PNP must talk policy

A WEEK ago, this newspaper told Mikael Phillips, the shadow transportation minister, to get on with the job of crafting the policies and programmes he hopes to implement in government, rather than wait until the People’s National Party (PNP) enters office – should that happen – to do so.

This salient bit of advice was after Mr Phillips went to Savanna-la-Mar, the capital of the parish of Westmoreland, pulled from grab-bag issues, and promised that after his first 100 days as minister he would have a policy for Jamaica’s fraught transport sector. But as we warned Mr Phillips, when politicians enter government they are often consumed by the crises of the day, with little time and energy to pursue big policy visions, especially if they begin their tenure without these ideas in hand.

Therefore, entering office with a clear mission, knowing exactly what they intend to do and achieve should be a sine qua non for all ministers-in-waiting.

So, should Mr Phillips follow through with his ‘after 100 days in office’ strategy, any policy he produces in that period will likely be a mishmash of hastily thrown-together ideas, rather than thoroughly thought-through, interconnected concepts that take into account all the economic variables of a modern transportation sector, including how and where people live, work, recreate, and commute and do business – domestically and globally. That’s a recipe for failure.

We offer these observations not only to Mr Phillips, but the entire shadow Cabinet, which was unveiled by the PNP’s leader, Mark Golding, on January 5.

LEARNING CURVE

Jamaica is constitutionally due for parliamentary elections in 19 months. When a party leader restructures his shadow Cabinet at this time in the political cycle, it is reasonable to expect that this, by and large, is his settled team. It is expected that this is the core group that, barring significant upheavals, he intends to take into government and appoint as ministers if he wins the election – which the PNP believes that it has better than an even chance of doing in 2025.

A poll by Don Anderson’s Market Research Services Limited in December gave the PNP a 25 per cent support among voters, three percentage points ahead of the governing Jamaica Labour Party, a lead, albeit, within the poll’s margin of error or plus or minus three per cent, making the standings a statistical dead heat.

Our larger point is that should the PNP win the election, its ministers, given the myriad problems they will face, will be pressed for time for critical thinking and policy formulation. And the process will be even more difficult for those ministers who are new to the intricacies of government and will need to climb the learning curve. In other words, it would be to their, and the country’s, benefit if they entered government with clearly formulated policies, and policy ideas, that only demand tweaking ahead of implementation.

There is, however, an even more important reason why the PNP and its shadow ministers should have well-developed plans before they enter government: their obligation to the Jamaica people, who they expect to vote them into office.

Winning a general election is not an end in itself, but a means to an end, which is fulfilling the compact a political party makes with the citizenry. They solicit people’s vote on the promise of pursuing policies that enhance and enrich their lives, such as good jobs, decent wages, low and stable inflation, personal security and social cohesion.

CLEAR POLICY PRESCRIPTIONS

So far, despite its more coherent articulation of ideas and proposals in recent times (especially around transitioning the economy beyond macro stability, low productivity, low-wage and low-growth mode to one that delivers better incomes, higher growth and improved improved factor outputs) the PNP has not laid out specific policies, with clear implementation plans. It seems more inclined to hope that the administration implodes under the weight of voter disaffection over issues such as corruption, crime and security, and quality of jobs.

This ought not to be the basis upon which a serious party enters government – not without clear policy prescriptions. Old arguments that the other party will steal your ideas are tired and stale and without legitimacy. In any event, voters will know.

In that regard, since it is a good marker for action, the PNP’s new shadow Cabinet should mark its first 100 days, on March 7, by each member delivering policy outlines for each of the subjects for which they have responsibility and intend to implement in office. Each 60 days thereafter, the shadow minister should provide updates on these plans, including requirements for implementation, costs and deliverables.

If the PNP does not have a concept of how this might be achieved or a formula for public engagement, we commend to it the task forces and so-called People’s Forum it employed in the 1980s after its boycott of the 1983 general election and was absent from Parliament for nine years. Or it can issue Green and White Papers, and/or find creative ways to make statements of them during debates in the House and the Senate.

The opinions on this page, except for The Editorial, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Gleaner.