Davies (left) and Simpson Miller.

Daraine Luton, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

THE OPPOSITION People's National Party (PNP) has wasted an opportunity to put the interest of Jamaicans on the table during the Budget Debate last week, according to Michael Williams, general secretary of the National Democratic Movement (NDM). But at least one political analyst believes the Opposition did fairly well, saying, however, there was room for improvement.

PNP President Portia Simpson Miller, Dr Omar Davies, opposition spokesman on finance, and Peter Bunting, the party's general secretary, made contributions to the 2008-2009 Budget Debate last week.

Budget not credible

The three PNP speakers said that Finance Minister Audley Shaw's $489.5 billion budget was not credible, with Davies, in particular, punching holes into it.

However, Williams says the PNP is in no position to criticise. He believes its members should have put their past experiences in government to better use.

"I found all presentations to be very disappointing," Williams tells The Sunday Gleaner.

"Those persons did not speak as if they were the members of a party that formed the government for the last 18 and a half years. They spoke as if they were amateurs," Williams comments.

Charlene Sharpe-Pryce, lecturer at the Northern Caribbean University says the Opposition missed some crucial issues. She suggests, however, that the PNP seems to have begun the process of introspection "and has begun to reinvent itself by going back to its roots. These presentations would, therefore, mark the rebirth of a strong political movement."

Balanced remarks

Sharpe-Pryce believes that Davies attempted to be balanced in his remarks, a view shared by Williams.

"Dr Davies said that the Budget was not credible, but which one of his budgets has ever been credible? He has always had to present supplementary estimates. I expected him, based on his experience, to say what is needed to be done to present a credible budget," Williams contends.

The NDM general secretary is savage in his comments about Simpson Miller's budget speech, hinting that she may have made her last contribution to the Budget Debates as leader of the PNP.

"Mrs Simpson Miller is the most experienced Cabinet minister, but she did not show it. Based on her Cabinet ministerial experience, she sounded like a novice, like an amateur," Williams says.

He adds that as leader of the opposition, Simpson Miller did not pay enough attention to crime and violence. "Of her 49-page speech, she donated half a page to crime. That is unacceptable," Williams contends.

"In the whole 49 pages, she did not mention the word 'jobs' once. That is one of the biggest promises of the Jamaica Labour Party and she failed to remind them of it," states Williams.

For Sharpe-Pryce, however, the opposition speakers seemed to have struggled before eventually finding their way.

"I think among them they tried to cover a number of critical issues from their perspective and understanding of the issues, but I thought they missed a golden opportunity to say to the Jamaican people that our differences as people (the 'out of many' concept) do not have to divide us. They showed that synergies between the parties can be for the betterment of Jamaica.

"They also missed the opportunity to encourage the people to eat what we produce as we enter into a new dispensation in the approach to world politics and economics," Sharpe-Pryce comments.

More coordination

She opines that there could have been more coordination between the presentations.

"While Mr Bunting criticised the 'free' approach to some services, Mrs Simpson Miller saw it as her party's initiative and thus, the JLP should not be credited. Mr Bunting lashed out at the 'populist' approach to decision making, while this was the highlight of Simpson Miller's administration's success.

"Mrs Simpson Miller's empathetic approach at points in her speech is what made her a populist leader in the first place, but there were other parts in her presentation when one wondered who was speaking, as it was not the voice of Portia. She put back the issue of constitutional reform on the agenda, and this is good. She spoke to the party's position on a number of areas and this was done with clarity, especially the party's position on corruption," Sharpe-Pryce says.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com