Jamaica, Singapore and those hard choices

EVERY now and again people cite Singapore as an example of where Jamaica should be going; or should have. But in the 1960s Singapore, and many other developing countries, had modeled themselves on Jamaica, then basking in the fresh glow of independence. However, Lee Kuan Yew, the iron-willed leader of that country from independence in 1965 until 1990, obviously found Jamaican society very different to his own, as described in his autobiography, From Third World to First. Might he assess the situation differently today?


"At Kingston, Jamaica, in April 1975, Prime Minister Michael Manley, a light-skinned West Indian, presided with panache and spoke with great eloquence. But I found his views quixotic. He advocated a "redistribution of the world's wealth." His country was a well-endowed island of 2,000 square miles, with several mountains in the centre, where coffee and other subtropical crops were grown. They had beautiful holiday resorts built by Americans as winter homes. Theirs was a relaxed culture. The people were full of song and dance, spoke eloquently, danced vigorously, and drank copiously. Hard work they had left behind with slavery."

The weekly Pondi Road travel column in the Observer, recently described Singapore as 'sterile' and lacking Jamaica's freedoms, but also had room for envy: "The contrast in the development of both countries is an indictment of what we are willing to accept as a society. The silver lining is that the Singaporean experience demonstrates that it is possible to fix it all in one great visionary's lifetime. Is he out there?"