Caribbean Studies Essay

Name: Audia Thomas Grade: 13 General Studies Date: January 25, 2016 Subject: Caribbean Studies

Title: Caribbean governments are more concerned with maintaining political power than creating the conditions necessary to increase human development. Discuss this statement

According to John Buchan, novelist, historian and politician “The task of leadership is not to put greatness in humanity, but to illicit it, for greatness is already there”. Caribbean governments are more concerned with maintaining political power than creating the conditions necessary to increase human development. It is almost a universal principle that humans in power discover they like power and begin to initiate strategies to maintain that power. In democratic countries of the Caribbean political parties are seen as been selfserving and only abuse the system of competition for their own ends which is to win and keep power in order serve themselves. Political parties have exploited citizens and turn them against each other in the form of political tribalism. They have used the people’s poverty to make false promises of benefits, and turn them into violent political gangs. Political parties govern mainly with the objective of winning the next election and so resources and policies are devoted to short term electoral populism rather than to long term development. Because so much rest on winning elections they corrupt the electoral process to their advantage. Forms of corruption varies but includes bribery, extortion, nepotism, patronage, graft and embezzlement and telling blatant lies in parliament.

In Jamaica in September 2011 the Hon. Portia Simpson Miller who was opposition leader at the time and current president of the Peoples National Party Portia Simpson Miller used the provision of jobs as a way to return to power. She told thousands of party supporters at the party’s 73 rd annual conference that the PNP will establish the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP) to drive economic development. She stated that 100,000 Jamaicans have lost their job in the past four years and that JEEP will be able to drive the country to economic development and prosperity. JEEP was developed to provide job opportunities and wealth creation in the immediate term, the medium term and the long term. But how true was this! Yes, jobs were created in six main areas; agro-processing, cultural and creative industries, including sports, micro and small business development, manufacturing, community transformation projects and information and communication technology but how many people are employed, and many of who are employed are under-employed. Can you imagine a citizen goes to Teacher’s College for four years earning a bachelor and cannot get a worthwhile job and has to settle for a job in the JEEP programme as an assistant teacher which pays less than a quarter of what they should receive with their bachelor degree! Thus with the implementation of the jeep programme many citizens with diploma bachelors and masters are currently unemployed or are otherwise under-employed. Youth unemployment is more than twice the national rate which is 38%. It seems fair to state that such a programme is reflective of the government’s inability to stimulate economic growth and create an environment for job creation but just used this manifesto as a way to gain political power rather than considering the development of citizens

According to Hon. Andrew Holness, leader of opposition and leader of the Jamaica labour party in an article entitled ‘No user fee, no problem in the Sunday Gleaner dated January 24, 2016 future Jamaica Labour Party Government would implement creative measures to ensure that public health care remains free. Sounds great, but is it actually worthwhile! First of all hospitals cannot facilitate the luxury of free health care and the government will not be able to foot the bill alone. It will only abuse the system and overwork healthcare workers. Hospitals in the country are not well equipped. For example at the Kingston public hospital on a number of occasions surgeries have to be cancelled or postponed because of a shortage of equipment and malfunctioning of others. According to a surgeon at the hospital “the elevator is always a problem, as it hardly even works, the issue gets even worst when you have to tell a patient I’m sorry, I can’t do your surgery again because the elevator is not working” if the government was really concerned about free healthcare then they would also make an effort to improve the health care facilities and equipment. But obviously this is not the main aim, the aim is to bribe citizens in believing that they care by doing things that seems to be worthwhile and will result in human development when they truly don’t care. Yes, health care might be free, but it becomes costly when a patient is waiting for several days for just a single test. Patients have to be provided with clean linen, meals and medication which is very expensive. During election time in Jamaica both political parties tries to improve the lives of farmers by providing them with fertilizers and black tanks. But why wait until election is approaching to act so caring and thoughtful, this is because governments want to maintain or to be given political power. Also as a way to maintain political power the Peoples National Party decriminalized marijuana in Jamaica allowing up to

up to two ounces which amounts to 57 grams of marijuana for personal use to both locals and tourists can possess marijuana for medical, scientific and religious use. Offenders can now be fined and walk before the court once bill is paid and then walk free without a criminal record. The decriminalization of marijuana in Jamaica has brought smiles to many faces and brings joy especially to the Rastafarian community who for years have been protesting its legalization by the Jamaican government. Marijuana however has many harmful effects such as changing the structure of sperm cells, causing temporary sterility in men, may upset a woman’s menstrual cycle. The immediate effects of taking marijuana includes rapid heartbeat, disorientation, and lack of physical coordination, often followed by depression or sleepiness. Some users may even suffer panic attacks and anxiety. The government decriminalized ganja to please citizens, and this will help them to maintain their political power. In Barbados in 2008, the Thompson led Democratic Labour Party (DLP) promised transparency legislation in 100 days, it promised the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) operatives suspected of corruption would be held to account, it promised jobs and reduced cost of living but such promises were not fulfilled. In the last General election held in Barbados the same promises were made again, the BLP promised that they have the policies to kick start the economy. It is obvious that the BLP is using political manifesto negatively as a way to maintain political power rather than creating opportunities for human development. In 2007 in The Bahamas the Free National Movement (FNM) committed to budget deficit reduction, but was this promise fulfilled! Even though the economic climate at that time would have impacted the achievement of the promise the government made no effort to reduce the deficit. Conversely the government being strapped for

cash simultaneously increased taxes and engaged in enormous borrowing of money. Also according to the FNM manifesto strong economic growth was expected to be fostered through domestic and foreign direct investment. Unfortunately little or no new investments were secured and thus there was an increase in the rate of unemployed citizens. This was just a way to maintain political power as human development is not uplifted. In conclusion, Caribbean governments main objective is to win elections and so resources and policies are devoted to short-term electoral populism rather than to long term development. They make many unfulfilled promises, bribe citizens and create opportunities that may be of little or no benefit to citizens. Caribbean government’s make it seems as if they are overly concerned with the development of humans when they are not as they only want to maintain or gain political power. In order to attain human development good governance is needed. Governments should work together instead of fighting against each other for political power and make the development of citizen’s top priority.