Dennis Jones
I was struck by an Editorial in The Gleaner on May 23, āĀ āGood Initiative, Mr Duncan, But ā¦ ‘Ā noting (my emphasis) that Keith Duncan, co-chair of the Economic Policy Oversight Committee āhas taken his show on the road. He is on an education exercise, going into communities, attempting to break down the seemingly arcane ideas of finance into the language of the people and show the relationship between achieving the IMF targets and peopleās lives.
The Editorial noted thatĀ many moreĀ Jamaicans that would have been the case otherwise will have a better understandingĀ of the targets the government is committed to achieving under the IMF programme. That should make for better buy-in from the nation.
But, the Editorial sawĀ āaĀ risk, should he not be careful, of theĀ blurring of the lines between the committeeās job of monitoring performance, based on the empirical analysis of a specific set of data, and the responsibility of political leaders to enunciate policy and explain to constituents the basis on which competing priorities are resolved.āĀ Further, the Editorial arguedĀ āMrĀ Duncan should be wary of being perceived as usurping the role of Government. We are quite happy with policing the implementation of the programme, rather than being drawn into social engineering.ā
My view is this perceived risk is that it is not that great. Many agencies and commentators can and will attempt to help others understand what government is doing, and their stipulated roles are usually kept fully in view. If there are issues in certain interpretations, part of a good democracy would be that government can express its displeasure, if it amounts to that, or conversely express its thanks because sometimes others are better at the process of explaining policies. In fact, thatās one of the key features of a free press/media. Also,Ā governmentās explanations of what it is purporting to do can often be self-serving, not least because politicians like to give the best impression of what they do, seeking to extract credit and minimize blame.
During the talk, I drew attention to the other recent attempts to explain better parts of government economic policies, as undertaken by the Economic Growth Council through its public forums, andĀ the think tank, Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), with its recent public forums (on the 2017-18 Budget and this week on āStrenthening Integrity through Innovationā). All of these events try to draw the public more closely āinto the tentā and be part of the dialogues that are going on.
My view mirrors thatĀ expressed by educator and advocate Carol Narcisse:
āThe economic programme is not going to be successful if we the people donāt understand it, donāt participate in it, donāt think it is a good thing, donāt see how it is going to benefit us, and if we donāt have an equitable way in which to both participate and benefit from the results of it.ā
I would agree, also, with the complementary view she expressed: āEPOC going āOn the Cornerā is anĀ example of participatory democracy and is an extension of its responsibility to provide oversight.ā
Author: Dennis Jones
