Moving beyond rhetoric and platitudes
In his first speech as prime minister, Andrew Holness had things to say about corruption, education, garrison politics and the debt. The following are some of the things that Prime Minister Holness should do to show that he has intentions beyond rhetoric and platitudes:
1. Reveal to the country who paid Manat and Phelps. This was the issue which lead to Bruce Golding’s resignation and which still taints the entire leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party, including Holness. If Holness is serious about turning his back on garrison politics and corruption then he ought to come clean in terms of whether Christoper Coke or some mysterious JLP donors made the payment.
2. Give the green light to the Public Defender to initiate an enquiry into the role played by those who had command responsibility for the Tivoli massacre – Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Police Commissioner Owen Ellington, and Chief of Staff of the JDF, Major General Stuart Saunders, among others. Bruce Golding declined to answer the Public Defender’s letter asking for a commission of enquiry and now that he has resigned this cannot be the end of the matter – even if the media now chose to focus on the election circus. So many innocent people should not have died because of Bruce Golding’s folly, and those responsible for murder must be held accountable.
3. Repudiate Bruce Golding’s “not in my cabinet” policy of discrimination against gay Jamaicans. The upcoming Commonwealth Conference has been petitioned about doing away with buggery laws that still exist in some commonwealth countries. It is time for Jamaica to also repeal its buggery laws and respect the human rights of all citizens, including gays. Holness must declare his position now.
4. Initiate a forensic audit of the almost 2 trillion dollar public debt to determine how much of it was stolen by politicians, bureaucrats and affiliated private businessmen. The poor cannot be expected to pay back loans for which they did not benefit and did not contract.
5. The debt cannot be repaid at the expense of the poor. Hold a referendum on whether the debt should be repudiated and the alternative policies to put in place.
6. As Minister of Education and now prime minister Holness must initiate a loan forgiveness programme for all tertiary students who cannot move forward with their education because of debt.
7. Not only early childhood education but secondary and tertiary education is a human right – and should be free. A declaration about this would go along way toward determining whether Holness is serious about education or just running up his mouth. A people thirsting for education and social advancement cannot wait a decade for this to happen.
8. Access to health care is also a human right and therefore incompatible with the present policy of underfunding. Will the IMF to which Holness seems so beholden, sign off on adequate and increased funding for health?
9. Corporate Jamaica, and the rich generally, should be required to pay increased taxes and shoulder their rightful portion of the economic crisis. The current tax reform being urged by the IMF and others is nothing but a trick to increase taxes on the poor and the working class. We need a progressive tax policy not a regressive one.
10. Special increased taxes on the Banking /financial oligarchy that is making tens of billions of dollars of profit while 1.2 million poor Jamaicans are living below the poverty line.
11. Bruce Golding threatened at the last JLP Conference to make his income and assets public because he said he had nothing to hide. Despite the threat and the boast nothing happened. Holness should now go one step further and publish his own asset and income statement to dispel any notion that he may have benefited from corrupt acts committed by the Golding government of which he was an integral part. The LNG scandal is one of the many which has tainted the government -- the people have yet to learn about all who benefited.
Finally, on Thursday October 27 at 1:00 PM the Marcus Garvey People’s Political Party (MGPP), supported by Campaign for Social and Economic Justice (CSEJ) will be having another Occupy Jamaica protest outside the Bank of Jamaica. Let’s build a democratic movement to take Jamaica from the One Percenters who run the country as if it is their private property.
Lloyd D'Aguilar
Campaign for Social and Economic Justice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va8iBF4CA0U
http://lloyddaguilar.blogspot.com/
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