Bruce Golding has come with a great deal of baggage, ranging from his rumoured weak performance at Mona to being the only Jamaican politician to have represented two garrison constituencies, one of which he built for himself in Central St Catherine.

There have been few better moments than now for the systemic transformation of Jamaican society and economy. In fact, I think there are only two comparable moments since Independence: the Independence moment itself and the onset of the Michael Manley administration of 1972-1980, both of which were badly blown.

Now has some distinct advantages over then. We are in the midst of a globally challenging period such as has not been seen in eight decades. And the crisis is bursting with opportunities. The euphoria of 1962 and 1972 is absent, which is a good thing.

The population has the harsh experience of the mistakes made, the promises broken, and the hopes unrealised, and has far greater political maturity and moderation than at any other time since Independence. What we want now is bold transformational leadership, not the timorous, technocratic plodding that the Bruce Golding government has been up to.

in no mood for administration change

There are a number of things in favour of the Government. Despite the narrow margin of victory on September 3, 2007, and the noisy antics of the Opposition since then, the people are in no mood whatsoever for a change of administration. They have consistently reconfirmed their choice of leadership for now in the by-elections which delivered widened margins of victory over 2007.

The leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), now prime minister, correctly read the narrow margin victory of 2007 as a call - indeed, a cry - from the people for political collaboration in the national interest. Our fractious, tribalistic politics, especially the bloody Manley/Seaga years, is the single biggest cause of our major national problems. Bruce Golding walked away from that politics and as founder/leader of the National Democratic Movement promised a "new and different" politics. He must not expect a better time than now.

The country is firmly wedged between a rock and a hard place, but has quietly chosen not to explode into civil unrest and disorder. While many other countries have had economic crisis riots we have only kept up our murderous ways in killing more than a thousand and a half citizens each year with no civil explosion. The country has quietly absorbed an increased gas tax, something which has not happened since the 1980s. The return to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which at a different moment could have excited protest, is widely lamented but also quietly understood as a necessity forced upon us, not by the incompetence of the Government but by long-standing domestic problems exacerbated by the global economic crisis.

But the greatest asset which the Government has for pushing deep transformative change is its leader. Bruce Golding has come to the Office of Prime Minister with a great deal of baggage, ranging from his rumoured weak performance at Mona to being the only Jamaican politician to have represented two garrison constituencies, one of which he built for himself in Central St Catherine, and with the don of the current one caught up in a painfully slow extradition process which has to be the greatest embarrassment to the Government since taking office. And the greatest challenge to its credibility.

Golding's reputation for flip-flopping is real but has not seriously stuck or done him great damage.

His stint as construction minister in the Seaga Government with responsibility for both housing and public works contributed, by his own admission, to garrisonisation and the deepening of political tribalisation, out of which so many people have suffered and died. But his political accusers have no cleaner hands and are mostly sensibly quiet.

The country is sombrely open to Golding's atonement through transformational leadership. The polls data, when all the analyses are over and done, are solidly indicating national support for Golding in the Office of the Prime Minister, despite substantial dissatisfaction with the Government at large. The feeling is widespread that, under the circumstances and all things considered, Golding is the best man for the job. What Golding will do with that trust and confidence in the (little) time he has is the $561.4 billion question. The moment beckons the man to rise to the stature of a Franklin Delano Roosevelt or a Winston Churchill on a Jamaican scale of things.

Tinkering with the economy and with social problems, with four eyes fastened on the next election, will not cut it. Now requires radical transformational leadership. And 'now' won't last forever.

The Budget reworking exercise now under way (we can't call it the Budget-cutting exercise again) should focus the Government on the really fundamental question: 'what is this government about'? The old technocratic focus on the economy is the wrong focus. Economies grow when they are nurtured by non- economic factors. The Government should read Adam Smith's enquiry into the Wealth of Nations.

I suggest a small set of transformative interlocking foci.

public order

Golding

At the top of my list is public order across a broad front of law enforcement, including the little quality-of-life laws, the rehabilitation of public space and public behaviour, and the restoration of civic pride.

Justice, across a broad front extending well beyond courthouse to the vigorous protection of constitutional rights and freedoms, fighting corruption and dispute resolution, should be high on the agenda of change.

Linked to public order and justice is personal security of person and property.

A critical broad focus must be, to borrow from the leader of the Opposition, "balancing people's lives". And I want to put together a number of non-traditional approaches under this umbrella. De-garrisonisation will succeed better if it is undertaken as a people liberation struggle rather than an abstract 'national security' or political issue. Radical transformation of land tenure and basic housing as a reversal of a deep historical distortion and injustice belong here. As do basic education and basic health care for the empowerment of people.

The tax system and public administration must be radically reformed, the first for equity and efficiency, the second for policy implementation capacity, high performance delivery and quality customer service.

We are going to be surprised how the economy perks up and takes off when we get these basics right. And if Government must specifically support economic activity, it should do so at the micro and small enterprise levels.

If Golding makes winning the next election his number one goal, as Patterson did, he is likely to lose it. He would certainly be remembered in the footnotes of history as a short-sighted plodder who wasted a crisis. But if the man can rise to the moment, backed by the people's trust and confidence which at this stage he has, Don Wehby, departed junior finance minister, could be right, "I will go on record and say in all sincerity," Wehby said at his farewell luncheon, "that once we get over this crisis, which we will get over, you will go down in the records as the best prime minister."

At two years in office, all things considered, Golding is hardly worse than any of his seven predecessors, never mind the loud detractors with their own power agenda. A crisis-weary, crime-weary, politics-weary people are simply hungering for good, and possibly great leadership providing the space for them to get on with their lives in peace and safety as they see best.

Martin Henry is a communications consultant. Feedback may be sent to medhen@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com .