JAMAICANS ARE justifiably unhappy. High and increasing energy prices have increased the cost of living, as they have done in all oil importing countries across the world. The impact of the standard of living and quality of life of the people, particularly the poor of the country, is painful. The situation calls for relief.
The relief the people want cannot be achieved by the mayhem that was visited on the country yesterday. The Jamaica Labour Party is misled in its strategy for "declaring war" on price hikes and runaway inflation. The alternative to increased costs for energy that is the result of international economic developments cannot be futile and economically damaging street protests.
The alternative that will improve the lot of the people must be an economic alternative to the policies of the government of the day. It must be an articulated policy for economic development and empowerment. It must be a constructed programme that offers a significant improvement than that being pursued by the government.
In planning yesterday's activities, Mr Bruce Golding, the Opposition Leader, told party functionaries to "map out your strategies and identify the locations where the protests would be mounted."
Mr Golding is missing the point in believing that deciding locations for protest is a meaningful answer to the problems caused to Jamaicans by the impact of changes in the international economy. It is unrealistic to believe that a day of disorder and disruption to the local economy can reduce the international energy prices that have sent up local power and public transport costs.
Such a crude political tactic panders to base gut reactions that have been common in Jamaica for the past 30 years, but which have provided no solutions in improving the lot of the people. This policy suggests a nationally depressing deficit in political leadership.
Statements from JLP officials yesterday have also heightened our concerns about the quality of leadership of the party and, by extension, possible future leadership of the country. James Robertson, a deputy leader of the party, offered that the party was "not responsible" for what was happening on the streets.
Dwight Nelson, the party's information spokesman, threatened the private sector by saying that the party would "take action" if businesses did not allow employees to take part in the protests.
A Jamaica attempting to escape years of economic and social stagnation does not need leadership that cannot lift itself intellectually and politically above the ramparts of debris across the streets.
Mr Golding and his functionaries must immediately eschew the base and crude statements of political frustration that are reflected in damaging street disorder. The policies that are an increasing burden on the people of the country must be answered by a coherent and rational programme from the Opposition. The pillars of the JLP's alternative to the Government's policies cannot be roadblocks.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
