Andrew Smith/Photography Editor
The Pajero is among the popular SUVs for government ministers.

Don Robotham, Contributor

After Kenya became politically independent in 1963, the term 'Wabenzi' was coined. This was the word used to describe the post-colonial economic and political elite which had developed a passion for Mercedes Benz motor cars and, later SUVs, often acquired at public expense. We, too, have our own homegrown Jamaican Wabenzi.

The JLP government has recently spent J$30 million on SUVs for its ministers. One such - our honourable minister of Energy no less - determined that this was beneath the style to which he had grown accustomed. He demanded and got a new Mercedes from within whose brushed leather he could contemplate our energy crisis in comfort.

Our poor prime minister, confronted with this exposé ventured a defence: This was one of the new 'BlueTEC' Mercedes which promised good gas consumption, he pleaded. Honourable Mullings was a man misunderstood. In demanding his Benz, he was merely trying to set an example in energy conservation to his wasteful nation!

The way of the world

Well, 'nuttn no wrong': some will eat cassava and some will drive a Benz. It's the way of the world - c'est la vie. On the one hand, gas prices increase by J$2 per litre, food prices soar by 30 per cent, Housing Trust interest rates rise by 20-30 per cent, car licensing fees jump by an even larger per cent and 110 toll-road plaza workers are laid off. Our borrowing requirement increases by US$185 million and our debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 126 per cent. On the other hand, SUVs and Mercedes Benz. Well done!

None of this was begun by the JLP, as Mr. Golding himself rightly pointed out. For many decades, this game has been played by both Opposition and Government with a wink and a nod to each other across the aisle - one hand washing the other.

However, in the recent past, such abuses were occurring in an environment of relatively stable prices and declining inflation. This is far from being the case today, as we all know. For these JLP ministers to put Mr Golding in this embarrassing position is, therefore, particularly inexcusable. What sort of message is this sending to the nurse, teacher and policeman who is being told to accept a wage increase below the level of inflation, in the national interest? Mr Golding needs to confiscate every one of these vehicles immediately, dispose of them and put the money in a fund for some socially useful purpose.

Shaw and FINSAC

Another person who needs discipline is that other honourable - our good Minister of Finance, Audley Shaw. Mr Shaw is a decent person. But he is not behaving with the sobriety for which all successful finance ministers worldwide are justly famous. His style is better adapted to the political hustings - he has never seen a soapbox he could not mount. No doubt this delights the JLP zealots but it damages Mr Shaw, the Government and the country when, as occurred last week, mouth runs ahead of brain.

Just when the Budget Debate was concluding and the country seemed to be looking forward to a new era of Government-Opposition cooperation to resolve the Vaz imbroglio, Mr Shaw launched forth with a series of gratuitous attacks on Dr Omar Davies and Mr Peter Bunting - completely stealing the limelight from Mr Golding. Both Dr Davies and Mr Bunting took the fight to Mr Shaw and rightly so. Mr Shaw has opened a Pandora's Box, exposing the private financial affairs of his Cabinet colleagues (as well as his own!) better sheltered from the light of day.

I quote from the inimitable words of Dr Davies, clearly on a roll at last week Thursday's press conference: "I am not certain if the persons either at home or abroad who are firing shots across the board [sic] want certain things to come out, but if there is a demand to put everything out there, I will be the first person knocking on the door willing to testify."

Tongue-lashing

Talk about own goal - so far it's four nil against Audley and the game hasn't even begun! I would hate to be in the Cabinet room to hear the tongue-lashing poor Audley received from his outraged colleagues. On a serious note, however, anyone who has any idea of the story behind the story knows that there are very good reasons to not have a commission of inquiry into FINSAC. I guarantee you that it won't be Omar who is embarrassed by such an inquiry but some surprising others who not one of us of any political allegiance would wish to humiliate.

Audley Shaw could become a sober and respected finance minister. But Mr. Golding has got to curb Shaw's urge to suddenly launch some kind of demagogic cas cas out of the blue - playing to the penny section of his political gallery. This is not only unbecoming, it's also playing with financial and social dynamite. Audley needs to settle.

Vaz case

Increasingly, one gets the impression of frustration mixed with braggadocio on the Government side about its inability to do much about the deteriorating economic situation facing the Jamaican people. Likewise, the completely predictable outcome of the Vaz case has caused consternation in JLP ranks. Despite much bravado from that side of the political fence, there is a solid body of legal opinion which believes that Mr. Dabdoub will win his appeal and take his seat in Gordon House without any by-election, thank you very much. Mr Golding seems to think that if events threaten to take this fatal turn, he would then call a general election.

But consider this: If the judgment is that those dual citizens who have been elected are improperly sitting in the House and should automatically be replaced by their opponents without by-elections, then can it be said that Mr Golding was ever legitimately sworn in as Prime Minister in the first place? If he was not, then, mutatis mutandis, he himself should also be automatically replaced by Mrs Simpson Miller, without the bother of calling a general election!

Relax. I am not saying that this is what is going to happen. I am simply pointing out the explosive logic behind the Vaz case and the potential for an enormous constitutional crisis which it has always possessed.

Some may recall that these far-reaching possibilities were pointed out many moons ago in a column which generated much animosity from the PNP side. Mr. Golding was urged to act decisively then and not to wait until this eleventh hour. He spurned that advice and has unnecessarily placed himself in the position where he can be accused of attempting to frustrate the will of the courts. Now, the only hope is for the issue to be negotiated with the PNP. Everyone hopes that good sense will prevail on all sides, for it is manifestly not in the interest of anyone for there to be a general election in Jamaica at this time

One red herring after another

At the end of the day, all these unnecessary political melodramas - Dabdoub versus Vaz, Shaw versus Davies and Bunting - even the entire Budget speech exercise itself, has been one red herring after another. The extremely serious issues facing the country are not being addressed and some sections of the media, driven by a sensationalist appetite, are abetting this. Most Jamaicans are under far too much pressure right now to care about either Vaz or Dabdoub or about who did what to whom in the endless FINSAC saga. A steady but unmistakable feeling is taking hold in the country that the politicians are playing games while the country goes to waste. The continued upward spiral in our murder rate is the clearest expression of the spread of this dangerous mood of demoralisation.

Real immediate problems

The Government is deceiving itself if it thinks that all these announcements about new investment in casino hotels impressed anyone outside its Wabenzi coterie. In its own interest and ours, it had better focus and take urgent steps to address the real immediate problems which people are facing, especially crime. Do something serious about the crisis in Clarendon and stop wasting time. In the past, the JLP has succumbed to the illusion that 'sound management' reflected in better GDP growth rates and even employment creation would ensure them popular support. They forget that it was at the height of one such period, in 1968, that there was the strongest outburst of popular dissent since Independence which almost brought down the Shearer government. God forbid that history should repeat itself!

In yesterday’s public affairs article written by Don Robotham under the headline ‘Saga from SUVs to Finsac’, it was stated that the Jamaica Labour Party government has spent $30 million on SUVs for its ministers. That is incorrect. The Government has spent close to $30 million to purchase SUVs for at least 10 Cabinet and junior ministers.