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No to state funding
published: Sunday | October 8, 2006 <DIV class=KonaBody>
Dawn Ritch, Columnist
I have personally raised millions of dollars for Pearnel Charles and Portia Simpson Miller when they were running for the leadership of their respective parties.
No electoral commission now, or in the future will ever hear from my lips the names of those who gave me money. I have collected huge amounts of cash in great, big, bulging brown envelopes, as well as cheques. And nobody is going to get me to divulge the names of those donors.
The legislature of the country is about to enter another feverish round of regulation promulgation and red tape. It spells the end of my political fund-raising activities.
I am completely against any form of state-funding for political campaigns. The Jamaican taxpayer already pays more than enough for Jamaica politics. They pay for the drivers of the 60 Members of Parliament, the MPs' health insurance, ministerial special advisers as well as a myriad allowances for MPs labelled by ever-grander sounding names, and at ever-grander cost.
In the United Kingdom, the Labour party led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, is under investigation for the loans for peerages scandal. The Opposition Conservatives also has its fair share of dodgy cash. TheSunday Times newspaper of that country in a recent editorial entitled "No to State Funding" stated ...
"More state funding is not the solution. It is a lazy answer to the parties' inability to raise their own money through motivating their supporters. No other organisation can fall back on taxpayers' money simply because it finds itself unpopular and short of cash. It should be no different for political parties. Taxpayers bear quite enough burdens without making them pay for parties which many of them despise.
OVERREGULATION
"(Indeed) Labour's pitch on this issue - we cannot be trusted to raise money honestly so we want you to give it to us - is breathtaking in its audacity."
I'm convinced that overregulation always leads to manipulation. The less there is of one, the less corruption. Red tape is grossly inefficient as a method of operation. It also encourages avoidance, and has real potential to make criminals of the innocent.
Now the two major political parties in Jamaica are hunkering down for another round of deal-making. I predict therefore that every potential donor will, as a consequence, be laid open to criminal charges and public humiliation.
A particularly generous donor made me promise not to tell even the recipient that he had given the money. By the time our ever-eager legislators have finished therefore, they will have slammed the door on every honest donor. Far from wanting anything in return, many of them don't even want recognition.
My pitch was simple. I didn't pitch for a political party but for the individual who wanted to lead it. This was not only highly successful, but a tremendous amount of fun and deeply satisfying. I'm very sorry therefore that the People's National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party are about to make it impossible for me to do so again, all in the name of a little cheap and transient public relations.
Last week, Howard Mitchell had the nerve to write a letter to another newspaper saying "Abe Dabdoub has finally found a colour that suits him - yellow."
I know all about Mr. Mitchell's idea of courage. It is all about having ridiculous opinions, and encouraging others to hold them while he emigrates to Florida not once, but twice in his own lifetime.
COLOUR OF ENVY
He's the last person who should talk about colours, because he went from green to a shade of orange, then he went blue with Bruce Golding's National Democratic Movement, and, poor fellow, has now gone back to green, the colour of envy. It is clear he envies Dabdoub for havi
published: Sunday | October 8, 2006 <DIV class=KonaBody>
Dawn Ritch, Columnist
I have personally raised millions of dollars for Pearnel Charles and Portia Simpson Miller when they were running for the leadership of their respective parties.
No electoral commission now, or in the future will ever hear from my lips the names of those who gave me money. I have collected huge amounts of cash in great, big, bulging brown envelopes, as well as cheques. And nobody is going to get me to divulge the names of those donors.
The legislature of the country is about to enter another feverish round of regulation promulgation and red tape. It spells the end of my political fund-raising activities.
I am completely against any form of state-funding for political campaigns. The Jamaican taxpayer already pays more than enough for Jamaica politics. They pay for the drivers of the 60 Members of Parliament, the MPs' health insurance, ministerial special advisers as well as a myriad allowances for MPs labelled by ever-grander sounding names, and at ever-grander cost.
In the United Kingdom, the Labour party led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, is under investigation for the loans for peerages scandal. The Opposition Conservatives also has its fair share of dodgy cash. TheSunday Times newspaper of that country in a recent editorial entitled "No to State Funding" stated ...
"More state funding is not the solution. It is a lazy answer to the parties' inability to raise their own money through motivating their supporters. No other organisation can fall back on taxpayers' money simply because it finds itself unpopular and short of cash. It should be no different for political parties. Taxpayers bear quite enough burdens without making them pay for parties which many of them despise.
OVERREGULATION
"(Indeed) Labour's pitch on this issue - we cannot be trusted to raise money honestly so we want you to give it to us - is breathtaking in its audacity."
I'm convinced that overregulation always leads to manipulation. The less there is of one, the less corruption. Red tape is grossly inefficient as a method of operation. It also encourages avoidance, and has real potential to make criminals of the innocent.
Now the two major political parties in Jamaica are hunkering down for another round of deal-making. I predict therefore that every potential donor will, as a consequence, be laid open to criminal charges and public humiliation.
A particularly generous donor made me promise not to tell even the recipient that he had given the money. By the time our ever-eager legislators have finished therefore, they will have slammed the door on every honest donor. Far from wanting anything in return, many of them don't even want recognition.
My pitch was simple. I didn't pitch for a political party but for the individual who wanted to lead it. This was not only highly successful, but a tremendous amount of fun and deeply satisfying. I'm very sorry therefore that the People's National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party are about to make it impossible for me to do so again, all in the name of a little cheap and transient public relations.
Last week, Howard Mitchell had the nerve to write a letter to another newspaper saying "Abe Dabdoub has finally found a colour that suits him - yellow."
I know all about Mr. Mitchell's idea of courage. It is all about having ridiculous opinions, and encouraging others to hold them while he emigrates to Florida not once, but twice in his own lifetime.
COLOUR OF ENVY
He's the last person who should talk about colours, because he went from green to a shade of orange, then he went blue with Bruce Golding's National Democratic Movement, and, poor fellow, has now gone back to green, the colour of envy. It is clear he envies Dabdoub for havi
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Jean Lowrie-Chin </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>The past week was one of "hurriedly called press conferences". First, Opposition leader Bruce Golding waved around copies of cheques and floated a few leading questions about the donations of a Dutch/Nigerian oil-trading firm, Trafigura, to the PNP. By the next day, PNP chairman Robert Pickersgill flatly denied any wrongdoing, and offered to give out information on donors to his party if Mr Golding would do the same first (good old Jamaican "Say feh!").<P class=StoryText align=justify>Publicising the list of donors to campaigning will bring a sea-change to the way we do politics here. Politicians get very upset with the media when we criticise their way of doing business. One young politician told me years ago that he was under siege in his constituency, and was constantly raising funds to "mind" all comers. This exposes political representatives to all kinds of risks; no wonder some become wrapped up with unsavoury characters.<P class=StoryText align=justify>If the soon-to-be-formed Electoral Advisory Commission adopts the suggested guidelines for the reporting of campaign financing, it would be a boon for the honest politicians who are targets for scheming donors. And of course, it would force the less-than-honest to clean up their act.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But as frail and insecure human beings, much as we love truth and honesty, we are afraid they may not love us back. For this reason, we should also be actively examining legislation that will specifically address political victimisation.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We who have watched our politics unfold over the past four decades, know how subjective the concept of truth can be. Garrisons have bred passionate enforcers, the Talibans of Jamaican politics who will stop at nothing to gain power for their party.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=360 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>GOLDING and PICKERSGILL on campaign financing - 'say feh!' </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>We understand, therefore, why the media must be careful about hurriedly called press conferences. In these politically charged times, there will be accusations and counter-accusations. Such events make good news copy and generate talk-show excitement. Voters are observing keenly, and the media are the microscopes through which candidates are being examined.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Honesty is also the big issue in the coverage of the current scandal on Capitol Hill in the US. The media is flooded with accusations and analyses, as we learn that former well-respected congressman Mark Foley may have sent sexually explicit emails to under-age pages at Capitol Hill. Not only is Foley under the microscope, but the House Speaker J Dennis Hastert.<P class=StoryText align
, I am glad that you are seeing :crazy:the picture as I do. dem ya politican have no original ideas to source funds, how else does the people expect their tax money to be spent by these lazy heads. Yes, strong statement from you and I hope this open the eyes, no remove the vail from dem eyes and stay away from dem trick dick politicans.
Change di name tuh which-a wan yuh want? E.g. Wah bout XYZ company? Di har-gu-ment a di same!
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