Shalman Scott, ContributorEXPECTATIONS WITHIN our politics are once more at a crescendo. And, looking back to the last 30 years, the cycles of
peaking political expectations
followed by troughs of disappointment and cynicism have carved out an indelible pattern on the political landscape too glaring for even the least
attentive among us not to see.
I would wish to call attention to the continuum of this trend which had its genesis in the event of the emancipation of the black underclass on August 1, 1838, and show how the nature of that earlier expectation, handicapped by a weak knowledge base but strong in emotions and abstract beliefs was to become the prototype of the character of modern day political hopes.
It cannot be said that the earliest political expectations were totally misplaced. We can boast of making some progress since the abolition of slavery. But, political cynicism and disenchantment have not arisen as a consequence of our progress, but rather because of the lack of
sufficient progress and how we as a people have experienced governance.
The Jamica Labour Party (JLP) policies and political practice in 1960-1972 laid the solid psychological foundation for the emergence of Michael Manley in 1972. Using the slogan 'change' and 'better must come', Manley, with a doctrine of social justice fired the imagination of the Jamaican people, timulating an avalanche of expectations beyond his own capacity and that of the economy to respond. This, coupled with external political interventions facilitated by local political forces, resulted in Manley's defeat just eight years after his triumphal entry into Jamaican politics.
DOLDRUMS OF
DISAPPOINTMENT
One of the symptoms of high expectation falling precipitously into the doldrums of disappointment was the uncontrollable anger and hatred which ensued and which turned Jamaica, by 1979, into a virtual killing field.
During that diabolical engagement, political disillusionment and confusion replaced political expectation which sunk to an all-time low until the dust was
settled and the most unlikely victor Eddie Seaga, emerged as Prime Minister in 1980. At this stage, political expectation began to move northward again, but this was to be relatively
short-lived. Within 24 months of the Seaga-led government, the public opinion polls began to show that rapid mistrust and resentment on the part of the Jamaican people towards the JLP Government was on the increase.
Manley made a comeback in 1989 but gave way in 1992 to 'Fresh Prince' P.J. Patterson. The 'black man time' agenda was invoked and an unprecedented number of houses, water schemes, schools, roads etc., have been built alongside an unprecedented level of waste, corruption and cronyism. Yet, the more the country seems to progress, the more the nature and operation of that progress generates increasing powerlessness and alienation for the average man and woman.
This experience from the 1990s to the present is a flashback to the progress of the 1960s under the JLP with a similar
pattern of economic growth which was outstripped by social discontent.
It is in the context of such roller-coaster expectations that Portia Simpson Miller has emerged in the first decade of this millennium promising to be new and different something for which the people have longed but which has become for the most part an elusive dream.
POLITICAL MESSIAH
People continue the search even more earnestly, it seems, for a politician to be their messiah.
The psychologists introduced the term 'valency' into the lexicon of motivational theory, and define that word as the drive to satisfy a need. They argue that the more the satisfaction of a need eludes an individual, the more the valency or drive to
fulfil that need increases.
Accordingly, if this principle of the valency/need relationship is accepted, it becomes easy to see that the pattern of the cycles of high political expectations
followed by low political hope and, consequently, a search for a deliverer will always be on.
Like all politicians caught up with 'feel good' syndrome, Portia Simpson Miller is no exception. But, should these
sayings be taken seriously?
At P.J. Patterson's inauguration in 1993, he got a standing ovation when he declared that his government would be a transparent one, no doubt having the Shell Waiver scandal which cost $29.5 million (1991) and the furniture scandal ($10.6 million) on his mind while the audience cheered gladly.
But, in 1997-2002 the $5.5
billion Operation PRIDE/NHDC scandal broke. This was to be followed by the public sector salary scandal of $60 million, NetServ with $220 million,
followed by an additional $153 million spent on a plant in St. Thomas for which it was later discovered that there were no takers for the investment planned.
The NSWMA scandal erupted in 2005, costing conservatively $2 billion, and then the Sandals White House project scandal which cost $2 billion. Then, there were cost overruns on a number of projects over an eight-year period, 1995-1998 and 2001-2004, involving companies owned by former PNP Members of Parliament and other highly placed persons within the PNP. These amounted to $8 billion.
If one does the arithmetic and factors in the zinc scandal in 1989 ($500 million) we are approaching close to between $18 to $20 billion of waste and corruption since the PNP Government has been in power.
Portia Simpson Miller has announced that she intends to stamp out corruption. In an apparent attempt to underscore how serious she is about this matter, she announced that pastors will be used as chairmen of boards. While, on the surface, it seem to be a good move to engage men of the cloth in the administration of government assuming that these pastors are all honest any simplistic expectations could backfire, firstly on the pastors themselves and then on the church.
CORRUPTION
Corruption in government is systemic and very often does not exist or operate at the level of the boards. In other words, the board members many of the present ones being Christians are often the last to know what's going down. The pastor, who does not and in some cases may never understand the modus operandi and webs of collusion on the ground, can only rely on what is presented to him or her on paper.
The scandals will begin again even with the pastors as chairman of these boards. Disappointment will set in and there will be a lowering of political expectation. Only, this time around, the church where people would normally go for solace and comfort would have been seriously implicated. Not to mention the attempts which will be made to use the pastors as scapegoats to appease the venom of political activists who may have lost a well needed contract.
TIGHT MORAL SHIP
No one can expect the new Prime Minister to give any definite assurance that the present administration will not have corruption within it. She, like Edward Seaga, might believe and even do everything within her power to prevent the monster of corruption, but Seaga's Minister of Labour ended up behind bars.
The discovery of the corruption in the farm work programme was not even made by Seaga who constantly gave the impression of running a tight moral ship, and one in which no sin could enter.
We need more stringent laws and sanctions against waste by our politicians. They must know that once they are caught being wasteful there will be no exoneration.
Shalman Scott is a political analyst. Email him at shalscott@hotmail.com
