Trevor Munroe | Needed: action manifestos towards rebuilding trust

Jamaica’s 17th contested general election since adult suffrage in 1944, and the 12th since Independence, is to be held on September 3.

The 16th took place on February 26, 2016. At that time, over half of those eligible to vote didn’t cast their ballot – and there was no COVID-19 pandemic. This was the lowest-ever percentage voter turnout in 70-odd years of democratic elections in Jamaica. In effect, this 2016 turnout meant that both the present Government and Opposition each had minority voter support – 23.9 per cent for the Government and 23.8 per cent for the Opposition.

Why so little confidence by the majority in our elections? After all, there can be no doubt that the Jamaican people are better off in many respects as a result of our people electing Jamaicans to take over from the British colonial authorities to run the country, gradually since 1944 and fully since 1962.

For example, at Independence, after 300+ years of British rule, more than three out of every 10 Jamaicans were still illiterate; today, literacy is now above 90 per cent. Similarly, life expectancy was then less than 65, now that is almost 75, up to first-world standards. In 1962, fifty out of every 1,000 children died in infancy, now that is down to 17.

At Independence, fewer than 1,000 students were in university and at tertiary institutions; now that is over 70,000. Since Independence, sons and daughters of cane cutters and factory workers, household helpers and clerical workers, small farmers and labourers, who could hardly rise to positions higher than their parents, have been able to become lawyers and doctors, academics and business leaders, scientists and professionals of all types, including becoming world leaders in their particular occupation. So voting in and voting out our political leaders at elections has brought some progress from where we were in 1944, as well as from 1962.

BROKEN PROMISES

However, despite these and other advances, more and more of our people are unquestionably alienated and feel that this progress could have been much greater. And they are right. The majority of our people could have benefited far more; and our economy could have been at least three times larger had our leaders done more to curb crime, to reintegrate marginalised communities, to disconnect parties from gangster dons, and to separate themselves from the corrupt.

This dissatisfaction among our people is more than justified by available evidence. Small Island Developing States, similar to our own, which started out behind us at Independence, like Singapore, are now ahead of us in terms of citizens’ security and overall development. For example, Jamaica, from being among the top tier in the ‘50s and ‘60s, now ranks 96 of 189 countries in terms of human development, behind eight other CARICOM states and ahead of only three.

One major reason: promises made by leaders seeking our vote at elections too often became promises broken after elections. Over and over again. More and more of our people are now fed up with promises.

On March 3, 2016, Jamaica’s then newly elected prime minister recognised this reality in his swearing-in presentation: “There is only so much trust that pledges and statements of commitment can buy ... the Jamaican people now want to see action in building trust.”

That trust in political parties and elections steadily declined through the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, so much so that our voter turnout in 2016 was not only the lowest in our history but in the Western Hemisphere as well. Can our people be blamed for holding the view that “our Government is run by a few big interests looking out for themselves”, an opinion shared by a majority of people in 107 countries, including the United Kingdom and United States, surveyed around the world in 2013?

Indeed, in 2018, the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index – 2018 ranked Jamaica behind 95 countries at number 96 of 157 states. On this index, only three countries did worse than us in Latin America and the Caribbean. Guyana, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and St Vincent all ranked better in their commitment to reduce inequality.

We as citizens and our leaders, in particular, are now called to take extraordinary actions to begin rebuilding trust in the run-up to the 2020 elections.

Otherwise our democratic institutions shall fail further to inspire confidence and our people shall question even more whether elections are an important vehicle in rescuing Jamaica from crime and corruption, and in building a safe, secure and prosperous Jamaica for all.

ACTION POINTS

I suggest the following action points:

1. The 2020 election manifestos of the two parliamentary parties should reaffirm commitment to the Consensus on Reducing Crime and Corruption signed by the leaders and stakeholder groups on August 3, 2020. In particular, the manifestos should recommit to fulfil agreed timelines for priority measures by the end of 2020. These include the passage into law of regulations, now stalled in Parliament, to curb corruption-enabling cronyism in appointments to public boards, to the strengthening of the Procurement Act, the approval of regulations to make MOCA completely independent, and the initiating of sustained social interventions to reintegrate marginalised communities into mainstream Jamaica.

2. Each of the two parliamentary parties should commit to reintroduce, within the first 100 days, ‘The Constitution (Amendment) Impeachment Act’, which was drafted in 2011 under the Bruce Golding administration and subsequently sidelined. This act provides a process for removing from office public officials, including senators and members of the House Representatives, who are found guilty of “impeachable offences”, including corruption, neglect of duties and responsibilities, and abuse of official authority.

3. Both parties should commit to passage into law the ‘Right of Recall’, whereby an agreed percentage of the electors in any constituency can cause the removal from office, before the expiry of his or her term, a non-performing MP and the holding of a ‘recall election’ to replace the delinquent MP. This right empowers the people in many democracies, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (since 2015) and Belize in the Caribbean to hold politicians to account year round and not only at elections every five years.

4. Both parties should commit to strengthening Jamaica’s party registration and campaign finance regulations to reduce levels of secrecy which facilitate the few, behind closed doors, paying the piper and calling the tune. Big money, whether criminal or commercial, can better exercise undue influence, even capture, politicians and parties, to the detriment of the public interest, the more the few can pass contributions behind closed doors, away from public scrutiny.

In this regard, the identities of persons and entities contributing one million dollars to a party or a candidate, during or outside of an election campaign, should be disclosed to the public and not just to the Electoral Commission. Similarly, individuals or entities receiving government contracts of over $500,000, who contribute to political campaigns, should also be publicly disclosed, not only to the Electoral Commission.

Regaining the trust of the majority that elections can benefit not only the few but the many is an urgent imperative. These and similar recommendations can contribute to this objective, but only if citizens from all walks of life speak out and come together with leaders of integrity to ensure action to restore public confidence.

We must begin to feel that voting will make a difference, that it shall produce an administration which will jail the corrupt, seize their assets and recover for the benefit of the people the tens of billions of dollars stolen each year from the public purse.

Professor Trevor Munroe, CD, DPhil (Oxon), is the principal director of the National Integrity Action (NIA). Email feedback to tmunroe@niajamaica.org and columns@gleanerjm.com