Damion Crawford, the current Minister
of State in the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment, was a few weeks ago
defeated by businessman Peter Blake in a delegate’s election to represent the
governing People's National Party (PNP) in a rural constituency in the next
Jamaican general election. Crawford is a Rastafarian with
Christian beliefs. In a past article I reprimanded him for launching a scathing
attack on the emerging secular movement in Jamaica. However, on balance, I
believe that he is one of the best and well-meaning political representative
the country has ever seen, mainly because of his emphasis on education and his
aberration of pork barrel politicking.
According to a recent editorial (The
Jamaica Observer), parliamentarians and those aspiring to sit in the
Legislature, are seen more as benefactors than facilitators. They are required
to offer scarce benefits: cash, lunch money, liquor, building materials, school
books, uniforms, bags and other supplies as well as contracts. Crawford’s political
demise mainly stemmed from his attempts to change the entrenched culture of
patronage too quickly. Crawford focused the spending of his meagre constituency
development funds on investments in education for children and young people.
The lifelong unending and edgy desire for power is a fundamental quality shared
by all humans within a state. Along with that power acquisition is fear that
peoples corrupt political power acts as a counterbalance to the appetite for
progressive reforms within a state, often for selfish reasons. This sometimes
prevents well-meaning political representatives from benefitting from a second
term in political office. Such tensions and ambivalence in politics often give
rise to the question, are ordinary
citizens capable of making good decisions using the democratic process or should
they be ruled by an absolute monarch or dictator? There has been a long
running discussion in Jamaica that the Westminster system of politics and
government has not served the country well. There is a glaring need for
capacity building and strengthening of political intuitions. Not only does the
country need the best Political talented individuals but also the best quality
political delegates who choose and support these candidates.
Jamaica is highly regarded as the
sporting and cultural mecca of the global south, with an array of talented
persons covering a wide range of disciplines at international standards.
However, a third of the Jamaican
population are functionally illiterate. Corruption of public and private
individuals is rife and it has an appalling debt to GDP ratio of132.72 percent
of the country's Gross Domestic Product according to recent World Bank
statistics.
Thomas Hobbs, the 17th Century Philosopher,
while arguing in favour of an absolute monarchy, advised that for
self-preservation men should enter a contract by which they agree to surrender
part of their natural freedom to an absolute ruler. He asserted that men by nature are brutish,
wild and ungovernable. He asserted that this contract should be entered into as
the nature of men is to seek nothing but selfish pleasures; such individualism
naturally leads to a war in which every man's hand is against his neighbour. He
advises that men should be governed by an unelected yet intelligent central
authoritative figure. These opinions were framed against the backdrop of the
English civil war.
This advice holds true in some ways
for Jamaica, being embroiled in an almost economic civil war since its
independence from British Colonial rule since 1962. There are long protracted
feelings that the Westminster model of political democracy is high unsuitable
for fledgling democracies such as Jamaica as they are riddled with
institutional corrupt practices. Many
ideas have been floated to include a coalition arrangement with the two major
political parties: the JLP and the PNP. Neither of them has bothered to promote
a reform agenda as they both benefit from the current system. Former Jamaican
Prime Minister, P.J Patterson, described the state of this Political and
economic civil war as, "the fight for scarce benefits and spoils carried on by hostile tribes that sem to be perpetually at war".
Development plays a central role in
reducing corruption and resolving political conflict in third world countries such
as Jamaica. Hostile political tribes often emerge from a lack of political will
to engender a credible value system that can unify and transform those who are
vulnerable to either poverty or greed. With money in short supply, Members of
Parliament such as Damion Crawford are faced with the dilemma of whether to
feed or to educate in order to remain in power. Many politicians in Jamaica owe
their careers and status to corrupt delegates and few of them, if any, will
take a stand against it, either for fear of upsetting their own careers or the
political status quo.
The way forward to stamping out
corruption in Jamaican political institutions is not a linear one. A feasible
solution to retaining well-meaning and bright Politicians like Damion Crawford
and Christopher Tufton in Jamaica is to not
employ a Leviathan political dictatorship approach; culling the delegates list
of the two main political organisations will help to strengthen and improve
political integrity. Currently the link between political aspirants and delegate’s
power is having a direct and uneasy relationship that needs fixing.
I therefore suggest a reform of the political
delegate process using national laws aimed at improving overall efficiency
capacity and institutional integrity. I also propose that, as part of a broad
raft of electoral reforms, both parties sit with the political ombudsman and
agree on a legal framework of standards to apply when selecting party
delegates. At the moment, both political parties are saddled with delegate lists
that have dubious, incompetent and corrupt delegates who have their own
self-interest at heart. Yes I have said it! A majority of the current delegates
are ignorant, selfish and unscrupulous money makers. The great Greek
philosopher Plato, in The Republic stated: money-makers
are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.” Let’s get rid of them.
