'Young & clueless'

Gordon Robinson, Contributor

Delano Seiveright has been the target of offended media practitioners who have used his careless "go after" phrase to turn him into an intellectual piñata. They've been ably assisted by Delano himself, who has shown an antipathy to strategic silence that suggests he will always be on the wrong side of the trade in gold. Delano's embrace of verbal diarrhoea could yet earn him a name change to Delano Sievewrong. Certainly, his reasoning has exhibited a certain seivelike quality.

I'll ignore that infamous July 18 press conference as the rambling, excitable, unstructured nonsense it's been exposed to be. I prefer to respond to Delano when he's supposedly calm and his thoughts, such as they are, reduced to writing. This happened in The Sunday Gleaner of July 24.

Now, it appears he's really complaining about two things.

1. Opinion writers don't disclose their current or former attachments to political parties/governments, whether through membership, activism or acquisition of scarce benefits.

2. The press has suppressed JLP successes.

Let's start with number one. Delano wrote:

"Our position is clear. There have been increasing numbers of political analysts, financial analysts, talk-show hosts and columnists who speak and write under the cover of being fair, neutral or objective, without disclosing their partisan leanings.

"What we seek is to make fair the news commentary playing field and have an upfront declaration of one's political leaning and/or relevant biographical information, as is the norm in many media outlets in the the USA, Canada and the UK."

So, I looked to the footnote to Delano's article and found the following:

"Delano Seiveright is president of G2K, the young-professional affiliate of the JLP."

Is that all, Delano? Where's the biographical information so that the public can discern whether you're nothing more than the leader of a "professional affiliate", which tends to suggest that, like your former counterpart, Damian Crawford, your "opinions" can be counted on to be unbiased to the point of criticising your "professional" affiliate. Is it just a "professional" affiliation, or is it a political or even parasitic one?

Delano, do you sit on the JLP Standing Committee and Central Executive, the most powerful decision-making arms of the party? Or do you just lead a young "professional" affiliate? Delano, are you an adviser to any member of the Government, or to the Government as a whole? Are you a government adviser, Delano? Or just the leader of a young "professional" affiliate?

Delano, do you sit on any Government boards? Let me guess (since you haven t disclosed relevant biographical information). What about the Tourism Product and Development Company? What about Jamaica Bauxite Mining/Bauxite and Alumina Trading Company? What about the Postal Corporation of Jamaica? What about the National Family Planning Board? What about Wigton Windfarm Limited?

What are you?

Oh, one last thing (said Lieutenant Colombo). Were you ever appointed by this Government as a director of the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), the Trade Board or as a member of the Public Relations & Communications Committee of Air Jamaica's board of directors? Or are you simply the leader of a "professional" affiliate seeking fairness and justice for all in the media?

You see, Delano, you're still young so you remain clueless about life. Don't worry, you'll improve, especially if you develop the ability to talk less and listen (principally to your elders) more. Delano, we're all biased. You won't find an unbiased commentator around. Some of us are politically biased; some religiously biased; some corporately biased; some gender biased; some nationally biased; some self-biased; some biased against bias.

Most of us come by our biases honestly, having decided that we prefer X over Y. It's when bias comes to one corruptly that there's a problem. So, if we express a bias because, for example, our livelihood or power base depends on some external entity or individual receiving preferential treatment, that's a corrupt bias. If we express a biased opinion because of pressure to sing for our supper or we've been specifically paid to express a specific opinion (payola), that's a corrupt bias.

And what is this nonsense about disclosing "leanings"? What are you babbling about, Delano? Are you saying that even mild, undecided "leanings" must be disclosed? Delano, if you want to know my "leaning", buy a ruler.

Delano, you must stop vilifying persons for bias alone. Get this into your head: opinion is bias. And bias is as bias does. As Lambert Brown, whose expressed opinions are as biased as they come, keeps saying, you must establish that an opinion expressed doesn't coincide with or follow from fact. I say further it's a two-step process. Second, you must prove that it doesn't result from error of judgement or carelessness, but malice. Then you can attack. But this unsportsmanlike whining because persons living in a politically polarised country express polarising political views, is trite, puerile and unproductive.

Number Two: Delano complains:

"No mention is made of the significant reductions in major crimes, including murder, a first in decades. No mention is made of interest rates being at record lows, inflation being under control, our net international reserves being at its highest level ever, and having an unusually stable exchange rate - all at the same time. No mention is made of the 24 per cent increase in domestic-crop production for the agricultural sector in the first quarter of this year ... .

"No mention is made of the gains in education, health, tourism, agriculture, transport and works."

One at a time.

1. No mention of crime reduction? This simply isn't true. The improved murder rate since May 2010 is widely reported. Seivewrong's real problem probably is that opinion writers insist on reminding us that, had Government/JLP been allowed to do as it liked with the 'Dudus' extradition request, the improved murder rate would never have occurred. The thing about numbers, Delano, is that they never lie, nor are they biased.

2. No mention of low interest rates/inflation control/high reserves/stable exchange rate? Again, not true. In so far as these cherry-picked economic indicators are concerned, there are innumerable reports of the facts and figures for whoever wants to find them. Again, Delano's problem is that we don't simply swallow these numbers without looking at the big picture. With all the hullabaloo regarding low interest rates, which is good news, these aren't necessarily any indication of a thriving or even improving economy. Delano, where's the growth? Where are the jobs?

Get ready to add me to your shortlist of PNP activist columnists, Delano, because I intend to expose some very inconvenient facts regarding the much-hyped economic recovery. Since you brought it up. Jamaica's fundamental economic problem which, if not corrected, will ensure no growth forever, is its ginormous external debt burden. Interest rates - schminterest rates! Jamaica, whose population is only 2.8 million, has one of the world's worst debt burdens at 129 per cent of GDP.

Our external debt interest burden (nothing to do with local interest rates) has averaged 13 per cent of GDP over the last five years. In 2009/10, it careened off the screen to 17 per cent of GDP. Despite Greece seeming to have a higher debt burden (166 per cent of GDP), its interest payments are only 6.7 per cent of GDP annually. See Greece's economy collapse? Want ours to do likewise? Keep trumpeting the precious local debt default, Delano, euphemistically called JDX. Enjoy 'official' low-inflation rates while the reality is ever-increasing gas prices, electricity and food costs.

Pathetic

So long as we continue to do nothing (except as ordered by the IMF) about our external debt; so long as more than 45 per cent of our annual Budget is spent on interest payments abroad, we will NEVER be able to spend the required amounts on infrastructure and social investment like transport, health and education that are the foundations of any sound economy. The much-ballyhooed JDX hasn't affected our external debt payments by one cent, and 46 per cent of our external debt must be refinanced within the next one to five years. This could easily equate Peter's alleged description of Portia's return to Jamaica House - a disaster.

From 1988 to 2008, real income per Jamaican citizen grew by 14 per cent cumulatively. That's as pathetic as it gets. What was the JLP's solution? Why, the IMF, of course. The IMF is a proven international failure whose leaders prefer to chase women rather than look about the welfare of member countries. Its economic prescriptions, despite successfully claiming to have "changed", remain the same. Stop spending. Raise taxes. Cut the fiscal deficit at all costs. This will only strangle growth in the foreseeable future. And the JLP wants to extend our "relationship" with the IMF? Is this the economic success story that we have been suppressing, Delano? Give me a break!

No mention of gains in education, health, tourism, agriculture, transport and works? Puh-leeze! What gains? Real expenditure on each of these sectors has declined each year since 2007. The net enrolment ratio in primary schools declined from 97 per cent in 1991 to 87 per cent in 2006/2007, and continues to decline. Jamaica's coverage rates for detection and treatment of tuberculosis declined from 79 per cent in 1997 to 43 per cent in 2006, the worst decline of 77 countries for which data was available.

These trends continue, and our hospitals are dangerously underequipped. We had to spend a fortune to pay American Airlines to bring tourists to Jamaica at a significant net loss to Jamaica per seat. Don't ask Delano if tourism is thriving, ask north-coast hoteliers. Transport and Works? Is he serious? I have two words for the alleged successes there: China Harbour!

This company, which allegedly bribed a Bangladeshi prime minister's son to obtain a government contract, was given preferred status by our transport ministry to benefit from the JDIP funds after what the ministry calls "due diligence". But the minister says the JDIP funds came on condition that we hire "a Chinese company" and only one applied. So, why "due diligence"?

It turns out nothing in writing anywhere corroborates the minister's assertion. Since the bribery allegations were well publicised, it must be that Jamaica's due-diligence investigators considered China Harbour's alleged proclivity to bribe relatives of government ministers as a qualification for the job.

Delano, wake up; grow up; get a life!

Peace and love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.