Although bracketed by two hurricanes, the first year of this Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government has not been a disaster. Nor has the first year of the People's National Party (PNP) in opposition. By happy coincidence - or careful engineering - the prime minister's last-Wednesday radio broadcast for August fell on the first Wednesday of September, the precise anniversary of the general election from which Bruce Golding became prime minister.

human assistance

By an act of God, perhaps with a little human assistance on the ground, the start of the school year was postponed by two days to coincide with the anniversary of the JLP election victory on September 3 last year. Almost as its first major policy act in office, this JLP government abolished tuition fees in secondary schools in fulfilment of an election-campaign promise. Some have argued that this was an act of folly and it led fairly naturally later in the first year to the honourable prime minister dishonourably likening the school administrators, who made auxiliary fees mandatory, to extortionists. Golding and the Govern-ment conveniently forgot that auxiliary fees are part of a desperate effort on the part of schools to make up the 50 per cent shortfall in state provision for the real cost of secondary education.

Then on All Fools' Day, the new government fulfilled another campaign promise of the JLP to abolish user fees in state health facilities, against the cautions of the administrators of the system and its service-delivery people. As I have argued during the year, quality will be the real price paid for 'free' access.

The reintroduction of fees in these two areas of state services as far back as the last JLP government of 1980-89 was for the practical reason of the inability of the state purse to meet full real costs. While vociferously blasting the mismanagement of the previous government and the poor state in which the economy was left, the new government is insisting that more free services are affordable.

There is a whole raft of other campaign promises to be fulfilled. And the most cogent criticisms of the first year of the Government is its failure to fulfil more of its copious elec-us-we-are-better-for-the- country promises. Without digging up the JLP election manifesto, which even members of the Government may not now be able to find, some of the key promises were for jobs, jobs, and more jobs; anti-corruption legislation; and, of course, showing the PNP in opposition how to deal with the crime crisis.

There have been no jobs, jobs, and more jobs. In fact, there has been a net loss of jobs. The pursuit of the legislative agenda has been paltry, even as judicial action against dual-citizenship JLP MPs has been vigorous.

'mis-underestimating'

The new JLP government's idea of effective crime fighting is to switch ministers of national security within the first year. Both ministers have presided over an escalation in murders and shootings with no end in sight. And the latter, who had headed a crime task force for the JLP in opposition, has been gingerly marching around one of the principal recommendations of the task force: the dismantling of the garrisons created by politics and now the fountainheads of crime and violence.

The prime minister has freely admitted his 'mis-underestimation', to use a famous Bushism, of the difficulties of job creation and turning a sick economy around. The Government, truth be told, has 'mis-underestimated' everything else. Eighteen years in the wilderness is an excellent way to learn how to 'mis-underestimate' the challenges of governing.

But in a way, the Jamaican public has been behaving like the Nurses' Association of Jamaica with then Opposition Spokesman Audley Shaw and his foolish promise of doubling their pay when in Government. People are treating political promises like unbounceable cheques or legal contracts. Most of those promises are hot air escaping from the tops and bottoms of politicians, like "Jamaica will be pothole free by 2003" [Robert Pickersgill], to match Shaw's indiscretion with a PNP example.

And the more people get, the more people will want. And the more politicians will seek to out-promise competitors to get votes. This is one of the great conundrums of competitive democratic politics everywhere in the world: escalating expectations. There have been powerful arguments mounted that escalating expectations will ultimately destroy democracy.

In the wake of Tropical Storm Gustav, restoration from hurricane damage is an excellent case in point of escalating expectations. Recovery from Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 took months. The PNP in government led record-breaking recoveries from both Ivan [2004] and Dean [2007]. The army and the National Works Agency pulled off a marvellous piece of work in throwing up a Bailey bridge to replace the broken Harbour View bridge within days of Gustav. But people were impatient with a delay of only a couple of hours to have the pedestrian walkway opened.

useful lessons

That broken bridge can teach the Government some useful lessons. Environmental laxity and non-maintenance, Jamaican trademarks, seem to have figured in the collapse of the middle span of the bridge. And the entrepreneurial activity of the crossers of the Hope River, right down to disinfecting and lotioning feet, is a clear window on how economies grow and how to create jobs.

There were some bright spots in the first year like the grand return of Independence celebrations and the Festival through direct action of the Government. Kudos to Ms Babsy. And the performance of our sportsmen and women, with Government not playing a central role but benefiting from the national feel-good. There were the rough spots of food and fuel price increases, over which the Govern-ment had little control. On the critical issues of crime and economy, there is little to celebrate. But this Government is merely sitting on decades-long trend lines.

grading the government

I am prepared to give this JLP Government a C+ for modest, undistinguished performance. Your classic plod-along student functioning well below potential, offering excuses, and putting off achieving distinction until tomorrow. And this is pretty much the case for government in Jamaica unduly governed by short-term political expediency. There are four more years - or part thereof - to see if the Bruce Golding-led JLP government has what it takes to break the cycle and deliver better governance than Jamaicans are used to.

Martin Henry is a communications consultant. Feedback may be sent to medhen@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com