No Sloganeering Except This New Slogan:

This blog has no pref­er­ence for either of the two polit­i­cal par­ties in Jamaica, in my esti­ma­tion they are both crim­i­nal gangs , unwor­thy of respect or support.

We how­ev­er seek mere­ly to high­light to the Jamaican pub­lic the facts and let them decide for them­selves unfil­tered.

The People’s National Party launched their new talk­ing points , the “pro­gres­sive agen­da” at the Courtleigh hotel in New Kingston last night. At that event par­ty President Portia Simpson Miller had this to say : The pol­i­cy mix­es con­tained in the doc­u­ment are aimed at ful­fill­ing the mis­sion Norman Manley spoke of in his last address to the par­ty’s con­fer­ence in 1968. “We have realised polit­i­cal inde­pen­dence now for almost 50 years. However, as Norman Manley said, the task ahead is to achieve eco­nom­ic inde­pen­dence. The ideas con­tained in this doc­u­ment will take us onward and for­ward to achiev­ing that target.

We have realised polit­i­cal inde­pen­dence now for almost 50 years. However, as Norman Manley said, the task ahead is to achieve eco­nom­ic inde­pen­dence. The ideas con­tained in this doc­u­ment will take us onward and for­ward to achiev­ing that tar­get,” Simpson Miller said in the packed audi­to­ri­um, with dozens locked out because there was no space in the room.

Manley, the first pres­i­dent of the PNP, said the mis­sion of his gen­er­a­tion was to win self-gov­ern­ment for Jamaica. He also said the mis­sion of the gen­er­a­tion which suc­ceed­ed him was “recon­struct­ing the social and eco­nom­ic soci­ety and life of Jamaica”.

In the Progressive Agenda, the PNP says it com­mits to “an approach to gov­er­nance that will be data-dri­ven, evi­dence-based with mea­sur­able outcomes”.

The par­ty says gov­er­nance would be con­struct­ed on five pil­lars — human resource devel­op­ment; a safe, secure and just soci­ety; par­tic­i­pa­to­ry, account­able and respon­si­ble soci­ety; pro­gres­sive inter­na­tion­al­ism; and eco­nom­ic growth for sus­tain­able nation­al development.

Commenting on the work of the Anthony Hylton-chaired com­mit­tee which devel­oped the Progressive Agenda, Simpson Miller said it deliv­ered what she asked for.

“Opposition par­ties are always faced with the temp­ta­tion of craft­ing pro­grammes for vote-get­ting. I thank the team for resist­ing the for­mu­la­tion of emp­ty promis­es, quick fix­es and pop­ulist slo­ga­neer­ing,” she said.

“I thank you who craft­ed the Progressive Agenda for not sim­ply rush­ing to sat­is­fy the under­stand­able anx­i­eties of a pop­u­la­tion that is des­per­ate­ly in need of hope,” she added.

Among the promis­es con­tained in the Progressive Agenda is a com­mit­ment to intro­duc­ing greater trans­paren­cy to the man­age­ment of the coun­try’s finance and eco­nom­ic affairs.

“Fiscal imbal­ances, per­sis­tent deficits and low rates of growth in the nation­al econ­o­my have been con­se­quences of this over many years,” the par­ty noted.

“In an effort to secure greater trans­paren­cy, greater fis­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty and greater lev­els of pub­lic account­abil­i­ty which is at the heart of good gov­er­nance, the PNP will estab­lish an esti­mates com­mit­tee in the Parliament to have con­sid­er­a­tion of expen­di­ture pri­or­i­ties in the con­text of a medi­um-term eco­nom­ic frame­work,” it said.

“We will also ensure the effec­tive func­tion­ing of a com­mit­tee on tax­a­tion in the Parliament able to con­sult with stake­hold­ers in con­sid­er­ing tax­a­tion pol­i­cy and rev­enue-rais­ing mea­sures,” it added.

Simpson Miller’s par­ty has also promised to posi­tion Jamaica’s cul­tur­al and cre­ative indus­tries, includ­ing sports, as pri­or­i­ty indus­tries, giv­en their enor­mous poten­tial for growth, export, employ­ment, gen­er­al eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, and human-resource development.

“The par­ty, as gov­ern­ment, will seek to devel­op mod­ern cul­tur­al and cre­ative indus­tries poli­cies, informed by research and analy­sis,” the Progressive Agenda says.

Simpson Miller yes­ter­day stressed that the way for­ward for Jamaica’s devel­op­ment must be dri­ven by research. “We must be evi­dence-based. We must engage in fact-find­ing, data col­lec­tion, objec­tive analy­sis and lev­el-head­ed real­ism,” she said.

The Progressive Agenda rep­re­sents the fourth pol­i­cy review of the PNP since Norman Manley pub­lished the Man with the Plan in the 1950s. Michael Manley pub­lished Democratic Socialism in the 1970s and The Compass in the 1980s before P.J. Patterson’s 21^st Century Mission in the 1990s.daraine.​luton@​gleanerjm.​com

I have not seen the doc­u­ment and as such I am in no posi­tion to com­ment beyond what the Party President said in her address. Her state­ments rings haunt­ing­ly fami­lar , as if some­how we have been there before , I can­not quite put my fin­ger on why I have this feel­ing of unease and dis­qui­et. I think I will go over her state­ments again.…just give me a minute please readers.!!!!.….….…..

Got it,here it is, this is the source of my dis­qui­et, how could I have been so blind?

The Progressive Agenda rep­re­sents the fourth pol­i­cy review of the PNP since Norman Manley pub­lished the Man with the Plan in the 1950s. Michael Manley pub­lished Democratic Socialism in the 1970s and The Compass in the 1980s before P.J. Patterson’s 21^st Century Mission in the 1990s.

There you have it for as long as they have been a par­ty the PNP has been issu­ing plans(dogma) catchy elec­tion­eer­ing lit­er­a­ture that gets dis­card­ed once they have seized state pow­er. Make no mis­take the PNP is a mas­ter of win­ning elections.

Two-par­ty pol­i­tics after inde­pen­dence: 1962 – 80
The two lead­ing polit­i­cal fig­ures in the ear­ly days of inde­pen­dence were Alexander Bustamante, leader of the cen­tre-right Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which he found­ed in 1943, and Norman Manley, leader of the left-of-cen­tre People’s National Party (PNP), which he found­ed in 1938. The JLP held pow­er 1962 – 72, win­ning gen­er­al elec­tions in 1962 and 1967 under the lead­er­ship first of Bustamente, who ruled until 1964 (when he was replaced by Donald Sangster) and then Hugh Shearer, from 1967. It was a time of strong eco­nom­ic growth, of around 6% per annum, with invest­ments in tourism and the alu­mi­na and oth­er indus­tries, but wealth was unequal­ly shared.

In the ear­ly 1970s, the econ­o­my slowed down and there was demand from the urban poor for a greater share of the coun­try’s wealth. This enabled the social­ist PNP, led by Norman Manley’s charis­mat­ic son Michael, to win the 1972 gen­er­al elec­tion, and the PNP dom­i­nat­ed between 1972 and 1980. Michael Manley embarked on a rad­i­cal pro­gramme of social reform, invest­ment in edu­ca­tion and health, and eco­nom­ic inde­pen­dence from the indus­tri­al­ized world. Despite high unem­ploy­ment, Manley was returned to pow­er in 1976 with an increased major­i­ty, but by 1980 there was high infla­tion and GDP had fall­en 25% since 1972. Manley reject­ed a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because of the con­di­tions attached and instead pur­sued a pol­i­cy of eco­nom­ic self-reliance.

Political vio­lence and JLP rule: 1980 – 89
The 1980 gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign was extreme­ly vio­lent, despite calls by Manley and the leader of the JLP, Edward Seaga, for mod­er­a­tion. The out­come was a deci­sive vic­to­ry for the JLP, which won 51 of the 60 low­er-house seats. This gave Seaga a man­date for a return to a renew­al of links with the USA and an empha­sis on free enter­prise. He sev­ered diplo­mat­ic links with Cuba in 1981. In 1983 Seaga called an ear­ly, snap elec­tion. The oppo­si­tion claimed they had been giv­en insuf­fi­cient time to nom­i­nate their can­di­dates and the JLP won all 60 seats. There were vio­lent demon­stra­tions when the new par­lia­ment was inau­gu­rat­ed, and the PNP said it would con­tin­ue its oppo­si­tion out­side the par­lia­men­tary arena.

PNP dom­i­nance: 1989 – 2007
Manley and the PNP returned to pow­er with a land­slide vic­to­ry in the 1989 gen­er­al elec­tion, but Manley pur­sued more mod­er­ate eco­nom­ic poli­cies than in the 1970s, with some suc­cess, and worked for improved rela­tions with the USA. In 1992, with his health dete­ri­o­rat­ing, Manley resigned as pre­mier and was replaced by Percival Patterson, the for­mer finance min­is­ter. In a snap gen­er­al elec­tion, held in 1993, Patterson increased the PNP’s major­i­ty, win­ning 52 of the 60 low­er-house seats. From 1991, the PNP gov­ern­ment fol­lowed a pro­gramme of eco­nom­ic lib­er­al­iza­tion, includ­ing remov­ing exchange con­trols, float­ing the exchange rate, reduc­ing tar­iffs, remov­ing restric­tions on for­eign invest­ment, and pri­va­tiz­ing state enter­pris­es. This helped bring the infla­tion rate down from 80% in 1990 to 7% in 1998 and there was steady eco­nom­ic growth until the mid-1990s.

In 1995, the JLP was weak­ened when its chair­man, Bruce Golding, broke away with col­leagues to form a new cen­trist par­ty, the National Democratic Movement (NDM). This enabled Patterson to secure two fur­ther unprece­dent­ed con­sec­u­tive vic­to­ries, rout­ing the JLP in December 1997 and nar­row­ly win­ning the October 2002 gen­er­al election.

But in 2002 Golding rejoined the JLP, to become its chair again in 2003. Meanwhile, Patterson stepped down as prime min­is­ter in February 2006 and the local gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Portia Simpson-Miller was elect­ed head of the PNP and Jamaica’s first female prime minister.

In September 2007, the JLP, under the lead­er­ship of Bruce Golding, returned to pow­er, nar­row­ly defeat­ing the PNP by 32 seats to 28.(elicon Publishing is divi­sion of RM).

The prob­lem is not in win­ning elec­tions as can be seen from that report pub­lished by Elicon pub­lish­ing, one needs to look at the dis­con­nect between win­ning elec­tions through catchy jin­gles and hooks, and actu­al­ly doing the grunge work of Governing and pro­duc­ing results.

With the excep­tion of the peri­od from 1991 to the mid 1990’s under Percival James Patterson, there is not much to point to . Patterson adopt­ed con­ser­v­a­tive strate­gies of remov­ing exchange con­trols, float­ing the exchange rates, reduc­ing tar­iffs, remov­ing restric­tions on for­eign invest­ments and divest­ing some State hold­ings. this move saw infla­tion plum­met from 80% in 1990 to 7% in 1998 and there was steady eco­nom­ic growth until the mid-1990s.The achilees heel of Patterson how­ev­er is that he had no idea how to con­trol the mon­ster of cor­rup­tion and crime.The PNP even though hav­ing been the belle of the ball as it relates to Jamaican pol­i­tics real­ly has not deliv­ered much in the way of tan­gi­ble accom­plish­ments to the Jamaican peo­ple, who for some strange rea­son seem to favor them to the JLP.

It is inter­est­ing to see Miller unwit­ting­ly acknowl­edg­ing that in the past the par­ty has been all about win­ning elec­tions. quote: “Opposition par­ties are always faced with the temp­ta­tion of craft­ing pro­grammes for vote-get­ting. I thank the team for resist­ing the for­mu­la­tion of emp­ty promis­es, quick fix­es and pop­ulist sloganeering,” .

You don’t say ? Populist slo­ga­neer­ing ? Are these the same things as.

Better must come.

My father born ya.

pow­er com­rades:

lick them wid de rad of carrection:

Jamaica a pnp country.

Time for a change.

Democratic social­ism.

Are we to believe the PNP has gone through a meta­mor­pho­sis , ? Are we to believe that they have repent­ed as Michael Manley did after the débâ­cle of the 70’s ? As we have said in pre­vi­ous blogs, Populism can­not run a coun­try , despite all of the tears and hugs of the Party pres­i­dent her con­stituen­cy remains one of the most depressed in the coun­try despite her many years in rep­re­sen­ta­tion­al politics.

I am not an econ­o­mist, sub­se­quent­ly I will allow the them to cri­tique this newest slo­gan ” PROGRESSIVE AGENDA” .

I would imag­ine that fis­cal pru­dence, dereg­u­la­tion, competence,lack of cor­rup­tion, greater transparency,respect, humility,accountability,and an appre­ci­a­tion for the fact that cam­paign­ing and gov­ern­ing are dif­fer­ent. Most impor­tant­ly the rule of law must take prece­dent over every­thing Moving the coun­try from one of man to a coun­try of laws. That includes the bedrock prin­ci­ple of sup­port for those who toil to make the coun­try safe.

Nothing com­ing from the President of the PNP indi­cates that she even under­stands the need to empow­er the rule of law, which is a nec­es­sary char­ac­ter­is­tic, if crime and ter­ror is to be con­tained, a nec­es­sary com­po­nent if the coun­try is to be com­pet­i­tive in attract­ing man­u­fac­tur­ing and oth­er invest­ment opportunities.

Harvesting man­goes and pro­cess­ing them though admirable, and intu­itive, is not going to be enough if our peo­ple are to com­pete going forward.

mike beck­les:

have your say: