Dawn RitchBy any measure, Dr. Omar Davies' 'Campaign for Prosperity' is an affront to intelligence. It is incredible that one of the planks of his political platform is to claim that he has brought exchange rate stability to Jamaica.
This is a patently false statement. The rate for the American dollar moved from just over J$8 to J$65 under his 12-year regime. This total collapse of the Jamaican dollar took place while the entire focus of Dr. Davies' economic policies as finance minister has been to protect the exchange rate at the expense of economic growth. Under his regime, all has been failure.
Wrong forecasts
In just about every single year that he has been finance minister, his forecasts for virtually every thing have been wrong. One wonders why he bothers to go to the House of Parliament to table them in the first place.
None of these budgets included his admitted and enormous off-budget 'undertakings'. This he does, while failing to go to the House as is required by law, to ask for the requisite government guarantee.
There has been no economic growth in Jamaica, except marginally for a couple years or so. Without this, there can be no prosperity.
So, whoever advised him to bid for the presidency of the People's National Party (PNP) on a 'Campaign for Prosperity' is either a lunatic or a comedian. And only a fool could follow it, and expect anything but profound public stupefaction. Unless, of course, this is part of his continuing mission.
His inflation targets are never met, to say nothing of his budget deficits. The latter is now on record as the highest in the nation's history. Yet, Dr. Davies thinks he should be promoted to Prime Minister.
This is a truly baseless thought. Only this month, we learnt that the current fiscal deficit is twice the amount projected. It is nearly $30 billion instead of the forecasted $15 billion.
How can a finance minister responsible for such collapse, and calamitously worsening economic outturns, have the nerve to offer himself as the candidate for prosperity? This is not economic stability. It has all the appearances of a train wreck fallen off its tracks long ago, and in a slow-motion spiral down to the gates of hell.
This man, the architect of our economic downfall, joblessness and indiscipline, has also been harping on the campaign trail about his integrity.
The source of that ridiculous political advice must now be grinding his or her teeth, and depending upon a relentless campaign of public stupefaction to escape its most dire consequences.
Bear in mind that this is the same finance minister who boasted that he had let public finances "run wid it" to serve purely political ends. He did that to the country in order to win a fourth term for the PNP.
In his boast he, therefore, staked his claim, he thought, to the party's presidency. After all, a Cabinet minister who secures the fourth term, cannot be demeaned by running for any junior post in a party so endowed.
Only last week, it emerged in the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament that the finance ministry purloined over a billion dollars from the National Health Fund and is unable to repay it.
This is poor people's money protected by an act of Parliament, and to which the Ministry of Finance unlawfully decided to charge a processing fee of two and a half per cent.
Act of highway robbery
Quite apart from the fact that the money comes from the National Insurance Fund (NIF) and is all liquid and needs no 'processing', Dr. Davies is unable to repay the billion dollars in less than 10 years.
These are monies to which the Government has no prior or conceivable right. It is the mandatory pension contributions of poor Jamaicans resident in Jamaica.
This is, therefore, an act of highway robbery by the state of its beleaguered citizens. It is an abuse of our human rights, the right to our own savings for a peaceful old age in the country in which we
pay taxes.
Yet, Dr. Davies pretends to be an example of ministerial integrity. Any responsible finance minister would put the country's pension fund in treasuries only. This ensures that it remains liquid for the call of old age, which knows no season.
Instead, over a billion dollars is missing on his watch, and the NIF is refurbishing places like the Goodyear factory for call centres that do not materialise.
Indeed, under Dr. Davies, the country's pension fund is being eroded in all kinds of speculative ventures. This can only be described as 'world-class' non-performance.
Why has Dr. Davies found himself unable to put back in the processing fee immediately? Where did the money go and why isn't it available for poor people's pensions?
Dr. Davies owes what little international credibility he may have, entirely to the country's massive inflows of remittances. Private lenders here and overseas believe that this massive flow will continue and the country will be able to pay its debts.
Dr. Davies' gross overestimation of his performance can only rest solely upon the fact that his pursuit of the perks of power purely for political purposes is unhindered.
This makes him a dangerous opportunist in the PNP leadership race, and a foregone disaster as Prime Minister.
The remittances that Jamaicans get are in the main the families' sole source of income at this time.
No finance minister should want to gamble that away, as well as compromise the public pension fund. There are no jobs, so people are not even looking. Dr. Davies' unemployment figures are, therefore, without meaning.
The only people who have prospered under his regime are persons and companies with money. They have enjoyed high returns from the massive build-up in the high interest-bearing national debt.
Favoured few
Owners of some of the divested companies, like those in the financial sector, were handed on a platter to overseas interests. Even the former Jamaica Public Service Company is having a field day from the easy profits made and repatriated overseas.
Only a favoured few have benefited from the macro policies. They are the PNP political hacks and friends who have grown rich from the largesse of Government and its irresponsible runaway spending.
For Dr. Davies, therefore, to run under a banner of continuing prosperity is an insult to the delegates of the PNP and to all Jamaicans. It is a cheap and dangerous ploy to win support for a deceitful cause.
Only in Jamaica and other Third World countries could there be such a blatant attempt to mask the underlying lies of any political campaign.
The usual avenue to political leadership is to begin at least with a positive, some benefit to his or her candidacy with which a people can agree. That Dr. Davies does not think this even necessary shows the utter contempt in which we are held.
