JLP must begin its road show now and take a much softer approach !

I don’t believe many Jamaicans in particular the poor understand the wide ranging implications of the recently announced tax package, the IMF agreement and the next round of tax increases to come and finally the sliding dollar. Do not expect that our “caring and understanding” Finance Minister and or the Prime Minister will have a road show to tell us either.

I am therefore using this medium to appeal to Mr. Holness and Mr. Shaw and the rest of the misguided JLP team to come down from where they sit and take a completely different approach.

The JLP believes that by having numerous press conference and telling us how bad things are going to be impresses anyone. The fact is those who listen to these press conference already understand the true state of the country and can process and understand the language being used to prepare us for the tough times ahead. The problem is not us who can read and “maths” things our for ourselves, its those who do not have access to the internet or the Gleaner, Observer or main stream media if they even do, cannot understand the message.

The second and most important thing the JLP appears to be missing, is any attack on the PNP and its leaders, will be interpreted to the poor or by the poor as an on them and so they will either not listen or worse case miss the message and seek instead to defend the poor people party and poor people champion Portia Simpson Miller.

Given this fact, the JLP must instead take a softer and more direct approach that I believe will yield significantly better results and will put the party in a much better position of being seen as a better alternative.

The JLP must before April 1, start an all island road show and seek to engage the very poor its trying to warn of the pending increases. It must drop its bravado and its green shirt and flags and green cap and instead move around in neutral colour and speak in simple and honest none partisan terms to the populace.

The message must be:

1. The full implications of the recently announcement tax packages in terms of dollar and cents for the poor and lower middle-income persons.
2. The possible implications of the new IMF deals, both in terms of job loss, less money in the pockets of ordinary Jamaicans etc.
3. The impact of the sliding dollar. It must seek to explain, that while those who receive remittances appears to be receiving more money, the fact is importers prices their goods their goods at  $3 – $4 above the banks selling rate to them. They must seek to show that while they may get $91.50 for each us $, the banks sell to the imports at $95.57. The importer then prices his goods using a higher exchange to account for further devaluation, when its time to pay for his good and services. The end result of all the above, is they are able to purchase less of the same goods they would normally purchase even though they have more real dollars in their pockets.
4. They must seek to explain to the people that as high as electricity cost is now, it will get even higher, due to the country paying more in terms of Ja$ for each barrel of oil, plus the fact that JPS uses a foreign exchange clause, which ensure you pay higher rates of electricity every time the exchange rate moves up.
5. They must seek to explain that the sliding dollar makes the cost of transportation higher, which make the cost of purchase at their corner shop even higher and that is on top of the higher priced being paid for imports.
6. They must seek to engage the people and encourage them to buy Jamaica and that by doing so, they will actually ensure that they support local business and keep jobs and foreign exchange here in Jamaica, which reduces the pressure on the Jam dollar.
7. They must tell the people to grow what the eat and eat what they grow.
8. They must tell the people not to take to the streets and riot despite the tough times, because all that would seek to do it to set the country back.
9. They must seek to get the message to the people; they the country is in deep financial crises and tough decisions must be made in order to get us out of this mess. In that message, they must say to the people, these are the sacrifices we would be willing to make to share the burden and so it does not fall on your our shoulders alone.
10. They must during these road shows, offer viable and sustainable alternatives, that thought may be “bitter” at the start, will ultimately lead to improved results.
11. They must show the people the road map and explain in simple terms, what does all of this means for them and provide realistic timelines, when we will begin to see the benefits.
12. They must seek to explain in simple terms, what plans they would implement to improve the economy and how in real terms that would affect their ability to “eat food for a long time ” and not ” eat a food today”.
13. They must seek to explain in very simple terms what is debt, GDP and the term Debt/GDP ration and the impact that has on:

• The country’s ability to provide decent education
• The country’s ability to provide decent health care
• The country’s ability to provide for old, young and destitute
• The country’s ability to provide and maintain community’s road, water, gullies and drains.
• The country’s ability to provide improved security for its citizenry.
• And the list goes on and on

14.  They must also seek to explain to Jamaicans, what other tax packages are likely to come and what those new packages are likely to mean in terms of our ability to buy food, pay our bills, pay for healthcare send our kids to school et
15. They must empathize with the people, without making any sort of promises, as they would normally do in the past. Instead the must seek to say to the people, we understand your situation, this is beyond politics, we however will take an approach that will ensure that the sacrifices you make today, will pay dividend at the end of such and such.
16. They should tell the people, how they will turn the budget debate into a reporting scorecard to the people. This scorecard would indicate, where we are vs. where we were supposed to be and whether we are on target or not. Where failure is imminent it must state, what the likely impact of their failure to meet those specific targets on our bottom line i.e. our ability to “eat food”.
17. The JLP must come across as more care and understanding and must be willing to do more listening than speaking and when it does speak, it must be in clear and concise easy to understand language without attacking the PNP and or the Prime Minister . ( Leave that up to Jay).

I believe that if they keep on doing this starting now and keep at it over the next year or so, it will keep the PSM administration on its toes and we will see more civil discourse and will force the administration perform because the people of Jamaica now knows what to look for and the what the possible alternative appears to be.