Norris McDonald | The IMF debt crisis and voter apathy: Is it a demand for change?

Though Jamaica’s local government elections on Monday were hotly contested, there was an extremely low voter turnout. This voter apathy shows clear lack of enthusiasm in the Jamaican people in the direction the country is heading.

The overall political economic strategy of the Government has been focused on the continued management of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) programme.

But so far, after almost 50 years, Jamaica still has deep-rooted poverty, which shows that there has been no benefit to poor people, despite so many years of terrible suffering.

The IMF strategy pursued by both political parties over the years has been, in my opinion, a general search for ‘fool’s golds’.

It has been a ‘kutchie-shubbie’ over who can better manage the IMF programme.

Jamaica has been trying to do what no other country in the world has done, and that is to give to IMF even one success story!

Whether we like it or not, the IMF is just a new form of slavery – without the metal chains – in an imperialist world order in which the poorer nations work to transfer their wealth to sustain the lifestyles of the rich, Western industrialised nations.

In the case of Jamaica, the foreign debt is now US$8.6 billion. The local debt designated in Jamaican dollars is J$817 billion. This massive debt only exacerbates the living condition of the poor people and the middle class.

DISMAL ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE

One can sense the obvious frustration in Dr Nigel Clarke’s private November 2023 report to the US Security and Exchange Commission, where he confessed that Jamaica may be unable “to make payments on its debt, including the notes”.

Jamaica may well face ‘a dollar whine’ – a sharp rise and fall in the country’s exchange rate, in relation to the American dollar – it was noted.

But I more see a further devaluation in the Jamaican dollar, relative to the American dollar. This is because a rise in the value of the Jamaican dollar could only come from the achievement of fantastic economic growth, and this is clearly unlikely in the present political economic scenario and the prevailing general international crisis of capitalism.

Given the correctness of Dr Clarke’s prediction, it quite obviously would not be good news for creditors.

Indeed, Dr Clarke is telling the American SEC that Jamaica may default on its debt!

Dr Clarke hinting to the US SEC that “Jamaica face difficulty in borrowing money” is a direct manifestation of the very vicious cycle of foreign debt and poverty creation in this imperialist ‘One Don’ world order.

But let us digress for a minute and recall that in October 2023, Dr Clarke boasted about “Jamaica’s macroeconomic fundamentals – the best performing economy – that represents the best that we have ever had”. Yet in private he is saying the opposite thing.

In fact, as we now know, Dr Nigel Clarke, in Jamaica’s November 9, 2023 report to the American Security and Exchange Commission, complained that the Government is in a situation where it may be difficult to get money to borrow.

He also said that Jamaica’s exchange rate, vis-a-vis the American dollar, was unsustainable.

And he is right.

The World Bank, in their October 2023 report, said that Jamaica was ranked as one of “the slowest growing economies in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

Key reasons the World Bank gave were:

• The reliance on low productivity services

• The lack of innovation in the economy affects the ability of small and medium-sized business to develop and grow

• Excessive cost of light and telecommunication services

• A weak business environment

• The corrosive impact of crime and violence

Do we need the World Bank to tell us what our lying eyes already know?

Really, we don’t, but it helps to debunk the myth that there is any bright ray of sunshine ahead under the IMF political economic strategy pursued by the Government.

FOREIGN DEBT SLAVERY

My dear friends, poor people are hungry and angry and want to explore new possibilities to improve their lives.

A good measure of this is the high migration rate among educated Jamaicans. According to the latest data, “over the past several decades, close to one million highly skilled and trained Jamaicans have migrated to the United Kingdom, United States and Canada”.

This is a negative phenomenon, but overall remittances from abroad have been one of the Band-Aids keeping the Jamaican economy afloat.

One does not have to be an obeahman with the ability to see into the future to know that this foreign debt and poverty creating economic dependency is a path to nowhere.

Jamaica’s job-creating capacity lacks funds for investment.

Meanwhile, Jamaica has US$4 billion invested in America to sustain their economic growth.

Why not produce a national plan with all stakeholders involved? Perhaps use some of this money to create a national investment fund which no government or politician or their friends can access.

The country cannot keep depending on the Chinese to provide an economic lifeline.

China has been a good friend of Jamaica, but we need to develop a plan for national self-reliance.

Jamaica must be grateful but must produce its own national investment fund that can drive industrialisation and agricultural food supply expansion as a means towards lifting the country out of poverty.

The country is dependent on food imports to feed the nation in a country that has vast amounts of land.

Does this really make sense?

Where do we go from here?

Every political and economic crisis creates a challenge, and the possibility for hope and a vision for a brighter tomorrow. And this local government elections may be a clarion call for a change of political economic strategy.

Let me paraphrase the words of a Pocomania Revivalist chorus…

It has been a hard IMF road to travel!

An’ a long poverty-stricken way to go!

That is what poor people are told but;

They just doan waan di IMF nuh more!

Black Jamaicans have been suffering too long, for well over 50 years, under the yolk of debt slavery. The country needs this strangulating imperialist foreign debt jack boot off its neck, and the people want it now!

That is just the bitta truth.

Norris McDonald is an economic journalist, political analyst, and respiratory therapist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and miaminorris@yahoo.com