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Imagine, for a moment, that when it took office back in January after a heady election win, the first acts of the new PNP administration had been to reduce the size of the Cabinet, to consolidate and combine some of the existing ministries, and to voluntarily reduce the salaries of all government ministers - declaring a new post-bling era, necessary for solving the nation's debt crisis and putting the nation back on its feet again financially.
And let's further imagine that - like Jesus, Gandhi, and Evo Morales in Bolivia - the PM had resolved to wear humble clothing to all public functions, and had asked other ministers to please do the same - forgoing more flamboyant expensive dress until such time as the nation's finances improved for everyone. Think of the political capital that this would have garnered for PNP, armed with a new vision, for new era.
Similarly, suppose that the PM and ministers had resolved to make do with less-than-optimal transportation, until conditions improved for the nation generally. Think how much stronger the sense of solidarity would be by now between PNP and the people, and how much more impressed International Monetary Fund negotiators would be.
It is still possible. There's absolutely no reason why the PM (whose courage and emotional wisdom I admire very much, by the way) could not tomorrow morning click her heels three times, wave the national flag, and declare to the country that we have now entered a new post-bling age, an age of Jamaican self-redempton, and that she and the nation's ministers intend hereafter to lead by example in this quest. It would have been better to have done this back in January, but it's definitely not too late.
Lawrence Alfred Powell is honorary research fellow at the Centre of Methods and Policy Application in the Social Sciences at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and former senior lecturer in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and lapowell.auckland@ymail.com.
Imagine, for a moment, that when it took office back in January after a heady election win, the first acts of the new PNP administration had been to reduce the size of the Cabinet, to consolidate and combine some of the existing ministries, and to voluntarily reduce the salaries of all government ministers - declaring a new post-bling era, necessary for solving the nation's debt crisis and putting the nation back on its feet again financially.
And let's further imagine that - like Jesus, Gandhi, and Evo Morales in Bolivia - the PM had resolved to wear humble clothing to all public functions, and had asked other ministers to please do the same - forgoing more flamboyant expensive dress until such time as the nation's finances improved for everyone. Think of the political capital that this would have garnered for PNP, armed with a new vision, for new era.
Similarly, suppose that the PM and ministers had resolved to make do with less-than-optimal transportation, until conditions improved for the nation generally. Think how much stronger the sense of solidarity would be by now between PNP and the people, and how much more impressed International Monetary Fund negotiators would be.
It is still possible. There's absolutely no reason why the PM (whose courage and emotional wisdom I admire very much, by the way) could not tomorrow morning click her heels three times, wave the national flag, and declare to the country that we have now entered a new post-bling age, an age of Jamaican self-redempton, and that she and the nation's ministers intend hereafter to lead by example in this quest. It would have been better to have done this back in January, but it's definitely not too late.
Lawrence Alfred Powell is honorary research fellow at the Centre of Methods and Policy Application in the Social Sciences at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and former senior lecturer in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and lapowell.auckland@ymail.com.
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