Wilberne Persaud, Columnist

In my book Jamaica Meltdown: Indigenous Financial Sector Crash 1996, I argued that opinion on the nature and efficacy of Finsac is often coloured by political affiliation.

I should add that it is also coloured by the extent to which - like Paul Chen Young in his book of blame to government policy - one stays in denial, avoiding owning up to mistakes and taking responsibility.

That was true then; it is true now. But the Business Observer report 'Bad taste of Finsac still lingers' takes incompetence to another level.

Mr. Stewart, who hosted a luncheon for "corporate players", argued that "Government used Finsac to gag" and that the Government "was promoting Finsac as the saviour of the nation. Out there, the propaganda from the Government was so powerful that the larger community thought this was the only way forward."

Let me declare interest: I served as board member and chaired FINSAC-intervened entities. I assisted in policy determination. I am non-partisan politically, and not organically connected.

A former student once said to me: "Mr. P, your problem is that you won't pick a side; in Jamaica you haffi pick a side, man."

Well, I picked a side, decades ago. That side is Jamaica and the Caribbean. I am a Caribbean nationalist and anti-colonialist. That said, even if disbelieved, I now continue.

Propaganda and spin

Mr. Stewart is in a unique position to discuss propaganda - to quote late American journalist Abbott Joseph Liebling, "Freedom of the press belongs to those who own it."

He owns a piece of the press and uses it for promotion. It is, of course, his right so to do. Recently, my reading of his newspaper suggests he has taken on another dimension. Instead of publicly endorsing the JLP to take office, he is apparently using his newspaper to attack the PNP.

He is free to do all this, but it is a bit unfair.

The practice in our admired neighbour to the north is endorsement. Mr. Stewart should endorse Mr. Golding and the JLP.

Are journalists in Jamaica unfree? Apart from a very few, whom one can perhaps count on the fingers, they are, because there is literally no competition. Their training has generally been substandard; their pay rates low, their perception of their role unclear. They operate in a society in which the barely competent, the journeyman, is hailed as genius; the mundane elevated to electrifying. It may be that small societies are consumed by need to establish importance. Regardless, we have a problem.

Serious, far-reaching, reputation-busting claims made are reported in the modeof press release.

Godfrey Dyer, former Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association president and north coast hotelier, claims he would be begging in the streets were it not for the courts.

Patrick Lynch, Sandals Group finance director, declares: "We had a banking crisis which was mis-managed ... the problem could have been handled in a way that would have been less devastating. It had the unfortunate effect of demonising some of the indigenous bankers who are now living overseas, and are treated like thieves when they are not all crooks."

Banking crisis myth

Jamaica had no banking crisis. Bank of Nova Scotia and other foreign banks managed not to achieve bankruptcy. We had an indigenous financial sector crash - insurance companies, commercial and merchant banks, building societies and investment houses - permitted by lax legislation and policy, fuelled by greed, market euphoria, incompetence and in cases actual fraud as found by the courts.

All but one of our high-profile indigenous financial sector operations, First Life, went bankrupt. It took more than J$19 billion to rescue National Commercial Bank depositors - most of its loan portfolio went sour like rancid limes dropped off the tree. Mutual Life Assurance Society bled more than J$1 million daily.

Mr. Stewart's business benefited from FINSAC through lease and purchase of former Ciboney Hotel - anyone with a modicum of commercial exposure knows by the nature of the sale and parties to the transaction this would have to be a good deal for Sandals - lose a competitor, gain a collaborator.

Mr. Dyer may have avoided begging in the streets courtesy of the courts, I couldn't say, but he did benefit from Finsac debt forgiveness. Same Finsac he would now vilify.

All I have said above is readily available in the public domain - not secret in FINSAC archives.

wilbe65@yahoo.com