EDITORIAL - Platform for the real debate

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Thursday | August 2, 2007

PUBLICATION OF the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) manifesto for the upcoming general election is a good beginning for what should be the real debate to be widened when the People's National Party (PNP) belatedly launches its own manifesto.

Quite apart from the content of the JLP manifesto, the mere fact of making the effort to put together a substantial document is commendable. We will now see whether the other side will respond in kind and focus too on the serious issues rather than on bread and circuses.

The document is without doubt a serious one. Particularly notable is the factual basis on which it seeks to base its policy proposals. The Introduction is an excellent compendium of the basic data on the main problems facing the Jamaican society and makes for dismal reading. The manifesto's central areas seem to be governance, economic policy, crime and violence, education and health. On economic policy, putting the maintenance of macroeconomic stability high on the agenda should put to rest once and for all any concerns that the JLP planned any dangerous experiments with inflation and the exchange rate, which have been mooted in some quarters.

Apart from that, there is a definite developmental orientation to the manifesto which stresses the importance of the restoration of manufacturing but on more of a niche basis with higher value added. The JLP goes beyond this, for the cutting edge of their development strategy seems to be an emphasis on expanding business process outsourcing (BPO) in Jamaica as a major platform for speeding up economic development and creating more jobs. This is a highly important policy proposal which we believe has real potential whether this needs a 'mega-agency' is debatable.

In the area of crime, there are also interesting proposals which seem to focus mainly on expanding the police force - a police cadet corps is proposed - increasing accountability and community support. In education, the document contains few surprises. It repeats themes already made familiar by the JLP but well worth repeating. This includes free education, a stress on early childhood education, a major initiative in character education and the improvement of school management.

There is much that is debatable here. Many will take issue with the proposal to legislate a fixed budget deficit wisely toned down in the manifesto - it is now proposed to phase this in and to allow for exceptions. There is practically nothing on the crucial area of skill development except for a vague, inconsequential bullet on HEART. This is an odd incongruence, for the expansion of BPO very much depends on this. Issue could also be taken with some of the proposals on governance which are clearly a compromise between the National Democratic Movement group and traditional JLP thinking.

But all that is secondary. A Better Way represents A Good Beginning. The ball is now in the PNP court. Let the real debate begi