Dawn Ritch, Contributor
INEVITABLY, IT IS difficult not to feel hope for the future prospects of Jamaica.
I've long believed that the root of our problems is a political one, a problem of management. A change of leadership in our two major political parties, as well as a change of command in the police force suggest that over a decade of precipitous economic and social decline might at last be reversed, that good sense might at last prevail.
Easily the more straightforward of the two parties is the People's National Party (PNP) which is purely about winning general elections. They can be depended upon to do whatever, and more specifically elect whoever is required to win them a fifth term in office.
WARMING THE SEAT
On the other hand the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has gazed at its navel for the past 15 years, and finds it hard to break the habit. The cosmos is them, and they are the cosmos, so whatever pleases them they think must also please us.
Bruce Golding pleases them, but not nearly as much as Portia Simpson Miller pleases everybody else. Indeed it is arguable about just how much Bruce Golding really pleases them.
As a number of his supporters keep telling me Bruce was only their 'vessel" for removing Edward Seaga. It didn't seem to matter to them that since Seaga removed himself they could have found themselves a more suitable 'vessel'. Nor can they seriously believe that he has the least chance of success against Mrs. Simpson Miller, which must mean that Bruce is only warming the seat for one of them, whether he realises it or not.
So despite protestations to the contrary there is no real settling down in sight for that party. Of course if the electoral contest were between Dr. Omar Davies as president of the PNP, and Bruce Golding as leader of the JLP, the latter might be responsible for forming the next Government.
Since a general election is a few years away, during that time Golding's supporters will probably dig him out of the top job - although some might describe this as wishful thinking on my part. But then, I remain a firm believer in good things coming to those who wait, and that nothing good can come of those, as was said by somebody else about a United Kingdom Tory politician, who have too much of the night about them. Nor would I wish a pair of them upon the country.
Any thought of internal party politics leads inevitably to the subject of money. Who is the Big Money backing, to say nothing of where is the money coming from?
This has set the rumour mill working. The latest one being that Portia Simpson Miller and Dr. Omar Davies have struck a deal where he is to be her deputy prime minister and minister of finance.
The rationale goes that he is awash in funding from the private sector which he will make available to her, and act as a guarantee of the 'proper administration" of the country.
Anybody who considers the feeble state of the Jamaican dollar, or basic infrastructure such as fire and police stations and clinics left to crumble while Dr. Davies borrows money to support his budget and raids the country's pension funds to build highways, must wonder what is meant by 'proper administration'.
Any position of prominence for Dr. Davies in any new dispensation would not be new at all, but merely a promise of more of the same.
Furthermore, the rumour seems to turn on the assumption that Mrs. Simpson Miller needs not only money, but help with administrative skills.
This is a wonderful country where perceptions created by media happily trundle along despite a multitude of real proofs to the contrary. Mrs. Simpson Miller prevented the raiding of the National Insurance Fund while she was Minister of Labour, something about which I wrote years ago.
For that she was punished by being sent to tourism, where news of her work to resuscitate European tourism by both bringing new air carriers and new cruise ships to Jamaica, as well as the international awards won by Jamaica's new tourism advertising created under her direction, sank like a stone.
When I asked her successor why she didn't acknowledge the work of her predecessor, she told me that she had done so on a number of occasions, but the media just refused to pick it up.
Dr. Davies, Dr. Peter Phillips, Dr. Karl Blythe, Bobby Pickersgill and Paul Burke are all running against Portia Simpson Miller. She is the one they all have to beat. This means that they are the ones on the look-out for alliances, not she. Moreover she is the only member of the Cabinet whose accession to the highest office could be regarded as a change. And that is what the country wants.
STATE FUNDING FOR PARTY
Money is another matter. Enormous wads of it to key people in a constituency on a Sunday night can change the views of a constituency on a Monday morning. I know of no antidote to money, except the vigilance of right-minded people.
But when hunger bites, everybody seems to be for sale. This is the bedrock of my admiration for both Pearnel Charles and Mrs. Simpson Miller, because despite the vicissitudes of their political lives neither of them has ever been for sale. It is noteworthy, therefore, that neither of their campaigns has been awash with money which is a good thing for the country, but a bad thing for their campaigns.
Both parties are talking publicly about state-funding for politics. This suggestion makes me bristle. Already our taxes and duties are so high that it forces half the economy to go underground in order to escape them.
State funding for political parties would place an even greater burden on the shrinking number of those who remain in the legitimate economy. Centralisation of the spending of financial resources, whether in government or parties, has never militated against its waste or hi-jacking. Indeed, all that has happened is that we never seem to find the person responsible, because all are collectively irresponsible and happy to hide behind systems of accountability that don't work, and sanctions that are never enforced.
I believe in people, not systems nor even institutions. This is why I've been thinking of late that what politicians need is a direct appeal to voters. Those who don't want to be hostage to big money or drug money, should open bank accounts to which every Jamaican is free to contribute on a voluntary basis, regardless of his or her political stripe.
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
When Jamaica encourages politicians like those, we will no longer have to worry about which party is in power. Were Portia and Pearnel to set up such accounts, I would gladly publish their respective account numbers and banks in this column.
Not only does one one coco full basket, but it confers an independence of action that any sensible person must relish.
The working class of this country needs to take responsibility for itself. They must ensure that the next prime minister of this country is not beholden to a few big businessmen or drug dons.
The combined financial might of working class people will talk louder and longer than the bank account of any fat cat, or association of them.
Politics is about making things better. It ought not to be about finding a way to institutionalise the isolation of our political leaders from the real needs of everyday people in our communities.
