I sat through the four and a half hour presentation of the Finance Minister and I am more convinced than ever that this Government does not have any intention of tackling the fundamental challenges facing our country. With them, Jamaica will continue along its current path, and the frustrations and hopelessness of the majority of our people will continue to grow.
The 2024/2025 budget is yet another ‘tinkering’ budget not grounded in a vision of development for the Jamaican people. According to their economic model, something will trickle down to the farmer, the teacher, the nurse and the sanitation worker, the hairdresser and the taximan. After eight years, they want Jamaicans to wait even longer for the trickle that might come. Much of what was presented, we have heard before:
We had heard so much of it before:
• The six-story hospital UWI was first announced in 2015 by Fenton Ferguson. The Minister of Finance seems to have found the plan in 2020 hence the recent re-announcement.
• The Jamworld and Fort Rocky entertainment zone projects have been announced and re-announced several times. In fact Fort Rocky was named Jamaica’s First Entertainment Zone in Oct 2017
• The customs duty changes were announced on another stage last November.
• The new garbage trucks and buses were announced in 2020 to much fanfare and ribbon cutting.
Meanwhile, Jamaicans are crying that times are too hard, the cost of living is too high and their wages are too low. Young people are crying out for opportunities to further their education, and for better job options. Citizens are crying ‘no’ to corruption and deception, and ‘yes’ to transparency and truth. In terms of broken promises and deception, who can forget:
• 5% growth in 4 years
• An Impeachment Bill in the first 100 days
• Fixed election dates
• And Jamaica’s greatest wish – sleeping with our windows and doors open.
And the new ones that emerged during the Local Government Election, like converting Clarkes Town into a city, or Portmore into Little Miami, are mere pie-in-the-sky ideas masquerading as a vision for national development.
We live in a country where there is:
• Increasing doubt in impartiality of our institutions
• Increasing reports of fear of victimisation by Jamaicans not aligned to the government.
• Entrenched apathy with Jamaican nationals losing hope, who feel as if there is no recourse, no justice and no point in participating in the political systems or exercising their franchise.
• Clouds of uncertainty and concern regarding the rights and freedoms of Jamaican citizens, on a range of issues from beach access to States of Emergency
• Absence of accountability for wrongdoers aligned to the government
• And the militarisation of the Constabulary
All of this is the manifestation of a tendency towards autocratic rule that I have spoken about year after year, right here in this Budget Presentation. That is the untenable foundation upon which this country is being run.
An excerpt from the budget presentation by Opposition Leader Mark Golding
