Assessing Bruce ... Three years in office

Martin Henry, Contributor

It's assessment time again. Yesterday, September 11, marked the end of the third year of this Government in office. Never has any administration in Jamaica been so assessed, much of the assessment lacking in substance and validity.

There are many pitfalls to assessment. Some of the more obvious are ignorance, prejudice, the paramountcy of the proximate, the dominance of feelings over evidence, the tendency to emphasise failure and weaknesses over success and strengths, and the lack of appropriate criteria.

Useful assessment requires objective criteria and should yield comparable data. Government, like any other organisation, has maintenance functions as well as change functions. The day-to-day routines of running the system have to be carried out although seldom noticed or rewarded as the promise of change is over-emphasised. It is useful to note, in passing, that the country has not collapsed and is in no danger of doing so.

There are a few productive ways in which the performance of a government can reasonably be assessed. One is measuring the administration against some universal minimum criteria of what a government ought to be doing in any society. Another is measuring performance against the commitments made by the specific government. And I would separate promises made in the heat of political campaigns from the policy commitments made in office.

political philosophy

So what is the fundamental role of government against which this administration should be measured? This is the stuff of political philosophy from ancient times, but we need not speculate. The prime minister set out his own vision of the fundamental role of government in his pre-dawn address to Parliament and the nation on the Supplementary Estimates on September 30 last year:

"Governments," the prime minister said, "are inclined to try to be all things to all people. Some of the things we do, we must do; some things we are pressured to do; other things we have chosen to do. The truth is that we cannot do all the things we try to do - not if we are to do well the things we must do.

"We will have to make some radical decisions as to what are the functions of government, what are people entitled to expect of their government.

"We must, first of all, define and secure the core functions of government in relation to which our limited resources must be prioritised. I suggest that these are:

Providing a safe and secure environment;

Effective and accessible justice system;

Good, quality education system;

Access to basic health care;

Social-welfare support for the disadvantaged and vulnerable;

Public infrastructure and related services;

A healthy environment

Efficient public bureaucracy

An appropriate policy environment and regulatory mechanisms

Effective diplomacy

"I am not suggesting these to be exclusive," Mr Golding declared. What I am suggesting is that these are the core functions on which a stable society must be built. These are the obligations we must assume and discharge before, over and above all else. And the structures and processes of government must be designed to ensure the discharge of these functions in the most efficient and cost-effective way."

"And what are going to be the priorities of our government?" the prime minister asked in his inaugural address? The answer:

The protection of the rights of our people;

The reduction of crime, so that Jamaicans can feel safe and secure;

The creation of an educated, productive workforce;

Attracting investments that create real jobs, generate prosperity and ensure that that prosperity is shared among the people;

Transparency and accountability in government and the elimination of corruption;

A strong Parliament and more effective political representation;

The elimination of unnecessary bureaucracy and waste of public resources and the efficient delivery of government services.

"I ask the Jamaican people", he added, "to appreciate that the commitments we intend to honour during the first 100 days are, of necessity, those which do not require significant outlay of government expenditure. The financial constraints and fiscal challenges that we face are well known and the medium and long-term solutions will have to be pursued over time. But there is much that can be done to improve the quality of governance and the quality of people's lives that do not require large spending. It requires political will. We will demonstrate that political will as we assume the responsibilities of government."

In his inaugural address, the prime minister said, "We have placed at the top of our agenda the creation of a new framework for good governance. It involves many elements that we regard as important for us to move forward:

the entrenchment of a new Charter of Fundamental Rights

the establishment of a Citizens Protection Bureau to defend the rights of our citizens and secure redress where their rights are violated

a single, independent authority to investigate instances of abuse by members of the security forces

the reform of our justice system as recommended by the Justice System Reform Task Force

the curtailment of the powers of the executive and the strengthening of Parliament, so that it can exert greater control over the government "the strengthening of the role and authority of the Opposition in the Parliament, because in our Westminster system the strength of the Parliament depends on the strength and effectiveness of the Opposition.

Corruption in Jamaica," he said, "is much too easy, too risk-free. We are going to make it more