I was prompted to revisit an editorial from June 2017 by recent postings on Facebook that, although about varying issues, all appeared to denounce the Government for its apparent failure to provide adequate resources in certain areas. Chief among these have been the absence of equipment to effect sea rescues. The Government’s failure to meet the entire cost of all the athletes traveling abroad to attend various meets or to fully fund culture bearers traveling to CARIFESTA has also been the subject of comment. Postings of this nature tend to attract a lot of attention. The few Facebook postings, reminding us that one of the primary means by which Government raises funds is through taxation, usually garner very few comments. The postings can leave readers with the impression that while we are desirous of having the Government provide more financial and infrastructural resources we have no desire to contemplate firstly, whether our expectations of Government are real – and secondly, what role we, as citizens and residents, must play if the government is to be able to meet our expectations.
Some posts also seem to expect that businesses and individuals have an obligation to assist others in meeting their desires in circumstances where their desires will result in both personal and national recognition and glory. The very real circumstances of businesses and individuals ought not to be ignored by persons in their desire to pursue their desired goals. Expectations should be tempered with reality.
I think that as we approach what we half jokingly refer to as the ‘silly season’, when potential politicians and potential voters are sadly more likely to engage in subjective rather than objective discourse, it might be useful to revisit my editorial published on 23rd June, 2017 which was titled “Forming Realistic Expectations”. The full editorial is reprinted below.
“Forming Realistic Expectations
Should our expectations be constrained by reality? Very often they are not. As a result, we are often disappointed and feel aggrieved because what we took for granted cannot be realised. Our failure to constrain our expectations by reality is often reflected in the measuring sticks we use when determining what can be reasonably expected of local business establishment or the government. We tend to conclude that a business is able to acquiesce to requests for sponsorship because it has an obligation to fulfill what is described as its corporate social responsibility. We form this viewpoint without any regard for the actual financial circumstances of the business.
While every business on Anguilla should strive to contribute to our social development and thereby meet its corporate social responsibility, the business must first have the resources available to it to meet that responsibility. While a business might recognise its responsibility and actually desire to contribute, it might not possess the financial or other resources, which would enable it to make such a contribution. Sadly, as citizens, we are not always understanding of this situation and many persons or organisations relentlessly pursue business entities in Anguilla for support of their social and community activities without regard for the actual financial circumstances of the business entities.
We appear to be even more relentless, inconsiderate and unforgiving in relation to our expectations of the Government. Our expectations are that the national government will attend to all the country’s security needs; all its social (education, health etc.) needs; and all its infrastructural needs. Very few of us appear to consider the extent of these needs and the actual capacity of government to meet these needs and where or how government obtains the financial and other resources to meet these needs.
We must quickly come to the realisation that the citizenry, through the payment of taxes, plays a significant role in terms of the extent of the resources available to government. How many of us express high expectations of government but yet have not met our obligation to pay our taxes? How many of us expect all areas for which we consider the government to be responsible, to be promptly and effectively addressed without regard to the government’s actual budgetary allocation?
I suspect that most of us can readily gain an appreciation of the constraints a government may be operating under if we simply consider our personal budgetary constraints. In many instances our desires for our homes and our families, no matter how worthy, cannot be met because our financial resources cannot fund our desires. The reality is that this is a situation our government and other governments encounter regularly.
In the absence of a thriving economy, a country’s needs will be more than the government is capable of meeting. Citizens must, however, still demand accountability from their government in terms of how available resources are utilised. The implementation of a national plan, which is used as the blueprint to guide the use of our country’s scarce resources, should greatly assist in tempering and managing the expectations of members of the public. It is hoped that current plans to devise and implement a national plan will be realised. A well-constructed and implemented national plan, funded by a highly compliant taxpayer base, and managed by a responsible government should lead to the formulation and realisation of realistic expectations.”
Will politicians and the electorate demonstrate greater maturity during this ‘silly season’, so that we can objectively assess what our realistic expectations should be of those who successfully vie for elected office? This will be wholly dependent on the willingness of the politicians and the electorate to demand higher standards of each other. We wait to see what standards will prevail.
