Looking Ahead Talkin’ Politrix. It Boggles My Mind! ? Why is our government so large? Don’t they see how costly it is to the nation and the economy? Is.

Looking Ahead

Talkin’ Politrix

It Boggles My Mind!

?• Why is our

government so large?

• Don’t they see how costly it is to the nation and the economy?

• Is there no sense of collective shame?

Crossroads With Reality?“... we have stabilised the economy and secured a resumption of all basic services - health, education, water, sanitation and communications. We have been able to restore markets and get the retail and wholesale sectors back into business?”Eddie Cross

PRESS STATEMENT ON GNUJanuary 5, 2003Renato MagtuboChairman, Partidong Manggagawa (Labor Party)BMP Deputy Secretary General

“TO THE PROPONENTS of a government of national unity, we have one simple question: What is the basis of unity? There seems to be unity about the need for unity-but unity toward what? There is unity and there is unity-but unity around what?”

“ A government of national unity forged for sharing power among rival elite factions is utterly useless to the people. It will be a win-win situation for contending camps but a losing proposition for the long-suffering masses.”

“ It is a simplification that too much politics has caused too slow growth in the economy. The country's problem is not an excess of politics but a lack of principled politics. There is too much noise but too little talk about the roots of the economic crisis. There is too little debate about the real causes of mass poverty.”

Kenya has been there…

• Hillary Clinton recently read the riot Act to Kibaki and Odinga on corruption and patronage’.

… & Kibera still growing

Big vs. Small

The Washington Consensus

Limited Gvt. & Expenditure

6. Gvt. Exp < 3% of GDP

1. Minimal Regulation

2. Reduce Health, Educ exp.

3. Focus on infrastr, FDI, Toursm etc

5. Full cost recovery

4. End Food Subsidies etc

Karl Deutsch, 1980

The Thabo Mbeki GNU Deal

• 57 Minister & Deputy ministerial posts

• 10 Governors, add one of the RBZ

• If the 37 ministers have each a Permanent Secretary, do your maths.

• Consider how many departmental directors we have, personal assistants, drivers, messengers.

www.kubatana.net

Thabo Mbeki Deal

• Add the cost of stationery, salaries, travel allowances, fuel, car service, house rentals, office rentals, foreign service staff, school & college tuition fees for dependants… and you will understand why the BIG, BLOATED Zimbabwe government remains in a state of permanent bankruptcy.

But is India Big & Efficient?

The Facts• Population: 1.5 billion [12 mil]

• States: 28 [10]

• Ministries: 48 [38]

• Rated: Fastest growing 2nd world economy [-7]

• However, it also has the highest income

disparities [Ever heard of Billy, Phillip & Strive? It’s NOT a law firm!]

In other words... • Such ‘grand coalitions’ are

meant to protect a narrow band of ‘win-win’ political interests, rather than pushing a development agenda.

‘Small’ is ‘Limited’

• In drawing a parallel between physical size of government and inherent bureaucratic paralysis, limited government is where any more than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy should not be allowed - by law.

Small is Cool – the ‘profit’

Defined

• Effectiveness – that which makes an unlikely outcome more likely to happen.

• Efficiency – the ratio between change in the probability of the outcome & the costs incurred in producing it.

- Karl Deutsch “Politics and Government – How people decide their fate” [1980]

1. Minimum regulation

• This allows the market to explode & let creative geniuses make more wealth. More wealth means more jobs, more taxes an injection into the national fiscus.

2. Private investment in health, education

• Government focuses on those INCAPABLE of affording or accessing health. An Obama-type approach encourages public indebtedness.

3. Focus on high yielding public investment

• Infrastructure is a necessary cost, but PPPs are better. Toll gates do the trick, that’s why RSA has sophisticated roads. They are treated as ‘commercial’ property.

4. End food subsidies!

• The fact that Americans do it don’t make it right! When a country has no comparative advantage [so says COMESA], don’t grow what you can’t sell!

5. Full cost recovery

• If a passport costs US100 to print, it only makes sense to recover that cost.

My conclusion • One President, one Prime

Minister & deputy

• Have 11 relevant ministries, not 57 irrelevant mysteries:

1. Lands, Agriculture & Natural resources [tourism, minerals, water]

Ministerial panacea 2. Legal & Parliamentary

Affairs [constitutionalism, justice, RoL, H/rights, ]

3. Defence & Home Affairs [army, air force, police, prisons, national service]

Ministerial panacea 4. Education, Sports &

Culture [university, college, secondary, primary school, museums, arts, monuments]

5. Infrastructure [energy, roads, rails, public works]

Ministerial panacea 6. Finance & Economics

[fiscal, monetary]

7. Health & Social [housing, gender, phys disadvant’gd]

8. External Affairs [regional devpt., SADC, AU, UN, diplomats]

Ministerial panacea 9. Trade, Commerce &

Industry [SMEs, investment, labour, development, public service, science, tech.]

10. Media & Information

11. Local & National Governance

Zero tolerance to...• Ministerial deputies. PS act

in that capacity• Ministers of state, every

minister belongs to the State, anyway

• Governors• Senators

Cutting costs ...• Diplomats only in countries

where there is mutual trade & tourism potential – definitely NOT Senegal!

• No government car taken home, no ‘subsidies’

Cutting costs ...• Have commercial public

utilities rather government companies called parastatals and

• Have regional caucusing so MPs spend MORE time in their constituencies. End