Robert Buddan- POLITICS OF OUR TIMEJamaica's new Parliament has been sworn in and has had its first meeting for parliamentary business. One of Prime Minister Bruce Golding's main themes during the swearing-in was about making parliamentary power more evenly balanced between Government and Opposition.
However, at the same time, Mr. Golding has used his prime ministerial power of appointment to establish a large executive, and this raises the question of whether this does not counteract the strengthening of the responsibilities of the Opposition. It at least seems designed to strengthen the executive's control of the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) side of the legislature because of the close balance produced by the election results.
The balance of power between the parties at the time of writing is 33 to 27. After the 1955 elections there were 18 seats for the People's National Party (PNP) and 14 for the JLP, a difference of four, the closest on record. If Dr. Duncan prevails in Hanover, the present balance will be four, equalling the earlier case.
However, the popular vote split is the most even, at effectively 50:50. Should Dr. D.K. Duncan prevail, then this will be the most even election on both the seat and popular vote counts. Nonetheless, even if the seat count does not change, both parties still believe that this Parliament is balanced evenly enough to be precarious for the Government. How has Mr. Golding addressed this?
He has offered that the PNP chairs the select committees of Parliament. But this reflects a promise that he had made before the elections. This will balance the power of the parties in relation to their actual responsibilities. Mr. Golding also intends to give backbenchers greater speaking privileges. Again, this balances the powers of the executive and non-executive members of the legislature on both the Government and Opposition sides a bit more.
Mr. Golding says that these changes will reduce the power of the executive relative to the legislature. However, another look suggests that the influence of the executive actually reaches more deeply into the legislature than is normally the case, and this would compensate for giving more power to the legislature and the Opposition. Of 15 nationally elected houses, this Parliament has the second highest ratio of Cabinet members to party membership on the Government side. Only the houses of 1955 and 1962 (both having the same ratios) had more members of the Cabinet to the number of elected members of the majority party in the legislature.
INTERNAL INSECURITY
Probably the appointment of 31 out of 46 JLP members of the Lower and Upper houses to positions of senior and junior ministers reflects an internal insecurity on the part of the JLP in Parliament, no doubt because of the marginal position of the JLP's seat and vote majorities.
By finding a place for almost everybody, Mr. Golding seems to have felt the need to keep all sections of the party happy. The Cabinet is a committee of the executive and the size of the Cabinet, relative to JLP seats, indicates the need to embrace as many of the party's sections as possible at the highest level of Government. In order to do this, Mr. Golding has used the Constitution to the full extent of the numbers of senators he can appoint, and the facility to appoint parliamentary secretaries has been revived.
Probably Mr. Golding has done this to bind members to both the Government's agenda and the majority's margin. All ministers in the wider executive, whether senior or junior, must publicly support the policies of the Government regardless of private reservations. Mr. Golding suffered three defections in the two houses of the last Parliament upon becoming Leader of the Opposition. He has five years to survive on a thin margin and would want to place his legislators under the direct control of the executive to keep them under watch and under the control of the party. The role of the party's parliamentary whip will be especially important.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding makes his way through a thick crowd of fans after his swearing-in ceremony as Prime Minister of Jamaica at King's House on Tuesday, September 11.- file
PRIME MINISTERIAL POWER
Prime Ministers in all democracies do make appointments to represent as wide a strategic cross-section of a party as possible. This is a form of patronage by appointment. It is one of the powers of the Prime Minister that is sometimes criticised by those, including Mr. Golding, who have said that in the Westminster system, the Prime Minister has too much power. But in a tightly balanced Parliament, Mr. Golding has obviously found this power too important to compromise.
It has allowed Mr. Golding to distribute offices and titles all around. To keep the alliance of the party together and to provide some internal balance among its sections, members of the BITU, business, geographical regions, and the JLP/NDM have been included in the wide net. The Prime Minister is, after all, head of the party as well, and his dual power converges in his power of appointment to keep the requisite skills and loyalties of government and party together. It is not a perfect balance and it usually never is. Some might wonder why certain persons did not get certain appointments or why certain other persons did. The answer might have less to do with ability and more to do with strategic politics.
The only other times that there were so many members of the Cabinet relative to the legislative majority were in 1955 and 1962. In 1955, the colonial constitution restricted the appointments reserved for the Governor and the Chief Minister so that case does not make a good comparison. The Chief Minister, Norman Manley, did not have a free hand. In 1962, however, Sir Alexander did. He appointed four more members of the Cabinet than the previous Cabinet had, even though he had three fewer members in the majority than the PNP had enjoyed. This is a better comparison because the 1962 elections were tight. The JLP had won by just over 8,000 votes. Its popular vote was only 50 per cent. It received a seven-seat advantage. Bustamante appointed a 16-member Cabinet from his 26-person majority and his 13 senators.
Did Mr. Golding give the Opposition power with one hand and then intentionally take it away with the other by establishing a large executive with deep reach in the legislature? The answer might be more complicated than a simple 'yes' or 'no'. He did promise before the elections to allow the Opposition to chair the select committees. And, he might have needed to keep this promise in order to patronise the PNP in the spirit of 'constructive engagement'. He has even given Mrs. Portia Simpson Miller an 'appointment' of sorts, making her rank as Leader of the Opposition equivalent to that of Deputy Prime Minister.
As for the appointments he has made on the Government side, those are probably inevitable under the circumstances. The new Parliament reflects a complex of balances that seems to be a direct outcome of the close elections designed to hold the party alliance together and bind the party's legislature to the executive. Of course, we have the economic cost of having such a large executive to bear.
Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government. University of the West Indies, Mona. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.
