Peter Espeut | No promise left unspoken

In the almost 32 years I have been writing this weekly column (since February 1993) I have commented through seven general elections (the one due this year will be my eighth); the People’s National Party (PNP) won four and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won three.

Over the years I have accumulated quite a collection of slick glossy election manifestos created by both parties. Usually they are published a few weeks before the election (so no one can examine them too closely) and then whichever party wins, the promises they made to inveigle the electorate to vote for them are quickly forgotten.

I cannot recall any media house or civil society group – not even the opposition – going through the manifesto of the winning party, tallying promises kept and promises that went abegging. How “pally” of them to treat each other so kindly! I guess they expect similar treatment when next they are in power.

In my experience, in the run-up to any general election – it doesn’t matter who the incumbent is – there has always been an almost unending series of groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting photo ops – and a scramble to make grandiose promises of what each will do when they win. I have lived to see ground broken for undelivered oil refineries, water pipes delivered on site (and just as quickly removed after the election) and activists going around taking names for those who will get promised benefits. It’s all part of the political gamesmanship.

In this our 63rd year as an independent nation I think we should grow up and evaluate the incumbent government based on what they said they would do when they were seeking our votes in 2020. I have before me a document titled Stronger Future: The Jamaica Labour Party Manifesto 2020. I would like to share with you some of the promises the JLP made then. I will have to do it little by little; I do not have the space to reproduce the hundreds of promises that were made in one column.

Today I wish to focus on only two areas: education and constitutional reform.

As a preamble I need to remind you that the election took place in the middle of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the JLP sold themselves as the resilient party to take us through the pandemic. If they try to claim that the pandemic prevented them from keeping their promises, what they would be saying is that they misjudged the situation, and planned badly.

EDUCATION

The table of contents blares: “7. Quality Education for all”.

“To recover stronger we will invest to improve education outcomes” (the document is not paginated, so I have no page numbers to cite).

“Empowering teachers to deliver at the highest standards: We will expand the emergency education plan currently under way to train teachers in technological and online distance learning systems”.

“Prioritise early-childhood education and parenting support. We will increase the proportion of the education budget that is allocated to the early childhood level, and we will prioritise the provision of resources to the National Parenting Support Commission”.

“Abolish the shift system in public schools. We will move all public schools off the shift system with the construction of new classrooms, laboratories and sporting facilities at the target schools”.

“Promote STEM education. We will develop six science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) focused high schools that prepare students for careers in STEM fields”.

“Promote performing arts education. We will develop a performing art focused high school that prepares students for careers in the performing arts”.

I am not aware that even one STEM academy has been built, and certainly no performing arts high school has been created. They certainly have not moved all public schools off the shift system – if any – as I know of schools still on shift. You tell me whether any focus on early-childhood education – also recommended by the Orlando Patterson Committee – is more than talk.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

“Engage in wide-scale consultations and referendum on constitutional reform. In pursuit of broad-based constitutional reform, to which we remain committed, we will engage Jamaican citizens in wide-scale consultations regarding the queen as head of state, and electoral reform to include fixed election dates, term limits, and impeachment. These consultations will be conducted with a view to ensure the input of all Jamaicans in determining the way forward based on the principles of value consensus. We continue to believe in a grand referendum at an appropriate time to determine these and other matters on which there is significant public divide”.

So somebody had the right idea: to actually consult with the Jamaican people about whether they wish to change their head of state; and about “the way forward based on the principles of value consensus”. A majority of Jamaicans voted for this, but what we got was an unrepresentative committee telling us what they wanted to give us, with no real consultation. And as for “fixed election dates, term limits, and impeachment” those have not even been mentioned.

All these promises were supposed to have been kept in the five years after the 2020 election! These were not verbal rantings from a political platform in the passion of the moment, but were put in writing! I suppose they still have a few months in which to make it all happen!

And so one thing can be in the manifesto, and we vote for that, and then after they are elected they do quite a different thing.

I caution my readers: in 2025 listen carefully to what they say they will do, but do not take them seriously; they clearly feel under no obligation to keep their promises. It is called “bait and switch”.

I will continue quoting from this interesting document in future columns.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com