Dear Editor,

I'm grateful for a little bit of your space to comment on an article that appeared in The Nassau Guardian by Arinthia S. Komolafe on April 19, 2012 under the headline "Economic and fiscal prudence: Ingraham vs. Christie".
I have read some of Komolafe's articles and it is clear to me that she writes with a certain political bias but this does not bother me because as an opinion piece writer, she is entitled to do so. However, what seems clear is that on this score Komolafe is clearly out of her depth.
I could spend all day dismantling her shallow assessment of what she calls the "Ingraham Fiscal Plan" verses the "Christie Fiscal Plan", but I prefer to speak simply to the enormous flaw in her conclusion that, "In the final analysis, a review of both administration's performance in managing the economy suggests that the Ingraham administration lacked a plan to improve economic conditions in the country as evidenced by its reactionary fiscal policy."
For someone to speak of "reactionary fiscal policy" in a period of time when virtually every country in the world has had to react to the most significant global economic crisis since The Great Depression is simply ignorant. It would be like saying that the trauma surgeon who attends frantically to the needs of a severely injured traffic victim lacked a plan for the medical health of his patient because he to attended so assiduously to the critical needs of his patient.
Ingraham, as did many other global leaders, had to attend to the dwindling revenue resulting from a worldwide economic downturn; had to attend to the need to stimulate the economy as private businesses pulled back on their activities; and had to provide social relief for thousands of disadvantaged citizens.
On each point, Ingraham and his team did an outstanding job by any standard. The plan of the prime minister seemed clear enough to non-jaundiced eyes, which was to use the country's borrowing capacity to support the economy and to return to more balanced financial practices as soon as the economic circumstances permitted.
In the course of governing in these difficult times, the Ingraham government, unlike countries throughout the world including the great United States, laid off no teachers, police officers or civil servants as a means of saving money.
Talk about reactionary fiscal policy, has Komolafe been out to lunch while the worldwide media broadcasted what countries around the world had to do in response to the global economic crisis? Is she serious? To miss this fundamental point really speaks volumes of Komolafe's mindset and is quite disappointing to say the least.

- Leslie Farquharson

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