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Re: Seaga's view /comparison of ...
The analysis was clear and concise, with facts and figures to back it up.
This is a far cry from what we get out of other commetators on the Jamaican economy and politics.
It shows the dishonesty and corruption which was the hallmark of the Manley regime and which continued under Patterson and Lady Huggins!
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Re: Seaga's view /comparison of ...
Claude Robinson is retarded.Comment
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Re: Seaga's view /comparison of ...
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Donnika</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Claude Robinson is retarded. </div></div>
No, not retarded just a PNP apologist although it could be argued that anyone who consistently tries to cover up the failings of any PNP Government since the 70s, needs a head check pronto.Comment
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Re: Seaga's view /comparison of ...
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Donnika</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Claude Robinson is retarded. </div></div>
No, not retarded just a PNP apologist although it could be argued that anyone who consistently tries to cover up the failings of any PNP Government since the 70s, needs a head check pronto.
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I know Mr robinson,and he was no PNP during the 70's, and neither is he now.
Excerpts from his piece worth mentioning.
The context for the 1970s
Seaga's analysis also failed to take account of context and the more deep-rooted problems which Manley sought to address in the 1970s.
Seen through my own biased lenses, the social transformation programme of the 1970s was a necessary redress of the inequalities and inequities of colonialism and the early years of Independence in the 1960s, the unyielding response of some social and business groups to the policies and programmes and the context of the Cold War.
The discussion paper, Taking Responsibility: The Jamaican Economy since Independence, released February 22, 2007 by a group of mostly Jamaican academics at home and abroad has used a large body of data and other information to look at the performance of the Jamaican economy from Independence in 1962 to the present.
The document describes the 1962-72 period as growth without transformation which neither laid a basis for sustainable economic growth nor the welfare of the majority of Jamaicans.
In his first book, The Politics of Change, Manley noted that his People's National Party won the 1972 elections "comparatively unencumbered" as far as specific pledges of a detailed, traditional election manifesto are concerned.
However, he wrote, "From another point of view we were massively encumbered by history, by need, by hope and by a set of generalised expectations." Much of the rhetoric and actions of the subsequent period in the 1970s was to give voice and concrete actions to those needs and expectations.
That was the background for programmes like the special employment programme, the National Housing Trust, a national minimum wage, free secondary and university education, the National Youth Service, the bauxite levy on the foreign mining companies, the state trade corporation as part of a scheme to control prices, passed social legislation which removed the stigma of illegitimacy and provided for equal pay for equal work for women, among other things.
These things were attempted in what the Taking Responsibility document concluded was "arguably the most difficult decade for the world economy since the end of the world wars" evidenced by the oil price shocks of 1973 and 1979.
As the document pointed out, the 1970s was a reaction to the "volatile social ferment" brewing in the country at the time when the "oppressed majority felt disenfranchised and cheated". Manley's responses to these challenges laid a foundation that "ensured black people would have self-regard and self-reliance".
But the country "quite literally paid a high price for the very noble social gains, for in the aftermath our economy was left in shambles". In short, "the demands of economic redistribution and social inclusion turned out to be fiscally expensive."
The debate about why Manley made the choices he made has been going on for more than two decades and is not likely to subside soon. Part of the difficulty, of course, is that the economic numbers get caught up in fierce disputes about the role of foreign and domestic destabilisation in the process of economic contraction.
Manley and Seaga as the same?
And there is also disagreement about the economic management under Manley versus the period under Seaga in the 1980s, especially about the extent they were, respectively, 'socialist' and 'capitalist'.
According to the Taking Responsibility paper, the 1980s "represent, more than anything, a missed opportunity".
While the Seaga rhetoric allayed fears of local and international business, "the overall structure of the economy remained the same. We continued with a state-led developmental model, and continued to see trade restrictions and price controls. Furthermore, improvements witnessed in the developmental indices were a continuation rather than a shift from what obtained in the 1970s."
The period 1980 to 1989 was capitalism without markets. Import monopoly of Jamaica Commodity Trading Company remained in place and the list of goods controlled under state trading actually expanded while foreign exchange controls remained in place.
The paper concludes the comparison, "Whatever the change in rhetoric, the economic model remained unmistakeable state-led. The unimpressive macro-economic outcomes were therefore testimony to the importance of substance over form in marketing".
The conclusion that Seaga and Manley were two halves of the same coin will take a lot of getting used to especially for those of us who lived through the polarisation and doomsday scenarios of the 1970s. That's why the Taking Responsibility paper should be widely read and critiqued as the authors move to making their final conclusions.
Yes, I agree entirely with Mr. Seaga that we should not forget the past. And important witnesses like him must be part of the collective memory but, ultimately, the period is going to be judged by more dispassionate research, analysis and assessment by persons who were not so much part of the action. We must always be mindful that the point of reciting the past is to instruct the future.
Claude Robinson is senior research fellow in the Mona School of Business, UWI
[email protected]
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Re: Seaga's view /comparison of ...
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Donnika</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Claude Robinson is retarded. </div></div>
No, not retarded just a PNP apologist although it could be argued that anyone who consistently tries to cover up the failings of any PNP Government since the 70s, needs a head check pronto.
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I know Mr robinson,and he was no PNP during the 70's, and neither is he now. </div></div>
Nothing in the piece is worth mentioning as he is merely making an [censored] of himself as usual. Whether he was a PNP supporter or member in the 70s is neither here or there (we will get back to this point later), the point is his column are mere vehicles to spin the events he is reporting on in favour of the Government.
Like the formula followed by the other Spinners when they cannot find a good week for the Government they turn to the USA.
As to him not being a PNP Supporter/Member in the 70s? That is hardly likely, since he rose to become Michael Menlie's Press Secretary. In the 70s every Government Job, especially at a very high level was given to party functionaries. That is why there was the Pickersgill Committee.Comment
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Re: Seaga's view /comparison of ...
The usual spin from the dedicated Caomrades!Comment
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Re: Seaga's view /comparison of ...
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The usual spin from the dedicated Caomrades! </div></div> So all the Jamaican academics are comrades??Comment
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