Delroy Chuck
IF AID, gifts and handouts could bring prosperity, Jamaica would be a shining and prosperous nation. In terms of increasing loans, grants and remittances, the coffers of the present government have overflowed. With the unexpected billions of dollars provided from these sources, the present administration has made an incredible mess of the economy. During the past 10 years, remittances alone have contributed in excess of 10 billion US dollars and provide the main source of foreign exchange.
With this heavy inflow of foreign exchange, what has the country to show for it - nothing but ever increasing social hardship, poverty-stricken communities, increasing crime and violence, poor educational performance, etc. Every basic social service is deprived of needed resources. Not one fire station can respond effectively to a raging fire. The Fire Brigade Service is flat on its face and the country cannot afford to buy even one fire-fighting vehicle, when over 80 are needed. With the foreign exchange inflow, can someone explain why we cannot have a decent, well-equipped, fire service? Instead, we must buy fire equipment on deferred financing.
PATH TO INCREASING POVERTY
Our present political leadership has taken us on the path to increasing poverty and, even now, we drift into even deeper poverty. The solid achievements of the highways must be compared with the disastrous state of our residential, community and rural roads. Highway 2000 is quite attractive but only feels good when compared with our other decaying, poorly-maintained roads.
Compared with other highways abroad it is not a five-star road and would hardly qualify for toll road status anywhere else. Yet, Highway 2000 is now a cess on road users and before long will provide a steady income for the French investors. At the same time, the increasing poverty can be measured and seen on our deteriorating residential roads, where lack of resources prevents our failed administration from responding favourably.
In the race for the presidency of the PNP, how do the three front-runners - Omar Davies, Portia Simpson and Peter Phillips - explain the continuing and deteriorating states of poverty, illiteracy, criminal violence, and social disorder in their constituencies? During their political representation, what have been their mission, contribution and plans to alleviate the hardship, suffering and deprivation? These three front-runners for leadership are presiding over three of the poorest and worst constituencies in Jamaica, and if the truth be known things have got worse, not better, during their political tenure.Simply drive around the streets of these constituencies and one sees nothing but shameful poverty, communities sinking into worthless slums, and residents fast becoming hopeless and irredeemable idlers. At present, these constituencies provide the breeding grounds for the vast majority of violent criminals in the Corporate Area. God forbid that any of these constituencies should become the model for community development.
STANDARDS OF DECENCY
How can Peter, Portia or Omar explain the lack of progress in any part of their constituencies, in spite of the hundreds of millions of dollars pumped in through the SESP and other social interventions? Would anyone of them visit and entice Jamaicans abroad to retire and live safely in any community they represent? I do not deny that change cannot come overnight but where is the evidence, however small, that either of these presidential aspirants can improve, beautify and lift a community to standards of decency, respectability and harmony, which would ideally recommend them for national leadership?
In truth, hardship will always increase under a PNP administration, as increasing prosperity, wealth creation, economic growth and development are not seen as the raison d'etre of government. And, in spite of the many billions from loans, grants and remittances, which have found safe haven with the well- connected, money traders and preferred contractors, the vast majority of Jamaicans feel the pinch of increasing poverty and poorer standards of living. The problems of the country cannot be resolved by a political leadership that is still dedicated to socialism, which promotes distribution and, thus, ultimately, the distribution of poverty.
Perhaps, at the next PNP conference, the main leadership aspirants can tell us how socialism can extricate us from the present decadent path of crime and violence, poor educational output and of increasing debt, which path has been rightly condemned by another leadership aspirant, Dr. Karl Blythe. At the same time, we need to hear if it is PNP's official policy to put the party first, which means before the national interests, the welfare of the people and, probably, even the Almighty.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by email at Delchuck@hotmail.com.
