I WAS FOCUSED on current political developments in St Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago when I learnt of the very unflattering report by the World Bank on the economic problems of Jamaica that, as the ‘Observer’ reported last Sunday, fingered ‘functional illiteracy’ as a major cause of the country’s very slow growth rate.

JAMAICA: Of course, ‘functional illiteracy’ is not a peculiarity of Jamaica. It is also a factor of concern in other CARICOM member states, and depending on how ‘literacy’, particularly ‘functional literacy’ in the labour force is defined or assessed.

What, however, would be rather disturbing for Jamaicans was to learn that, according to the World Banks’ representative, Badrul Haque, is that at least two thirds of those comprising the country’s labour force “are functionally illiterate in the sense that they have never taken a test in their lives; not even at the grade nine levels.”

Apart from this grim reality, as disclosed in the World Bank assessment in 2009 — forty seven years after Jamaica became an independent nation — the first in the English-speaking Caribbean was to further learn that some one third of ‘potential workers’ who remain outside the labour force “are not even looking for jobs.”

It is difficult to avoid the sad conclusion that both the education and political systems must be blamed for a problem recognised by the World Bank as being at the core of declining productivity over the past 35 years, at the rate of 1.05 percent annually.

Successive governments of the Jamaica Labour Party and People’s National Party must acknowledge their failure to steer Jamaica away from that dread ‘functional illiteracy’ hole in which the country has been stuck for so long, and critically assess why such an alarming percentage of its labour force could have been so terribly neglected without “having taken a test in their lives.”

When I raised this issue in a brief conversation with an icon of the Caribbean, who has a great love for Jamaica, the novelist and social commentator, George Lamming, he was quick to respond that the findings of the World Bank constituted a very “serious indictment.”

An indictment, he feels, that must be shared not only by the political parties and the captains of industry and commerce in Jamaica, but also reflected in the education system, right up to the University of the West Indies, for the quality of human resources being produced at a very high cost…It is a regional problem and much to do with the political culture.

Kittitian/‘Trini’ scenarios

While Jamaica critically analyses the dilemma it faces over ‘functional illiteracy’ that’s so costly to economic growth in a country which also suffers from high levels of joblessness and criminality, two other CARICOM states – St Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago — are faced with a surprising level of political howlings from governments.

It is surprising, first of all, because the ruling parties in both of these Caribbean Community states boast comfortable parliamentary majorities and much experience in governance.

The surprise may diminish when it is realised that, in the case of St Kitts and Nevis, the ruling Labour Party of Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, now completing its third term in government, is busy campaigning for a fourth term, the election for which is due by November but quite likely to be called before.

An example of the emotional outbursts at his primary opponent in St Kitts, the People’s Action Movement (PAM), came last week following the filing of court petitions charging the government with attempts to gerrymander constituencies ahead of fresh election. Douglas has even accused PAM of laying the basis for the “imprisonment” of the country’s Governor General, Sir Cuthbert Sebastian, who has been named in one of the court documents. PAM’s leader, Lindsay Grant, in turn, challenged Douglas to name the election date while awaiting the outcome of the petitions.

T&T: The political scenario in Trinidad and Tobago is different: Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s governing People’s National Movement (PNM), which won 26 of the 41 constituencies at the November 2007 general election — though with less popular votes (6.05 per cent) than the combined opposition — appears to have raised a political ants nest by the recent announcement to postpone local government election, already three years overdue and previously twice postponed.

This third postponement coincides with spreading discontent over the reappointment of John Jeremie as Attorney General, against whom a vote of no confidence has been approved by the Trinidad and Tobago Law Association. He accused the Association of having a “political agenda.”

Manning is not only lambasting his main opponents — United National Congress (currently more divided than united), and the Congress of the People — at PNM meetings and special rallies. He is also aiming his salvos at the media for being “irresponsible” — that familiar swipe when media news and comments differ sharply from public relations journalism.

Now new and strident voices are being raised for the Prime Minister himself to resign for failing to replace Jeremie. But he pours his contempt of such a development, swinging left, right and centre as he caricatures the political opposition as being “too naïve,” too “politically immature” to run a government.

IN BASSETERRE, where the incumbent Labour Party holds seven of the eleven elected seats for the National Assembly (all in St Kitts), there are growing examples of a government on the defensive.

The opposition PAM, which previously also had a long spell in government, won just one seat at the last election. However, it had secured almost 32 per cent of the votes to the Labour Party’s 50.06 per cent, and has since been displaying much optimism for change in government.

Question of immediate relevance is whether the results of yet unpublished opinion polls, showing the incumbent Labour Party marginally ahead to retain power, offers an explanation for Prime Minister Douglas’ public showing of political discomfort for the coming election.