D.K. Duncan The decision by the Manley Government in 1990 to increase substantially the salaries of Members of Parliament and Ministers of Government resulted in strong protest and expressions of disapproval by the Jamaican public."
IN THE introduction to the Report of what is popularly known as the Stone Committee, Professor Carl Stone recalled these sentiments of the Jamaican people in 1990.
The University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor of Political Sociology also stated: "In response to these criticisms and questions, the Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Michael Manley asked me to chair a committee to advise his government on how to specify the duties and responsibilities of MPs, how to ensure better work performance by MPs and how to achieve a more satisfactory level of accountability on their part in the representational functions they performed."
NO ACTION
The Committee reported in 1991 after nine months of sittings. None of the 16 main recommendations have been implemented. Prime Minister P.J. Patterson was Manley's deputy at the time of these increases. Mr. Edward Seaga was, and continues to be, Leader of the Opposition at the time of those increases. Nineteen of the present 60 Parliamentarians were the MPs at the time of the increases. Ten of them are now Ministers of Government. The present Minister of Finance was a principal advisor to the government on the economy at the time of the 1990 increases. The Bustamante Institute of Public and International Affairs was public-spirited enough to finance and publish the report at the time.
CYNICISM
Although I warned Professor Stone that the setting up of the Committee was a mere decoy - a throw away line - he was enthusiastic about it. He was able to put together eight eminent persons to work with him. They included Mr. Ronnie now Rev. Thwaites, Rev. Oliver Daley, Dr. Lloyd Barnett, Mr, now Dr. Oswald Harding, Dr. Aggrey Brown and the present Governor-General - the then President of the Senate - the Honourable Sir Howard Cooke.
There was a basis for my warning Carl Stone about the potential futility of his efforts. It was I among others who raised the matter of establishing criteria for performance and accountability when the matter of salary increases was proposed. This took place at a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the People's National Party (PNP) held on the UWI campus prior to July 1990. The discussions led to the proposal to commission the Stone study. In the meantime, however, the salary increases were implemented. A brilliant report - it significantly influenced the founding of the New Beginning Movement (NBM) in 1991. The findings and many of the recommendations of the report also formed the basis for the Political Reform Agenda of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) founded in 1995.
CONSISTENCY IN REPORTS
Most commissions or committees that have been set up by Government since then, and there have been many, have relied on the Stone Report. Despite this, it is worth repeating that none of the 16 main recommendations contained in the Summary have been implemented.
The Nettleford Report recommended its implementation. The Wolfe Report on Crime and Violence referred to several areas covered by the report. The Kerr Report arising from the National Committee on Tribalism recommended its implementation. The recent National Committee on Crime and Violence used the document among others as a principal source document.
We have come full circle. This time, there is no Professor Stone around to remind us in his own inimitable style of the valuable time apparently wasted - at least up to now.
WHERE ARE THE VOICES?
To my certain knowledge, Professor Stone, like many others supported the notion that MPs, Ministers of Government and Prime Ministers should be properly remunerated. However, like others, he held strong views on MPs having known specific duties. He and the members of the 1990-1991 Committee supported the notion that there should be a written and publicly known Code of Ethics. He was also firm - as was his committee - on the need for accountability and sanctions. Where are the other voices of the members of that committee at this time? They are all alive and well. All of them still speak in the public domain, some more so than others.
Carl Stone accused me of cynicism at the time. I am not in a - "I told you so" mood. However, I knew from personal experience as a former general secretary and former Minister of National Mobilisation that politicians don't like to be monitored or held accountable. President of the NDM, Hyacinth Bennett, was like a lone political voice in the wilderness on this issue recently. "Nattering Nabobs of Negativism," like Wilmot Perkins, were unable to get any reliable information out of the Ministry of Finance about the recent 2002 increases. The banner headlines of the Sunday Herald newspaper screamed its surprise at the extent of the increases in two successive editions. Some talk-show hosts addressed the issue - others made passing references.
The Pilgrim Fathers of the embryonic United States of America asserted in the early pre-revolutionary days - "No taxation without representation." This question will arise again in Jamaica in another four months.
NO POLITICAL WILL
The Stone Committee was "Appointed to advise the Jamaican Government on the Performance, Accountability and Responsibilities of the Elected Parliamentarians". The Committee held sittings over the nine-month period between July 1990 to March 1991.
The last paragraph of the introduction to the 60-page document is worth recalling. Carl Stone Ph.D., C.D., Professor of Political Sociology and public opinion pollster par-excellence, concluded in the same introduction to the report:
"We intend to use the published report as the basis for organising public forums to discuss the relevant issues across the island so as to assist the public in developing a clearer and sharper view of what the problems are and how they might be solved, if we can find the necessary political will to tackle them seriously." Similar sentiments concerning political will were expressed in the Wolfe Report on Crime two years later in April 1993.
Eleven years later our Parliamentarians, having developed a mechanism for unannounced automatic salary increases, have shown no political will to publicly adopt written specific duties and responsibilities, written code of ethics, mechanisms for accountability or provisions for sanctions. This despite the Prime Minister earlier this year introducing a code for Ministers.
Fortunately for Parliamentarians as a whole, the nation is not only suffering from adjustment fatigue in the economic sphere but also - unlike the Pilgrim Fathers - a lack of revolutionary zeal. One love, one heart.
Former PNP General Secretary and Government Minister in the PNP Administration of the 1970s. Dr. Duncan, a dental surgeon, recently established the D.K. Duncan Political Institute. E-mail: dktruth@hotmail.com
