Jamaica's retreat from nationalism Monday, July 23, 2007 5759 Reads Discuss Feedback Print Send

After 45 years of independence Jamaica is still deeply in debt Mr. Frank A. Phipps, Q.C, Chairman of the Farghuarson Institute Now we are deeply in debt, generally demoralised and abjectly pleading for outside assistance and guidance in most of the vital areas of our existence. The country has been gradually retreating from the ideals of self-reliance... The Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs expresses deep concern about the deteriorating sense of national pride and the evident admission by the country's leadership that we are increasingly unable to operate as a fully independent country. It is now 70 years since we first declared for self-government, and 45 years since we took on responsibility for governing our own affairs. Now we are deeply in debt, generally demoralised and abjectly pleading for outside assistance and guidance in most of the vital areas of our existence. The country has been gradually retreating from the ideals of self-reliance, and our government appears to be frustrating this objective by borrowing, begging and using the proceeds to import goods and services that we should be providing for ourselves. In days long before the declaration of independence, W G McFarlane, one of the pioneers of the Jamaican self-government movement, described Nationalism as "the creative spirit of national unity and declared that no people can be a nation of any importance without this highly developed consciousness". The Institute shares this view and urges a regeneration of the spirit that first inspired the call for independence. The challenge is not overwhelming because, even before 1960, Norman Manley made reference to the fact that, ".time was when this colony had it in its power to lead all if the lesser colonies of the empire on the march to self-government, for early were our cries, great our opportunities and plenty were the hands ready to essay the task." The Institute takes note of the successful policy of Jamaicanisation, which began in the Jamaica Labour Party's administration of the 1960s. It brought about Jamaican ownership and control of banks, insurance companies and commercial and industrial entities. Today it should be cause for alarm that this programme is now in reverse and the trend indicates a retreat from national responsibility. The commanding heights are under siege and even the former Workers Bank, built by the workers and peasants who put their faith and funds in the old Government Savings Bank, is now in the hands of foreigners. After 45 years of self-government, Jamaica is unable by itself to control, operate and provide such essential services as electricity and telecommunications. We are heavily dependent on foreigners to control crime, to advise on the repairing of a defective justice system, to operate our 48-year-old airline and to regulate the collection of taxes. We have even reached the stage where our Minister of Finance is obliged to side-step our sovereignty to declare that he cannot share vital information with the Jamaican people and Parliament because of restrictions by Security and Exchange Commission regulations laid down by the United States! Major sectors of industry, including mining and cement production are now in foreign hands; and so are many financial institutions such as banking and insurance. Even national heritage sites such as the Rockfort Mineral Baths and the Cockpit Country are controlled or under threat of control by outside interests. Our major airport at Montego Bay is run by imported management and personnel. The country continues to be more dependent instead of more independent in the production of food; and despite having arable land, good rainfall, rivers and an army of idle hands, we are not only unable to feed ourselves, but have also fallen short where we were once able to fill export quotas for traditional products. This diminishing state of self-reliance extends to the field of sports, where we implicitly admit an inability to coach football and cricket teams. While there is expanding activity in the field of construction, we are playing less of a leadership role in managing large projects such as hotels, road building and stadiums, including one at Sligoville, Jamaica's historically important first free village after slavery.

Despite the Jamaica's indebtness, the government stands accused of wasteful projects The Jamaica Houses of Parliament The national indebtedness means that nearly two-thirds of the budget has to be used for debt servicing; and yet we persist with projects in which wanton waste is draining away the lifeblood of the nation. These developments are offering crumbs to our workers and relegating them to roles of service rather than creative and productive activity. Today we import senior police officers and take it all for granted. Yet in 1954 when it was learnt that an advertisement had been placed in the English newspapers for an assistant commissioner of police, Chief Minister Bustamante was outraged. He strongly criticised the action and declared, "I strongly object to others coming here to get jobs which can be filled by capable Jamaicans. If they do not want to promote men in the Force there are many men in the Jamaica Battalion who are able and willing to fill those jobs." That was over 50 years ago; and if as a colony we did not have the qualifications then, there is certainly no good excuse for such a deficiency after 45 years of independence. The Institute is further concerned that in many of the areas where we have full Jamaican control, the out-turn has been heavy losses, inefficiency and corruption. The current national budget shows billions and billions of dollars of losses and recurring losses incurred under state management of agencies including NROCC, Sugar Corporation, Urban Transport, and Air Jamaica, not to mention the costly over-runs on building programmes. The national indebtedness means that nearly two-thirds of the budget has to be used for debt servicing; and yet we persist with projects in which wanton waste is draining away the lifeblood of the nation. In these dire circumstances our political representatives tell us they intend to increase their number, their salaries and also build a bigger House in which to debate. The Institute calls for a concentrated effort to revive that sense of nationalism which is essential to the development of a proud and truly independent people. We have lost that virtue and it can only be regained by an improved education system and a conscious and deliberate drive for cultural refinement and reinforcement. The great nationalist Norman Manley, when he observed the earlier signs of decay, emphasised the need to properly nurture and educate the young. He may have foreseen the present debacle when he asked the teachers of his day: "Have we ever in Jamaica inculcated in the children in our schools a spirit which believes that the Jamaican is a fine person? That he is a laudable person? That the Jamaican has a great future before him? That the Jamaican must give up these indolent habits of thought; his looking across the water and regarding that he has done all that is expected of him if he's a good citizen of the empire, without troubling to remember that his first duty is to be a good citizen of his own country?" Norman Manley had looked to the education system as a vital element in the shaping of the future. Before independence he addressed teachers optimistically: "Let it not be said that the teachers of this country have allowed a breach to develop between themselves and those who pass through their hands. Their sense of relationship to the future, their responsibility and participation in the future of this country, is your responsibility. It is a breach which has not yet been created and it is the one place where we can find a unity that can be held on to as one of the ruling forces for progress of this country." The Institute is sadly disappointed that the present administration is of the same political institution that was founded and led by Norman Manley.

The Jamaican education system needs a radical overhaul Jamaican primary school children. Photo © Imani Media Ltd. The Farquharson Institute endorses the view that unless citizens develop sufficient knowledge, independence, and public spiritedness, they cannot handle the responsibilities of self-government. At the launching of the party in 1937, Norman Manley in no uncertain terms said: "There is all that the difference in the world between living in a place and belonging to it, and feeling that your own life and your own destiny is irrevocably bound up in the life and destiny of that country." It is that spirit which is the most hopeful thing in Jamaica today. It is that spirit which alone encourages the development of a national consciousness and can lead us to anything resembling true native civilisation in this island. That and nothing else. "No amount of mere economic progress will make a real unity in our people. All efforts will be wasted unless the masses of the people are steadily taken along a path in which they will feel more and more that this is their home and their country, and that it is their responsibility to work for its future. When that is realised, then there will be something to work for, and through that feeling will come greater efforts, more thinking, a higher discipline, and more honesty. These things cannot be achieved if measures of social improvement are divorced from the reality of common ideals about a national life." The current state of affairs makes it evident that Mr Manley's hopes have been betrayed by this generation, and that the there is pressing need for remedial work. This must be powered and propelled by enlightened governance, commitment by the leadership to work with the people and to revise the structure and content of our system of education. Underlining all this must be the a thorough rewriting of the present Constitution, which is at present little more than an instrument saying how we the people are to be ruled rather than how we should exercise responsibility for self-rule. The Farquharson Institute calls for a Constituent Assembly to prepare a new Constitution for Jamaica to be approved by the people of Jamaica as their final document. This Constitution must include protection of the fundamental rights of every person in Jamaica, such as the right to life and right to liberty which can never be abrogated or whittled down at the will and pleasure of the state. The Constitution must put a limit on the borrowing power of Parliament and also ensure that no piece of public property is sold without parliamentary examination and approval; must provide that appointments to sensitive post, such as chief justice, director of public prosecutions, auditor general and director of elections be removed from the recommendation of the prime minister or other political authority. A new Constitution must guarantee a separation of powers in governance, so that no member of the executive shall be a member of the legislature. This will remove the tyranny of the executive over Parliament. The Constitution must be the supreme law of the land to which every person and authority, including the government, is subject. A new Constitution must deliberately seek to instill national pride among our people, inspiring everyone to recognise that being a Jamaican citizen means much more than merely paying taxes and submitting meekly to the thoughts and deeds of those we place in dominant, if temporary positions of brief authority. The Farquharson Institute endorses the view that unless citizens develop sufficient knowledge, independence, and public spiritedness, they cannot handle the responsibilities of self-government. This article was printed with kind permission of the The Farquharson Institute, which celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2007 as Jamaica's first civil society organisation. To visit the organization’s website follow the link below.

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