EDITORIAL - Mr Holness should re-enfranchise middle class

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EDITORIAL - Mr Holness should re-enfranchise middle class

Published: Sunday | October 23, 2011

When Andrew Holness takes the oath of office today as Jamaica's ninth prime minister, he will assume a position that, by his own admission, he has long coveted. The question now is: What will Mr Holness make of the job of governing Jamaica?

If we are to be so bold as to tell Mr Holness what ought to be priorities, we would insist that he could do no better than starting with the re-enfranchisement of Jamaica's middle class.

For us, the middle class is a construct that encompasses, among other things, those of our citizens who want economic growth and jobs; understand that lowering the country's debt is crucial to economic stability; stand by law and order; want a society that is not corrupt; and believe that politics can be conducted in an atmosphere that is far less tribal and divisive. That middle class is a creature of ideas and constructive thought.

In rational democracies, this is a group that would be embraced by parties, representing, as it does, the intellectual force of leadership and management, without whose support parties may win elections but face big deficits in governance and government.

Jamaica, in that respect, has not been a rational democracy for the better part of the past half-century. For these thinking Jamaicans have, for the most part, been deliberately sidelined and alienated by the gangs of Gordon House, the political parties that have alternated in government for the past 70 years. It has been a deliberate and cynical act of disenfranchisement to create political tents with which their uninquisitive power bases can be accommodated and manipulated.

Ideals of founding fathers betrayed
This is an approach to politics that betrayed the ideals of the founding fathers of the two major parties, before their descent into gang-like organisations, and has had profoundly negative consequences. For the past 40 years, Jamaica has had little economic growth; it has one of the world's highest per capita debts and murder rates; its people have too few jobs and high levels of poverty; and its educational outcomes are poor.

To state it bluntly, a failure to grapple with and fix these problems is to open Jamaica to the prospect of become a failed state. Which is where Mr Holness' agenda of priorities is crucial.

The new prime minister must have foremost in his mind growing the economy and creating jobs, which is dependent on balancing the finances and which is only sustainable in the context of an effective reduction of the size of the debt. That, in turn, demands implementing tough decisions, including a cut in the size of Government, which will also translate to the loss of public-sector jobs. Indeed, it is government dithering on most of these that derailed Jamaica's standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

Fixing these problems will require the Government being run in the interest of the country rather than the short-term benefit of the governing party, which looks to the next election. Mr Holness, therefore, has to break this cycle of political entrapment, which he can signal by the quality of the team he chooses to help run the Government. And if he appreciates the value of the success of Government, he will make clear today his intention to consult with and re-enfranchise the middle class.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.