By Linton P. Gordon
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) held its Annual Conference over the weekend and from all indications the conference can be properly named the “Outameni Celebration Conference”. Just about all the presenters at the conference concentrated on the scandal surrounding the purchase of the Outameni property by the National Housing Trust (NHT).
No other national matter was given any significant attention and this, in an ironic way, exposes a weakness in whatever alternative policies the JLP is offering in replacement of those being pursued by the PNP.
No effort was made to present to the country policies that will be pursued to bring the country to a state of economic growth. The Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Audley Shaw has been constantly ridiculing the success of the Government in passing the IMF tests. This cannot be the policy being offered, as the country needs to know what are the alternative policies the JLP will be pursuing, should they become the next Government.
The country needs to hear from the JLP if it will be pursuing any programmes with the IMF. If the answer to this is no, then we need to be told what is the alternative to the IMF that will be pursued. If the JLP intends to pursue a programme with the IMF then we need to be told how different will this programme be from the one now being pursued by the PNP and what steps will be taken to pursue a different programme with the IMF.
We should be told too what are the policy items now being pursued by the PNP that the JLP will continue to pursue and what are the ones they will discard. The JLP should set out in a clear and concise way the monetary policies they will be pursuing to bring us out of the debt crisis we are now in. They need to tell us how they will ensure that the IMF accepts and goes along with these new policies.
Several comments have already been made about the purchase of Outameni property. The JLP must be careful not to pursue an overkill with the matter. They must be careful not to dig up old sores, especially in regards to waivers that might turn out to be embarrassing to them.
The electorate of this country has largely gone ahead of the simplistic hype that previously influenced votes. The JLP is entitled to use the Outameni scandal to embarrass and pressure the Government as well as to the advance their electoral chances. However they should be careful in case it turns out that there are other scandals far more embarrassing than this.
Local Government Elections are due in 2015. Now is the time for the JLP to present solid and attractive policies with which the electorate can relate. The hype and noise might sound good. However it might turn out to be not enough to win over the electorate.
