The honorable Michael Manley in his book “Struggle in the Periphery” describes lucidly the contentious issues he had with the International monetary fund at the time of his stewardship. The then prime minister, fervent opponent at the time of the apartheid regime, a anti-imperialist and sympathizer of the poor in the Jamaica emphasize three important aspect of a well defined development model. Firstly,” The search must be for the development of a productive capability that exploits the natural advantage of the society and aims for the most rapid development of its production for home needs and for trade. Secondly, “the provision of foreign exchange on a consistent and reliable basis” and Thirdly, “great care has to be taken with demand management itself lest the social shocks to which the ailing economy is subject are greater than it can bear, in short, we need a genuine international institution controlled international and flexible enough to assist different types of economies”.
It is clear that Mr. Manley did not see the IMF as this institution to guide the development of third world nations. The present reality in Jamaica prove that applying a contraction in government spending will spur economic growth defy any statistical data of documented IMF experiment. Mr. Audley Shaw, the ebullient Finance minister of the discredited Golding Administration is trying to score tribal points of explaining his record of a failed IMF policy, while his other tribal antagonist, Mr. Peter Phillip will do likewise and both will be right in the tribal context but wrong in a National construct. The People National Party have abandoned all of its founding principle and adopted the liberal policies of the Jamaica Labor Party. The total privatization of all our important Assets and using the market forces to handle our foreign exchange is doomed to failure.
Written by: Carlos Daley, BSC,MSC,CFP,CSM.
Carlos Daley holds an executive certificate in Strategic Management and Business Evaluation from Harvard University School of Business
