Witnessing Jamaican Politics First-Hand

Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend a session of Parliament in Jamaica - a very coveted invitation, as many Jamaicans have not even been inside the Parliament building.  The Minister of Health (Rudyard Spencer) was speaking on the accomplishments of the MOH in Jamaica as well as some of the ongoing challenges.

So Jamaica's political system derives from that in the UK.  At a  Parliament meeting, you will have the "Ministers" from both the party in control (Jamaican Labour Party) and the opposing party (People's National Party), who battle it out.  I thought it was very cool to see a lot of the political figures about whom I'd been reading.  The Prime Minister was not present (he was off the island at a conference, but rumors and the opposition suggest that he skipped the meeting to avoid being questioned on certain issues around the recent Dudus Coke extradition... who knows!).  But the Minister of Finance, Minister of Agriculture, Leader of the Opposition, Speaker of the House, etc etc were all present.  It was certainly a high security event, with roads blocked off, metal detectors, and security everywhere.

My first impression was... well, shock!  I was surprised at how unprofessional it seemed.  Representatives had no problem interrupting one another, speaking on cell phones, shuffling around seats, passing notes etc etc.  As one article suggested, tempers seemed to easily flare!  The means of showing support for a statement was to BANG ON THE TABLES... over and over and loudly!  I just felt that it wasn't the most respectful environment.  I mean, I would imagine it is in everyone's benefit to listen to the Minister of Health's speech attentively... then you learn about a new area, right?  And given how intertwined different industries seem to be, I feel like you should understand the developments in each sector!  But it didn't seem like that was a concern here.  And if it was, well, that attitude wasn't conveyed very clearly.  I personally enjoyed the Minister of Health's speech, as it was a good synopsis of the different programs the MOH had implemented over the last year and the success they had faced.

I wasn't sure if my feelings of surprise were warranted or not, so I asked my colleagues how they felt.  And they seemed to agree!  They said that in Jamaica, politicians are known for being caught up in the feud between the two parties; rather, attention should be given to the broader good of the Jamaican population!  Even though Jamaican government takes after the structure of that in the UK, its known for being a little rowdier.

Wednesday I had my 6th week of class - halfway through the semester!  Yikes!  However this week, we spent the beginning of class listening to the guest speaker at the Business School - Dr. Kouame from the World Bank.  He and his colleagues spoke about the two Development Policy Loans (DPLs) given to Jamaica in 2009 and 2010.  He explained that because of its high debt and stifled growth, Jamaica was a good candidate to receive the DPL.  Their initial take is that the loan has been successful in terms of increasing fiscal discipline, permitting a debt exchange, and lowering the cost of servicing debt.  But when asked by the audience how the World Bank measures this success (as in the key performance indicators), Dr. Kouame seemed to circumvent the question... he didn't exactly give a straight answer!  My professor thought that this is because the World Bank didn't really want to advertise the general conditions required for giving out loans.  Overall, informative.

We spent the rest of class talking about political scenarios - looking at the range of capitalism (free market) to communism (controlled market).  Our professor explained that you have to understand not only the political framework when your business expands into another country, but also the risks.  For example, a more communist government may change the policy from one day to the next, so you have to have a strategic plan.  This plan could either involve integrating yourself in the new framework or being defensive (maintaining your ways).  An example of the former is a company that depends on local suppliers, etc so that if it collapses, it brings down the local markets as well.  An example of the latter is listing yourself on the stock exchange so again, if the company collapses, it affects the local people.  What was interesting was discussing how foreign exchange markets mirror the political environment.  With a controlled economy, the currency tends to be fixed; with a more capitalist economy, the currency tends to be floating.  So really, the cycle is:  Political Environment affects Political Risk, which affects Foreign Exchange, which affects the Business Cycle.  Neato!