WHEN JAMAICA gained political independence in 1962 it did not put the requisite plans and programmes in place for economic independence. Once it decided it would cease to rely on others for its political self-determination, it should have logically made plans for its own economic self-determination.

Jamaicans felt naively that they could earn enough foreign exchange from their new industries to always pay for their imports. We overestimated long-term world market conditions for sugar, bauxite and tourism and underestimated our voracious consumer appetite for an American-style middle-class lifestyle, the extravagant form of which even the American middle class now realises it cannot afford. In consequence, we placed no great emphasis on the discipline of self-reliance.

Social objectives

There was yet another and even deeper problem. Norman Manley had concluded on the eve of Independence that Jamaica's economic model of 'industrialisation by invitation' had failed to achieve its social objectives. The gap between rich and poor had actually widened after the first 10 years of industrialisation. Michael Manley reflected on this in 1993 in saying why it had been his mission to make Jamaica a more egalitarian society. It was he who also preached self-reliance in the 1970s.

The People's National Party (PNP's) economic forum of July 18 confirmed after 47 years of Independence that inequality was still very much a part of Jamaica's reality. The party finds itself still grappling with this under its emerging Progressive Agenda. Michael Witter of the University of the West Indies' Department of Economics told the forum that between 1992 and 2004, the bottom 40 per cent of Jamaicans earned just under 20 per cent of national income while the top 20 per cent took over 47 per cent. Only the intervention of the Jamaican state in the 1990s caused poverty levels to fall actually to their lowest levels since Independence.

Debt and dependency

The failure to be self-reliant has resulted in dependency and debt. We have been running fiscal deficits for 37 of our 47 years of Independence. The entire western world has been consuming more than it has been producing. Economist Ralston Hyman told both the PNP's economic forum and the party's National Executive Council that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are predicting greater global economic decline than they previously did. The expectations for the Jamaican economy are for lower bauxite, tourism and remittance inflows. Fiscal policy will be tested against unstable conditions affecting employment, prices and social equity.

Growing dependency and debt result from earning less from exports than we are spending on imports and taking in much less tax and other revenue to meet our needs even while we are being taxed more. Mr Hyman's predictions are dire. The economy will contract even more than the official estimate. Revenue targets will be missed. There will be more borrowing again next year. And, relevant to our theme, there will be an increase in income inequality. The signs are already pointing in this direction. Unemployment is up to or has gone over 12 per cent. The budgeted fiscal targets of April are already being missed.

The true test of independence is not whether the IMF or others will or can help us but whether we will help ourselves. It is not what conditions the IMF sets that matters but what conditions we set. One condition should be greater self-reliance. This means using our own resources, mobilising our own people, and building stronger community bonds of peace and solidarity. Self-reliance means having the will to invest in ourselves. This, after all, is why we fought for independence. We did not just fight for a flag and other symbols of nationalism.

Self-reliance can take many forms. Here is one good idea. Young people in parts of Britain are given the opportunity to build their own homes, rent them to those who are working (thus earning incomes), developing vocational skills in the process (plumbing, joinery, brickwork) as part of a vocational course, and getting certification afterwards if they pass a vocational exam. They then have certified skills for employment afterwards.

Upliftment

While they are building, they get a stipend from government to keep them. At the end of what can be a short period of 10 weeks, they have home, income, asset, skill and certification. We could transform many zinc-fence communities this way considering all the talk about how many squatter settlements we have. The Government should provide the land and titles and the private sector should help with the materials.

The same model could be used to teach young people to build wells in areas starved of water; to build wind farms and biogas plants for farms and households. They could rent or sell surpluses to the national grid and directly to companies and private consumers. They could repair and rebuild abandoned cars and car parts and household appliances like washing machines and refrigerators to recycle production.

They will need all the facilities we are willing to provide to foreigners - tax holidays, utilities, infrastructure, factories and land space. The Government needs to provide the same services to our young people that it provides or hopes to provide to foreign investors - joined-up services for registering and setting up a business, supply contracts, trained workers, business conferences, exhibitions and fast-track approvals.

After all, if the Government is spending money, it should make sure it is processed fast, pays back quickly and helps the greatest number. It should make good governance work for young and willing Jamaicans. What is Independence if it is to create a state more for foreigners than ourselves?

Our assets

It is important that we produce our way out of this crisis. We cannot tax or borrow our way out. But it is important that as we do so, we draw upon our strengths and assets. People are assets. Some are ready and willing. Others are lazy, without ambition and too parasitic. We can make many productive with the right mentoring, organisation and management of discipline. It is a test of independence that we manage our own people. The premise of independence is that we can manage ourselves better than others can do from a distance.

Land is an asset. Some are of little good and some are owned by people who mean to do little good with it. But government and private owners have much that is idle or underutilised. We should speed up surveying and titling. We must give ownership and security of tenure to those who will be productive. We must manufacture and market more of what comes from the land. It is a test of independence to manage our assets to be more self-reliant. It is a waste of the struggle of those generations of landless Jamaicans who have fought for land under colonialism only to have the land sitting idle in independence.

Skill is an asset. We have the folk and scientific knowledge to grow plants and rear animals. Just before independence, T.P Lecky showed the way to manage agriculture after Independence. We have the biotechnology to make this a more productive enterprise than ever before. We have one of the widest varieties of land and underwater plants. It is a test of our Independence to use our skills to be self-reliant. Independence means little with dependency.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm