"And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers." Deuteronomy 6:18

The major presentation of the 2009/2010 Budget and much analysis are mostly behind us. Much of the dialogue has been on the means of closing the financial gap but the actual Budget has not yet been truly discussed. Is it purely housekeeping? Is any of it laying a foundation and therefore a hope for our future as a people? If so, what is the foundation being laid, and what is to be built on it?

This is crucial as the expenditure trends over the last 20 years or so show repayment on the national debt increasing consistently, as against a slowly declining recurrent outflow and a more rapidly reducing capital disbursement. Reducing capital expenditure, of course, suggests an ever-decreasing possibility of real socio-economic development. At this rate, the next generation may well be collecting taxes purely to repay the debt. This is absurd. What then are the crucial plans? We the people have the right to be intimately involved in moulding the future. After all, the bulk of the profits of the private sector and the major burden of taxation rest especially upon the shoulders of the seemingly forgotten working poor and the rapidly shrinking middle class.

THE REALITY

There is currently an international financial meltdown which has plunged the world into a recession and has now started to engulf Jamaica which, at least for the last 30 years, has been unprepared for any such crisis - not organisationally, structurally, financially, economically, socially nor even psychologically.

The truth is that after 46 years of political Independence we can neither afford an efficient public service nor the education needed to become a developed state. In the midst of insidious criminality and violence we can afford neither security nor justice. We cannot afford the cost of a reasonable health programme, nor can we afford the transportation system we need, or even afford pensioners who live for any time.

We cannot afford the cost of training even as much as 50 per cent of our workforce - 80 per cent at present is untrained. Corruption is increasingly pervasive in virtually every area of society, as is a disappearing work ethic. Finance Minister Audley Shaw forecasts negative economic growth of 2.5 per cent - 3.5 per cent this fiscal year and an inflation rate of up to 14 per cent.

FALLING STANDARDS

We the people are going to be worse off - especially the poor. But what is more ominous for all is if the crisis persists beyond this year.

What new message then does the 2009-2010 Budget brings - other than, as usual, we the people being told to 'tighten your belts'? Or is the answer in the plan for socio-economic development by 2030 being prepared by the intelligentsia when economic independence will arrive on our shores like a ship built in a foreign land, not requiring any input from we the people as to how it should be built and function.

Are we now subject to a type of internal colonialism where our 'betters' know what's good for us? Relevant to that 2030 plan is how we the people are going to get to wherever the intelligentsia's dream sends us - seemingly yet again like cargo on another boat.

There have been many published letters in this newspaper concerning the falling standards in the civil service and the feudalistic orientation of its actual organisation and operating methods. This has resulted in a closed system, the frustration of talent and the exaltation of mediocrity.

Whether the average Jamaican likes Portia Simpson Miller or Bruce Golding or neither, no administration deserves the noticeable poverty of technical support provided in this Budget exercise. The embarrassment of still adjusting the new taxation package on the final day of the major sector of the Budget exercise and all the apparent technical insufficiencies which ensued should never be repeated. This obvious lack of consultation, proper research and knowledge of history also engenders a sense of insecurity an uncertainty about the entire Budget.

This Budget exercise underlines a recent history of a civil service with a disappearing work ethic and soul. A history indicating increased inefficiency and incompetence, monopolistic statutory bodies and with more agencies than there are miles between Kingston and Montego Bay. As regards Government's employment of key personnel, we ought to know by now that political party members, cronies or even holders of multiple degrees do not guarantee the temperature brought to the nation's work.

If we are to believe all we are hearing of the Jamaica Labour Party and People's National Party thinking of temporarily putting aside politics and uniting to take us through this crisis, then an urgent consideration must be the reform, rebuilding and reorganising of the civil service. We are going nowhere without this.

DEPENDING ON OURSELVES

The drying up of credit globally reduces the options of access to financial assistance, vital to our survival. We the people are aware that at the very core of the severity of the present global situation is a shortage of United States dollars and therefore engendering balance-of-payment issues. Of course, like ripples in a pond, there is a range of consequential economic factors around this.

Inevitably, therefore, Jamaica has to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) even if, regrettably, it is allowed by the western developed countries to keep its rigid policies which are still decidedly unfriendly to social programmes.

It is these same developed countries which have access to the major portion of IMF drawing rights, leaving the multitude of developing countries to scrounge for what remains. The hurtful part to us, a self-confident people, is that we seem never to be able to change our status of not dining around the table but must use the tradesman's entrance and eat in the kitchen.

Our athletes continue to inspire us to believe that nothing is beyond us. We are still desperately clinging to the prime minister's words of before the last elections, that we need neither be poor nor deprived and that we have the ability to reverse substantially our present circumstance.

If this is so, this crisis must be used not just to survive but, at last, to change positively our circumstance and return our pride as a people and a country. We know that there is tremendous potential in our people and country but there are also huge challenges, such as in education, energy, transportation, etc.

Our agriculture is Jamaica's Cinderella before the arrival of the fairy godmother - rags discourteously covering her lovely form. Our exotic herbs and spices, for example, remain largely unexplored and unexploited. It will require serious political leadership united around an agreed plan with a total and unswerving commitment to country.

It is also abundantly clear that the way out of our predicament must be through capping and addressing the rescheduling of the national debt of over a trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000) and setting a course at last for socio-economic development. There is no lack of information on the way forward, much of this is stored on government shelves and many contributors to this newspaper have provided useful signposts. But before we get into the details and complexity of this, we must no longer equivocate but deal directly with the crux of the national problem. This is the same as it has always been for at least 30 years - the insufficiency of leadership across all sectors, but especially at the political level where the crucial national decisions are made.

REFORMATION

There has to be a reformation of the politics and its culture; the political parties must insist on heightened standards for its members and hold them to this. Prime ministers and leaders of Oppositions must dispense with the service of Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet members who have the slightest whiff of spoilage. The truth is that the general public has little trust in the nation's political leadership and there is little confidence in the politician's role as the people's representatives. There is no overarching vision to unify and motivate our people and the Opposition [ostensibly a government in waiting] seems caught in a time warp with its promised 'Progressive Agenda' still nothing more than a mirage.

In truth, we desperately need a political movement incorporating both parties, focused on navigating our way out of this crisis and on to a path of socio-economic development; a movement which attracts the reasoned advice of the learned and the gifted, the skills and experience of the middle class and the passion and enlightened support of the masses. Will both major political parties accept this challenge?

Our country deserves no less than this.

"He who refrains from defending the right is an accomplice in the wrong."
- Charles H. Spurgeon

Errol Hewitt is an information and communication technology planning consultant with the United Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat. He maybe reached at ehewitt@flowja.com. Feedback may also be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.