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JLP manifesto: style and substance
Geof Brown
Friday, August 03, 2007
The JLP has rolled out its election manifesto in fanfare style and with considerable substance to boot. I cannot claim to have read and digested its 127 pages; downloading that much material from the net is a challenge. However, in relying on published summaries and reactions from print and broadcast media, it seems that the main thrusts have been covered. Unquestionably, the style of the presentation by party leader Bruce Golding (some of which I heard) was as masterful as most fair critics have acknowledged. It has become a hallmark of Golding's deliveries. As to the worth of the substance, it is interesting to note the wide disparity of responses varying from iconic worship a la Mark Wignall, to almost total dismissal of the promise-fest a la Dawn Ritch.
Editorials have also varied from total embrace as "exciting" in this newspaper, to endorsement with cautions in the Daily Gleaner. Similarly, the Nationwide radio talk show was in a burst of enthusiastic endorsement especially of Bruce Golding himself as an overdue innovative political thinker.
The Breakfast Club on the other hand has subjected the promises to close critical scrutiny by interviewing a couple of leading lights in the JLP. The only critical response I have so far heard from the governing PNP was on Nationwide radio by PNP election candidate and financier extraordinaire Peter Bunting. Unfortunately, I heard only a part of that, but commendably it seemed well reasoned. In similar vein that very balanced commentator Kevin O'Brien Chang gave a very useful non-partisan critique on the Perkins-on-Line radio talk show.
The approach of this column is to look at some of what is new and breaking new ground in the JLP manifesto, while reviewing some of what is not new even where new approaches to implementation are proposed. It is in that regard refreshing that the party leader Mr Golding and indeed the general secretary, Karl Samuda, as well as the education spokesman Andrew Holness have acknowledged achievements or programmes of the present administration which they intend to enhance. Chang made the point well on the Perkins-on-line programme when he asserted that Jamaica is in fact not a failed state (using World Bank data) but that the difference between JLP and PNP performance will come down to better management and better implementation.
It is also to the credit of the Breakfast Club radio show and panellist Raymond Campbell, in particular, that where JLP spokesmen Samuda and Holness presented promises articulately, the interviewers pinned them down to cost implications and time frames. I respect that tactical approach as against wholesale endorsement or wholesale condemnation as is so often the case in this heavily politically tribalised society. Here then are some of the truly new proposed policies and programmes in the manifesto.
The proposed mega agency for dealing with investment proposals is a welcome breakthrough, particularly if the three-month maximum waiting period for approvals is effected. Our neighbouring Turks and Caicos where new investment is booming, does it in two months. The proposed centre for offshore medical services seems revolutionary, and if Mr Golding is correct, a multi-billion industry awaits exploitation there.
The sanctions against politicians who violate the agreed Code of Conduct is new in the sense that real teeth would be put into the "slap-on-the wrist" disapprovals which now prevail. Carl Stone would be happy, as he long pushed for recall of recalcitrant MPs. Separating the functions of Local and Central Government in a definitive way is also long overdue as Local Government Reform continues to lag in limbo.
Pensioners will be pleased to see the proposals for a Pensions Commission as going beyond the limited rises given at this time. Free health care for all and free tuition up to secondary level are both receiving much airing. A total ban on squatting would be a breakthrough much to be desired.
But some new approach proposals will be building on, or enhancing what is already in place. This is especially true of Early Childhood Education on which both major political parties have long agreed. Right now the present administration's Early Childhood Commmission is doing an excellent job under Dr Maureen Samms-Vaughn. The JLP proposes to fund the teacher-training component to a greater degree. Fine.
The highway expansion programme which has been an outstanding hallmark of the PNP government will be enhanced under the JLP, and it is good to see that this infrastructural backbone development would continue. Similarly, and to the sure chagrin of some, Air Jamaica would continue to be supported by a JLP government.
And it is good to see the JLP resurrecting the matter of a social partnership between the main players in the society. Former prime minister PJ Patterson must wish them well after his strong efforts in that direction.
On crime reduction, nothing significantly new appears in the manifesto except the beefing up of the police force, but commendably increasing the investigative capacity of the force. The manifesto is apparently weak on preventative and rehabilitative measures, as if intervention after the fact is the main thrust. Perhaps there is more in the details that the summaries have missed. But Mr Golding must be commended for reminding all that there is no magic wand to cut crime, a fact Minister Phillips would undoubtedly endorse.
So now on to the PNP manifesto expected on the 9th of the month. Since this column has perforce used a very broad brush, it behoves all of us to study the full documents of both parties carefully. It is our stakes, not just theirs.
browngeof@hotmail.com
Geof Brown
Friday, August 03, 2007
The JLP has rolled out its election manifesto in fanfare style and with considerable substance to boot. I cannot claim to have read and digested its 127 pages; downloading that much material from the net is a challenge. However, in relying on published summaries and reactions from print and broadcast media, it seems that the main thrusts have been covered. Unquestionably, the style of the presentation by party leader Bruce Golding (some of which I heard) was as masterful as most fair critics have acknowledged. It has become a hallmark of Golding's deliveries. As to the worth of the substance, it is interesting to note the wide disparity of responses varying from iconic worship a la Mark Wignall, to almost total dismissal of the promise-fest a la Dawn Ritch.
Editorials have also varied from total embrace as "exciting" in this newspaper, to endorsement with cautions in the Daily Gleaner. Similarly, the Nationwide radio talk show was in a burst of enthusiastic endorsement especially of Bruce Golding himself as an overdue innovative political thinker.
The Breakfast Club on the other hand has subjected the promises to close critical scrutiny by interviewing a couple of leading lights in the JLP. The only critical response I have so far heard from the governing PNP was on Nationwide radio by PNP election candidate and financier extraordinaire Peter Bunting. Unfortunately, I heard only a part of that, but commendably it seemed well reasoned. In similar vein that very balanced commentator Kevin O'Brien Chang gave a very useful non-partisan critique on the Perkins-on-Line radio talk show.
The approach of this column is to look at some of what is new and breaking new ground in the JLP manifesto, while reviewing some of what is not new even where new approaches to implementation are proposed. It is in that regard refreshing that the party leader Mr Golding and indeed the general secretary, Karl Samuda, as well as the education spokesman Andrew Holness have acknowledged achievements or programmes of the present administration which they intend to enhance. Chang made the point well on the Perkins-on-line programme when he asserted that Jamaica is in fact not a failed state (using World Bank data) but that the difference between JLP and PNP performance will come down to better management and better implementation.
It is also to the credit of the Breakfast Club radio show and panellist Raymond Campbell, in particular, that where JLP spokesmen Samuda and Holness presented promises articulately, the interviewers pinned them down to cost implications and time frames. I respect that tactical approach as against wholesale endorsement or wholesale condemnation as is so often the case in this heavily politically tribalised society. Here then are some of the truly new proposed policies and programmes in the manifesto.
The proposed mega agency for dealing with investment proposals is a welcome breakthrough, particularly if the three-month maximum waiting period for approvals is effected. Our neighbouring Turks and Caicos where new investment is booming, does it in two months. The proposed centre for offshore medical services seems revolutionary, and if Mr Golding is correct, a multi-billion industry awaits exploitation there.
The sanctions against politicians who violate the agreed Code of Conduct is new in the sense that real teeth would be put into the "slap-on-the wrist" disapprovals which now prevail. Carl Stone would be happy, as he long pushed for recall of recalcitrant MPs. Separating the functions of Local and Central Government in a definitive way is also long overdue as Local Government Reform continues to lag in limbo.
Pensioners will be pleased to see the proposals for a Pensions Commission as going beyond the limited rises given at this time. Free health care for all and free tuition up to secondary level are both receiving much airing. A total ban on squatting would be a breakthrough much to be desired.
But some new approach proposals will be building on, or enhancing what is already in place. This is especially true of Early Childhood Education on which both major political parties have long agreed. Right now the present administration's Early Childhood Commmission is doing an excellent job under Dr Maureen Samms-Vaughn. The JLP proposes to fund the teacher-training component to a greater degree. Fine.
The highway expansion programme which has been an outstanding hallmark of the PNP government will be enhanced under the JLP, and it is good to see that this infrastructural backbone development would continue. Similarly, and to the sure chagrin of some, Air Jamaica would continue to be supported by a JLP government.
And it is good to see the JLP resurrecting the matter of a social partnership between the main players in the society. Former prime minister PJ Patterson must wish them well after his strong efforts in that direction.
On crime reduction, nothing significantly new appears in the manifesto except the beefing up of the police force, but commendably increasing the investigative capacity of the force. The manifesto is apparently weak on preventative and rehabilitative measures, as if intervention after the fact is the main thrust. Perhaps there is more in the details that the summaries have missed. But Mr Golding must be commended for reminding all that there is no magic wand to cut crime, a fact Minister Phillips would undoubtedly endorse.
So now on to the PNP manifesto expected on the 9th of the month. Since this column has perforce used a very broad brush, it behoves all of us to study the full documents of both parties carefully. It is our stakes, not just theirs.
browngeof@hotmail.com