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EDITORIAL - Trafigura probe and lessons from Britain
published: Monday | December 10, 2007
The Trafigura affair may have been, as the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) suggested, more than a case of a foreign company attempting to win influence and protect contracts by greasing the coffers of a ruling party. It may have involved, too, graft-taking by members of the Government that was in office up to September of this year.
These issues, perhaps, will be settled by the investigation launched by the Dutch Government into the matter revealed by Bruce Golding, who is now the Jamaican Prime Minister, but was Leader of the Opposition when the scandal broke. Clearly, Trafigura was a boon to Mr. Golding's JLP in the campaign for the general election, helping it to reinforce its contention that the People's National Party (PNP) and the Government it formed for 18 years were venal and corrupt.
Whatever the findings of the Dutch investigators in their suspicion that one of their companies bribed foreign officials, this newspaper holds, as it has argued from the start, that Trafigura demands more than a criminal investigation. It insists, we believe, on a clear, cogent and coherent approach to political party, as well as election financing, moving this critical area of our national life out of the potential control of carpetbaggers and special-interest influence pedlars.
Indeed, our position on this matter has been reinforced by recent events in Britain - a variation of whose Westminster parliamentary democracy we practise - underlining the capacity of those with deep pockets to purchase influence. In doing so, they prefer to keep the spotlight away from themselves and the public in the dark.
It emerged last week that David Abrahams, a property developer with close ties to the British Labour Party, steered cash to contenders for the party's deputy leadership during last summer's election. No one has claimed that the contributions had anything to do with Mr. Abrahams' projects, but plenty people are wary that he used proxies to funnel the contributions to the candidates, including the eventual winner of Labour's chairperson, Harriet Harman, and Works and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain. These gifts were never properly reported to the Electoral Commission.
In another case, labour in Scotland Wendy Alexander was forced to return a contribution to a Jersey-based businessman who was not on the voters' register. The recent incident followed the cash-for-peerage scandal under Tony Blair, in which rich Labour Party supporters who loaned the party money wound up in the House of Lords.
There are more than tangential connections between the British cases and the Trafigura affair, notwithstanding the fact that Trafigura Beheer was a foreign company doing business in Jamaica. We may be angry when foreigners are the ones buying the influence, but the stench should be no more offensive when it comes from domestic sources. Moreover, the dangers to the political process and a laissez-faire funding market come not only from legitimate business types, but from criminals intent on buying their way to protection and the dominance of the state.
It is critical, we believe, that the Government, even as it pursues the Trafigura affair, moves with urgency on campaign and political party financing. The people have a right to know the pipers and the tunes to which they would want us to dance.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
published: Monday | December 10, 2007
The Trafigura affair may have been, as the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) suggested, more than a case of a foreign company attempting to win influence and protect contracts by greasing the coffers of a ruling party. It may have involved, too, graft-taking by members of the Government that was in office up to September of this year.
These issues, perhaps, will be settled by the investigation launched by the Dutch Government into the matter revealed by Bruce Golding, who is now the Jamaican Prime Minister, but was Leader of the Opposition when the scandal broke. Clearly, Trafigura was a boon to Mr. Golding's JLP in the campaign for the general election, helping it to reinforce its contention that the People's National Party (PNP) and the Government it formed for 18 years were venal and corrupt.
Whatever the findings of the Dutch investigators in their suspicion that one of their companies bribed foreign officials, this newspaper holds, as it has argued from the start, that Trafigura demands more than a criminal investigation. It insists, we believe, on a clear, cogent and coherent approach to political party, as well as election financing, moving this critical area of our national life out of the potential control of carpetbaggers and special-interest influence pedlars.
Indeed, our position on this matter has been reinforced by recent events in Britain - a variation of whose Westminster parliamentary democracy we practise - underlining the capacity of those with deep pockets to purchase influence. In doing so, they prefer to keep the spotlight away from themselves and the public in the dark.
It emerged last week that David Abrahams, a property developer with close ties to the British Labour Party, steered cash to contenders for the party's deputy leadership during last summer's election. No one has claimed that the contributions had anything to do with Mr. Abrahams' projects, but plenty people are wary that he used proxies to funnel the contributions to the candidates, including the eventual winner of Labour's chairperson, Harriet Harman, and Works and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain. These gifts were never properly reported to the Electoral Commission.
In another case, labour in Scotland Wendy Alexander was forced to return a contribution to a Jersey-based businessman who was not on the voters' register. The recent incident followed the cash-for-peerage scandal under Tony Blair, in which rich Labour Party supporters who loaned the party money wound up in the House of Lords.
There are more than tangential connections between the British cases and the Trafigura affair, notwithstanding the fact that Trafigura Beheer was a foreign company doing business in Jamaica. We may be angry when foreigners are the ones buying the influence, but the stench should be no more offensive when it comes from domestic sources. Moreover, the dangers to the political process and a laissez-faire funding market come not only from legitimate business types, but from criminals intent on buying their way to protection and the dominance of the state.
It is critical, we believe, that the Government, even as it pursues the Trafigura affair, moves with urgency on campaign and political party financing. The people have a right to know the pipers and the tunes to which they would want us to dance.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
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