchuck@Hotmail.Com.

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