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The People's National Party's manifesto: vision and planning
Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Sunday | August 19, 2007
Robert Buddan, Contributor
The PNP's manifesto is not the usual kind. It is a vision and planning document. It does more than itemise what the PNP intends to do in the next five years. It sees those five years as part of a building process towards the ultimate vision of building a quality society of First World status by 2030.
The manifesto says that Jamaica is on course to realise this objective. By this it means that the Government has gone beyond promises to the actual plans and programmes that will build towards its vision. The manifesto therefore talks about those initiatives that have already been approved by Cabinet, introduced as bills, arein the legislative drafting stage, have investments committed, have been agreed by an MoU, have been budgeted, have been produced by a policy document, are pilot projects, have been discussed by stakeholders or have recently been launched. Many of these are even slated to come to fruit in the next year.
The PNP has a definite advantage here because it has converted promises to plans and these plans are already at various stages of development and implementation. Worse for the JLP, the three recent national debates gave it an opportunity to finally say how it plans to fund its promises. Yet, the confusion of answers gives cause for great concern.
Dr. Kenneth Baugh said the money would come from the budget but did not say how and where in the budget. Mr. Shaw said the money would come from cheaper overseas loan we do not know why he would be so privileged to get cheap loans. Bruce Golding said the funding would depend on growth, implying that the funding is conditional and therefore uncertain. This causes us to look at what is already being funded and otherwise in process of development.
DEEPENING DEMOCRACY
The PNP's manifesto says government is on course to broaden and deepen Jamaica's system of democracy and governance. One of its telling points is the incongruity between a foreign head of state and final court of appeal in the British Privy Council on the one hand, and the requirement of Jamaicans to have a visa to go to the country of that head of state and have their case heard in that court, on the other. Thus, the PNP has been pursuing constitutional reform to make a Jamaican our head of state and to have the Caribbean Court of Justice as our final court of appeal.
Constitutional reform must be related to judicial reform if justice is to serve the new Charter of Rights. Reforms include plans to strengthen separation of powers for greater independence of the judiciary through a proposed Court Services Agency, improved case management flows for speedier trials, making video conferencing acceptable for vulnerable witnesses, and introducing a National Plan of Action for Child Justice. Government and stakeholders have already produced a Justice Reform Programme.
Governance also requires effective law and order policies. The manifesto's plans for effective policing calls for adding to the manpower of the police force, improving the quality of training by making the police academy into a university, applying new crime-fighting technologies, coordinating multi-agency crime fighting, and making communities safe through community policing and community safety officers.
This also means attacking corruption in the force and in society generally. Police Services Regulations will be reviewed to remove corrupt police officers and a National Investigative Authority will be established to attack corruption in society generally. Government and stakeholders have already produced a National Security Strategy.
BROADENING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The PNP's manifesto argues that Jamaica has to have control over its macroeconomic policies if it is to plan for its own development to become a developed country. By taking control back from the IMF, policymakers have been able to establish the country's international creditworthiness, bring in record levels of investments, improve net international reserves, stabilise and liberalise foreign exchange, cut inflation to single-digits, and establish industrial stability under the public sector MoU. Government has now launched a Development and Investment Manual, prepared with the private sector and international partners.
These achievements have laid the foundation for faster growth of the kind that will make Jamaica achieve developed country status by 2030. One of the impressive things about the plans for development is their countrywide breadth. For example, the New Highway 2000 Corridor for Development encompasses Portmore, Spanish Town, Old Harbour/ Esquivel, May Pen, and Vernamfield, a corridor of 500,000 people.
Another corridor is the North Coast from Montego Bay to St. Mary, inclusive of mega-tourism projects like Harmony Cove, already in development. A third corridor is the north-eastern corridor of St. Mary and Portland. Feasibility studies are being prepared to link Port Antonio to Harbour View and include Port Royal as a cultural heritage site. The Kingston Metropolitan Region, Greater Montego Bay and major semi-urban centres will benefit under the programme to transform inner cities into 'winner cities'. Government is now fast-tracking new development plans for parishes and urban centres.
It is within this framework that the manifesto aims to insert tourism, agriculture, cultural industries, energy, sports, port development, telecommunications, manufacturing, infrastructure, small and medium businesses, with linkages between them. The manifesto claims to have the plans, investors, and agencies already lined up to convert Jamaica into a developed country. Development is never evenly spread at first and the benefits are not equally felt across regions. The next step in the manifesto is to spread that development around through these development corridors.
The PNP says that better governance and more economic development are not ends in themselves but aimed at a level of social development of developed country status.
IMPROVED LITERACY
The PNP can claim (according to a United Nations report) a near 100 per cent level of enrolment in early childhood education, improved literacy in the 18-24 age group, and record levels of enrolment in tertiary institutions (400 per cent in 18 years). It now aims at 100 per cent access to electricity and water, and to continue its house-building programme. Education transformation is under way. For instance, compulsory school attendance will be mandated by 2010 under the theme, 'Each Child can Learn, Every Child Must'. The social agenda also includes health and wellness.
The Government has cut poverty and unemployment by half of what they were 18 years ago. Now it aims to reduce the number of the poor further and increase the size of the middle class. The important socio-economic measure of a developed country is the large size of its middle class and Jamaica aims at becoming a middle class society.
The national debate over long-term visions and hard plans must now be the centre of attention. It is its manifesto that gives us the best picture of what the PNP has in mind.
Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm
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