Opinion
- Editorial- Commentary
Trinidad
Guardian :
Message
for T&T from Jamaica?
Editorial
RESIDENTS of the northern Caribbean island of
Jamaica voted yesterday in a general election that
pollsters say could be the closest electoral competition
there in years and one which could have an impact
on when Prime Minister Patrick Manning decides
to call the election here.
Yesterday’s
election was held against the backdrop of the
damage done by Hurricane Dean which
caused the authorities there to delay the poll
by one week.
The
election was also held in the context of a political
environment that is not as fraught with
the echoes of murder as have some of the previous
elections in that country—in particular one
in 1980 when close to 1,000 people were murdered
between the announcement of the election and the
day on which it was held.
The
killing of 17 people between Friday and Sunday
and the drive-by shooting incident in a south-east
St Andrew constituency were apparently considered
to be par for the course in Jamaica, a country
with one of the world’s highest murder rates.
Officials of the independent election watchdog
body described the day’s voting as “peaceful.”
Both
of the major polls commissioned by the two major
newspapers in Jamaica indicate that the ruling
People’s National Party (PNP), led by Prime
Minister Portia Simpson Miller, could be beaten
by the opposition after winning four consecutive
general elections and ruling Jamaica since 1989.
The opposition Jamaica Labour Party, led by Bruce
Golding, has generated a strong late surge to the
finish line with a poll published in the Jamaica
Observer newspaper on Sunday putting the party
ahead by nine percentage points while a poll commissioned
by the Sunday Gleaner had the JLP winning at least
32 of the 60 parliamentary seats at stake.
As
in T&T, these polling predictions could
be upset by a number of factors including which
party has the best election-day machinery which
serves to ensure that supporters get to the polling
stations on time.
If the ruling party loses power, it may send shivers
through the Caribbean that are so vigorous that
they may be felt as far south as Trinidad.
After
years of negative or flat growth, the Jamaican
economy is finally beginning to brighten, spurred
on by significant foreign investment in the country’s
crucial tourism sector, which has generated thousands
of jobs in construction.
Defeated St Lucian Prime Minister Kenny Anthony
lost the general election last year when the economy
there was booming and unemployment had been substantially
reduced.
While the local factors at play in each country
are different, it may be argued, based on the results
in St Lucia and the latest poll results in Jamaica,
that a strong economy and robust job creation alone
may not be enough for Caribbean electors.
If
Mr Golding wins, many Jamaica watchers in this
country expect the JLP to fall back on its traditional
stance of scepticism to most things Caribbean,
including the large investments that T&T companies
have made in Jamaica.
Jamaica
is this country’s largest Caricom
market and T&T companies such as RBTT Financial,
Trinidad Cement, Bermudez, Guardian Holdings and
SM Jaleel have been well entrenched in Jamaica
for years.
In
the event of a change of government in Jamaica,
the new ruling party may need to be restrained
by those who see the region’s future as being
towards closer regional integration rather than
seeking economic ties and relationships with extra-Caribbean
countries.
Apart from the attitude to the Caribbean, very
little separates the macroeconomic policies of
the two major parties in Jamaica.
This should mean that it will be business as usual
whichever party forms the majority after the general
election and even if no party forms the government
and the election ends tied at 30 seats a piece.
Trinidad Guardian is
one of Trinidad's daily newspaper.
Petroleumworld not necessarily share these
views.
Editor's
Note: This article was first publish in Trinidad
Guardian,Tuesday 4th September, 2007 . Petroleumworld
reprint this article in the interest
of our readers.
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Petroleumworld
09/04/07
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