The Editor, Sir:

We cannot fault the current JLP Government for the economic predicament we are facing, because they came in on a sticky wicket, and the wicket got even stickier by external factors. What civil society and the Opposition must now do is to hold them to their commitments, where those are not constrained by factors beyond their control.

The citizens of this country must also remind the Government that it must now prove what it can do to 'change course' and resuscitate the economy and society. Having said all that, we are again facing an austerity budget in every sense. In the midst of an imminent recession in the world's largest economy, our near 20 per cent inflation during the last calendar year, and the prospect of, at best, low double digit inflation in this calendar year, there is virtually no growth in this budget.

There is absolutely no other way to interpret this picture. The difference can only come from good governance, accountability, proper management techniques, and transparency. This is the ideal test of quality of leadership.

In the meantime, we wait to see the theatrics and hear the rhetoric of the participants of the upcoming Budget debate. Even more important, we await the facts and the analysis.

I suspect that, budget aside, when the commissioned study by the World Bank on the cost of corruption to the Jamaican economy, and the study of the FINSAC debacle are over, the result will settle the matter conclusively. In the meantime, the country faces three main challenges; these are law and order, the economy and morality.

The citizens of this country must insist on getting nothing less than facts and the truth. Let the show begin.

I am, etc.,

IRVIN C. WADE

ircivwade@hotmail.com

Via Go-Jamaica