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Short-changed on literacy
Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Friday | August 17, 2007
Dennie Quill, Contributor
The National Debates are behind us and they have been critiqued to death. For me, they were very entertaining. If asked for an assessment of the two parties based on the performance of their members, I would say one party appears energised, igniting sparks of inspiration while the other seemed jaded and lacklustre. August 27 will tell.
The Manifesto has become part of the election campaign vocabulary. The parties unveiled their manifestos with great pomp and ceremony and as expected, the party faithful greeted them with unanimous applause and general high-fivery. One wonders though, are these manifestos to be taken seriously? I carried out an unscientific poll among people that I know asking them to identify which party came up with specific manifesto promises andmost could not tell me. They had not seen the documents and did not plan to read them, those who came up with specifics had heard about them from someone else.
Home of election manifestos
Political analysts have described Britain as the home of election manifestos so I decided to find out how the process works in the mother country.
In formulating their manifestos, political parties in Britain follow an accommodating process in which various opinions are canvassed. For example, the British Labour Party devotes two full years to drawing up policy papers, which eventually form the basis of their election manifesto. The first year is used to consider the various policy options and basic outline and the second to debate the contents before a final draft is prepared. There is a Joint Policy Committee consisting of about 20 members, including the heavyweights in the party that is charged with choosing the main agenda. Then the National Policy Forum meets to debate the issues on the agenda. The 180 members represent different organisations and affiliates of the party. The function of this forum is to reflect the variety of opinions within the party. The next step is that eight policy commissions are formed, each covering a different area of policy.
The next phase involves the preparation of rough policy drafts crafted in conjunction with various field experts whose input is to ensure that the plans are feasible. After all this, the Joint Policy Committee and the National Policy Forum go back and make further modifications to the policy drafts and the document is then presented at their annual conference. The party then spends an entire year doing it all over again, following the same process. At the end of the second year, the party conference finally comes to a vote on the draft and confirms it as the official election platform.
This lone process is explained by the fact that parties in Britain strictly hold their lawmakers to the party line, so that parties can be accountable for the election promises they make.
While I am not suggesting that every party here needs to ape the British model, I suspect that their manifestos were hammered out in a few months, or maybe weeks.
As part of the public debate this time around, electors are clamouring for a manifesto that is clear and enticing, but also realistic. This is why the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party's manifesto has come under so much scrutiny. The question being asked is how is it to be funded? And no one is asking the question louder than the PNP itself. They say the sums do not add up and the JLP's promises are empty. But the PNP has much explaining to do on its part for it has failed to fulfil many of its election promises.
Glaring blemish
One glaring blemish in the PNP's manifesto is the repeated promise to achieve 100 per cent literacy. All previous manifesto deadlines have been missed. If you have been reading my articles you know this is for me an intractable objective. However, is this promise founded on truth, pragmatism and firm commitment? The answer is no when the Government has dismantled the national adult literacy training organisation which was on the frontline of supporting literacy. Will the recruitment of 400 remediation specialists do it? Why are our public libraries not getting the requisite support to convert them into learning centres? The cost of illiteracy is an enormous one and if the Government has consistently reneged on this promise then the flames of inspiration and hope could be cruelly snuffed out for thousands of Jamaicans. Too many Jamaicans have been short-changed because they lack the opportunities that a good education could provide.
Dennie Quill is a veteran journalist who may be reached at denniequill@gleanerjm.com
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