Ian Boyne

One of the most reprehensible and repulsive arguments being used against the appointment of Stephen Vasciannie as Solicitor General is the fact that six years ago he harshly criticised Bruce Golding, likening his return to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to a dead cat being tossed on a deck. Hence, he has disqualified himself to work with Bruce Golding as Prime Minister.

No sensible or decent supporter of the Prime Minister should unwittingly degrade him by offering this as the justification for Vasciannie's non-appointment. That the Prime Minister, who has spoken both eloquently and passionately in defence of democratic values and pluralism, could be motivated by such base instincts as revenge and animus is not something that any supporter should even whisper.

The response of some of the Jamaica Labour Party partisans to the Vasciannie issue speaks to a deeper malaise, however. It speaks to our intensely partisan political culture and fragile democratic ethos. Our democratic culture is fragile, for while Jamaicans are inherently freedom-loving, even raucous, in their defence of and exercise of their civil liberties, they are often contemptuous of the freedoms and civil liberties of others.

We cherish the forms and expressions of democracy, but deeply violate the spirit of democracy. This is a major shortcoming in our political culture and has negative implications for our economic development. The things we excuse in this country would be horrifying to people in other political cultures. In a society which truly honours the democratic spirit, to suggest that a political leader would deny employment to a professional because that professional in the past had offended him would be considered a scandal.

'respectable' people

But in Jamaica there are columnists, commentators and 'respectable' people who would stoutly defend that indecency. Fortunately for the Prime Minister, he himself has given no indication that his action against the Public Service Commission has anything to do with his disagreement with its recommendation of Professor Vasciannie on the ground of his 'sin' against him six years ago.

You might say I am either naive or hypocritical to suggest that he would be foolish enough to do that or to reveal his true motives for not wanting Professor Vasciannie as his Solicitor General. "Don't be hypocritical, Boyne; we know that is Golding's true motive but he can't come out openly with it."

But I am constrained by the rules of evidence and so far none has been adduced to prove that it was sheer malice which caused the Prime Minister's action. But if some of the partisans in our political culture had their way, we would reach the day when a prime minister could freely say that he is opposed to particular persons gaining keeping or gaining certain positions simply on the basis that they offended him in the past and thus have forfeited their right to employment!

So there is still something to rejoice about. We have not yet descended to the abyss. But eternal vigilance has to be our watch phrase.

What some of us will have to make sure of is that the views of these partisans never become respectable; let us relegate them to the subterranean level until we can totally expunge them.

I have written before that Jamaica's democratic tradition is tenuous. I don't mean that we will one day experience a coup. In fact, I am strongly confident that we will not. I don't think we will ever see a military emerge in Jamaica which feels it could govern. In terms of outward forms, Jamaica's democratic tradition is safe. This is why communism could never be imposed in Jamaica in the 1970s, irrespective of how close many said we had come to it. No totalitarian system would be tolerated in Jamaica. Our political culture is fiercely opposed to it. But don't be fooled by that to think that our people esteem democratic values wholesale.

Jamaicans, of course, have come a long way and we have been influenced increasingly by libertarian views emanating from the United States.

clannishness

But even in our media, there is still a clannishness and a narrowness which is grating. Unlike America in which you would see a Larry King interviewing and praising the work of network competitors Dan Rather, Tim Russert, Barbara Walters, Katie Couric, etc., you are not likely to be watching CVM at Sunrise and see them interviewing Anthony Miller, Dorraine Samuels or Michael Sharpe from TVJ.

Nor are you likely to see on Smile Jamaica Winford Williams, Kerlyn Brown or Garfield Burford from CVM. It is taken for granted and seen as quite acceptable that when the Press Association of Jamaica awards are made, the electronic media only mention their winners while pretending that the competition does not exist. But it used to be worst: Previously, ads would not be accepted if they were voiced by the competitor's announcer.

The Breakfast Club was one of the early programmes to make a break with our backward Jamaican journalistic tradition by having journalists from other media houses interviewed on the show.

I have frequently praised my competitor Cliff Hughes and heaped encomiums on him. In these columns I have praised Observer columnists like Mark Wignall, Claude Robinson, Editor Desmond Allen and former Editor Paget deFreitas (while largely ignoring my own Gleaner colleagues). I might not have pleased some people in some places who have a jaundiced view of loyalty, but I have never been inflicted with the partisan spirit.

I have promoted people on my television show, Religious Hardtalk, who have strongly attacked my own religion and my religious leaders, dismissing them as cultic, and who have insulted me and have been invited back.

'killing' others

Voltaire said famously that he would strenuously and "to the death" defend the right of his opponents to express their views. I don't get the sense that this is held as sacrosanct by too many people in this country. They'll defend their own freedom to the death, but would kill others - often now literally - for expressing their freedom.

If some religious people had the power, certain religious programmes which are contrary to their beliefs would never be aired; some secular events like carnival would be banned and 'worldians' would not have the right to hold their dancehall sessions even outside the earshot of people in need of sleep. They just want their views alone to be heard. This is contrary to the democratic spirit.

Early in the administration of the new government there were letters in the press urging the Prime Minister to clean house and to "remove all the PNP people" in influential positions. Some are saying Golding is too soft and that is why people at the Attorney-General's Department are giving the Government such a fight.

I genuinely believe, though, that Bruce Golding is at heart a democrat and a pluralist. Those who have been reading me over the years know that I am not saying that because he is now Prime Minister. (You can google 'Ian Boyne on Bruce Golding' and see what I have written in the years when I worked with the PNP Government in senior positions). As far as I know, I am the only journalist who publicly criticised Stephen Vasciannie sharply for his "dead cat" statement in a column in 2002, calling him myopic for not seeing that Golding had made the right strategic decision to leave the ineffectual National Democratic Movement. I said history would absolve Golding in that matter, and it has.

philosophical issue

I am one of those who zealously guard my intellectual independence. I am too intellectually vain to trot out mindlessly any political party's propaganda line. My communications expertise can be bought, but not my integrity. To me this is a philosophical issue. It is an issue of ethics.

As a human being I have an inalienable right to freedom of conscience and freedom of expression. I have the right to hold my own independent views and to express them without any fear of victimisation. But, equally, the people who employ me have a right to my confidentiality. I would never disclose privileged information. This is a matter of ethics.

I cannot insist on my right not to be victimised, but feel free to betray confidences and leak information to the Opposition. People have a right to their own opinions. But they have no right to disclose unethically information given in trust; they have no right to pass on critical information to their employers' competitors, whether in business or Government.

Vasciannie

It's a matter of ethics.

While we must insist that politicians should not victimise, we must also insist that those who are working with the Government are people who can be trusted to be ethical. Bruce Golding should have a right to expect that a Stephen Vasciannnie as Solicitor General would give him the best, most professional and competent advice and operate at the highest level of integrity and confidentiality; even though Vasciannie might not be personally enamoured of Golding. Vasciannie doesn't have to be a political supporter of Golding to work harmoniously with him.

values

To build a truly democratic culture in Jamaica, we have to produce people who believe in certain values - like honesty, integrity, confidentiality, loyalty, decency (which means not sabotaging your employer). PNP people who are allowed to remain in their jobs cannot be assisting the Opposition to "give the Government hell" and "make their life a nightmare". They cannot assist the Opposition in its political fight with the Government.

Of course, when the JLP was in Opposition they used to boast of information leaked to them, clearly given by people working for the Government. They had better hope those treacherous persons don't turn against them!

We need to develop in Jamaica, people with an ethical commitment which transcends partisan divisions. Until we do that, our democratic foundations are shaky.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com