DAWN RITCHDAWN RITCH
I WAS in my element at Paul Chen-Young's book-signing in Miami where I was asked to speak.
My relationship with Paul began when I handled his advertising business. I don't remember how I got the account because I didn't know him. But I do remember that he fired me, and that every advertising presentation was like judicial combat.
At the signing I spoke about the financial meltdown in Jamaica. I said in part (Dr. Paul Chen-Young's) book The Entrepreneurial Journey in Jamaica: When Policies Derail is the beginning of a discussion that should have taken place long ago.
"The idea that the domestic financial sector, which was booming up until the early 1990s, could have been completely annihilated and the government whose policies were responsible for the meltdown has taken no action to identify or discuss the cause of the collapse, is incredible to say the least.
INEXPLICABLE ACTIONS
"The whole event is shrouded in secrecy, especially in view of the arbitrary and inexplicable actions of the govern-ment in dealing with the various entities.
"Despite the Freedom of Information Act, the Bank of Jamaica refuses to discuss the meltdown claiming 'client privilege'. Public consternation pressured the Senate into forming a committee to investigate the collapse. But this has had to be abandoned because they were unable get any information.
"... This suppression of information is a major threat to democracy, and for the most part media is a willing ally in the conspiracy.
This book is an important step in the right direction to bring the facts to the people and so start the journey of returning power to the people."
The last phrase is the kind of extravagance I would never have permitted myself before.
Not only was there now a book, but at the time of speaking I thought an Inter-American Develop-ment Bank (IDB) seminar on the book was set for February 9 in Washington, D.C. But since returning to Jamaica, I've had the most surprising news. I've learned from the National Coalition on Caribbean Affairs (NCOCA), the umbrella organisation of Caribbean organisations in the U.S., that the IDB seminar has been cancelled.
The NCOCA, a highly reputable organisation with observer status at the Organisation of American States, requested the seminar. A similar one had been done on the Argentine meltdown, and the IDB agreed to do one on Jamaica. However, Leo Edwards, the NCOCA's executive director, has now sent the following e-mail to Dr. Chen-Young.
"As of yesterday the proposed IDB Seminar was on track. As of 6:30 p.m. today it has been derailed.
"It appears that in the interim, the IDB has received notice of strenuous objections from a critical official source.
"NCOCA remains convinced that the policy issues raised in your book are worthy of serious and objective
discussion. We will therefore seek to arrange a serious seminar under a different sponsorship and at a different venue in the near future."
Last Wednesday night, I spoke with Leo Edwards myself. He said that the NCOCA is a lobbying group to the U.S. Senate and Congress. Their efforts led to Hurricane Ivan aid being increased for 'Trans-Africa' and the Caribbean region by President Bush. Mr. Edwards said that the NCOCA is a non-governmental organisation, and is not interested in promoting either Dr. Chen-Young or Dr. Chen-Young's book. Nor does it have any interest in local party politics.
He said that invitations to the seminar had already been sent out to high-ranking and influential people in Washington, including ambassadors, and that he now had to advise them of the cancellation.
I must therefore ask the questions: Which official caused the IDB seminar to be cancelled? Who was the critical source who raised 'strenuous objections'?
It should be noted that as Finance Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, is on the board of governors of the IDB. It is almost certain that the seminar was approved by IDB management and Dr. Davies was advised out of courtesy. If it is he who stopped the seminar, I think he should tell the Jamaican people why, out of a sense of equal courtesy.
CRITICAL OFFICIAL SOURCE
But it does make me wonder if the 'critical official source' read the book at all. Paul calls names in it, but he doesn't abuse the government. He even takes some of the blame himself for what happened to Eagle.
Why should a seminar on the financial policies of our country, sponsored by one or our financial partners, be suppressed? It ought to be welcomed. Otherwise it becomes an outright and blatant form of censorship. All I know is that whoever did it sets a dangerous precedent. It is the raw exercise of power, and a threat to independent research and dialogue.
After all, Paul's book is at least a first-hand account, and one person's viewpoint. Why can't we examine what went wrong here, who did what, how things were disposed of, who got what, and how the decisions were made about who would be bailed out and who would be persecuted?
If no effort is made to examine what went wrong, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes in the future. We will continue to pile mistake upon mistake, even as the Jamaican dollar declined from 35 to one in mid 1996, the year of the meltdown, to 62 to one today.
Timely action then would have been at a fraction of the cost of FINSAC today.
One of this country's leading accounting firms was requested by the domestic life insurance industry to assess the
liquidity gap that existed then. The
findings indicated a $20 billion shortfall which was scoffed at by the government. The final tally of government's action is yet to be told. The most recent number available to the public is $130 billion and growing.
An overseas seminar on the meltdown is therefore indispensable, not only for ourselves, but for all the other countries in the world that may have irresponsible governments and find themselves in a similar position. They need to know how to avoid economic disasters like Argentina, Mexico, and Jamaica.
Everybody talks about theirs, but we draw a veil of secrecy over ours in Jamaica. And on the say-so of just one or two individuals, no matter how powerful they may consider themselves to be. This is deeply troubling, and leaves one to wonder 'What do we have to hide'?
