THE EDITOR, Sir:
I HAVE just come from my credit union's members meeting where I was surprised to hear that the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) wants new regulations to limit unsecured credit to only 5 per cent of all the loans that the credit union can grant.
The petty bureaucrat who considered this to be a good idea has no idea what credit unions are about and even less of an idea about what is happening in this country.
Credit unions are about the pooling of resources among people to lend to each other. With grassroots people looking for something more reliable than the old-time "partner" and a less harsh way than dealing with loan sharks, credit unions fill the gap. Common people like me try to save a little bit when we can and then take our turn to borrow as needed. This simple strategy allows thousands of hard-working but poor people to get loans and to be able to say that they own something without having to beg from a politician or an "area don". Hundreds of thousands of honest and proud Jamaicans are shareholders in credit unions just like mine and I don't doubt that we pay back our loans more consistently than many of your friends, the "big men", who sit at the top of the society and look down their noses at us.
Now Dr. Davies, if I want to help my brother by allowing him to borrow my money whether or not he has 'house and land' to put up, then isn't that my business?. After all, my time will come too. If there are enough people like me around then we can start a credit union. You see Minister, I am a part-owner of my credit union, not just a man who keeps his little money in a bank and maybe this is what is not being understood. Why is the BoJ trying to protect me from myself? Am I an idiot? Are my fellow credit union members also idiots? Why do you want to make it so that only the people who already have money can be the ones to borrow? What has happened to the ideals of Michael Manley? What has happened to community involvement, self-empowerment and self-reliance?
Minister Davies, I think you need some better advice on this one because the road you are putting us on is not the right one. Please look at this unfair treatment and do not let this come back to haunt you.
I am, etc.,
R. GRAHAM
trujamaican_163@hotmail.com
