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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>It does take cash to care</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, November 27, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>If you don't think we need politicians, consider the representatives who have been slogging through St Mary and Portland over the past few days, helping residents to deal with the sudden floods that up to Friday, had taken one life. They are the MPs, caretakers and councillors whose dedication must know no season.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Jean Lowrie-Chin</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Yet they are left to the mercy of friends and well-wishers to obtain party and campaign funding. "It is shocking," said JLP deputy treasurer Daryl Vaz. "In a democratic country politics is big business. it is a struggle, and the response from corporate Jamaica is seasonal."<P class=StoryText align=justify>We were attending a substantial presentation by Independent EAC member, respected veteran attorney-at-law Dorothy Pine-McLarty last Thursday. Her topic was Political Party and Campaign Financing. Mrs Pine-McLarty advocated a more open and supportive system for the operation and funding of political parties and campaigns.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Mrs Pine-McLarty reminded us that, believe it or not, political parties around which our democracy revolves, are not legal entities in Jamaica. While a candidate is recognised by law, a party is not. She observed that:
. There are no legal provisions regulating the parties' sources of financing.<P class=StoryText align=justify>. Members' subscriptions are ad hoc and not substantial.
. There are no legal requirements for the disclosure of the parties' financial structure.
. Financing comes largely from politicians' own personal funds, fund-raising, and/or the private sector.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Rev Devon Dick felt that the Jamaican taxpayer was already too burdened to be expected to cough up campaign funds. But National Consumers' League president Carlton Stewart took a totally different perspective. He pointed out that "of the 100 largest entities in the world, 51 are businesses - businesses are becoming larger than countries." Therefore, he argued, to counterbalance this dominance of big business, consumers - in other words, the state - should regulate and finance political parties.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=120 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>EAC Independent member Dorothy Pine-McLarty: advocating a more supportive and open system for political parties. </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Mrs Pine-McLarty shared with us the German and Canadian models. Both countries participated in a conference on party and campaign financing held in Jamaica earlier this year. In Germany, there is a limit to the number of political ads in the media, and the state matches each euro donated with euro 0.36. In Canada, the state reimburses candidates 50 per cent of their campaign spending.<P class=StoryText align=justify>She quoted the Canadian representative at the conference to support the call on limits to campaign spending: "If the system does not contain the money, the money will contain the system."
But disclosure has its challenges, and businessman Peter McConnell made it clear that vicitmisation stills exists and that he knows of companies and individuals that had been labelled and victimised. "We live in a tribal society,
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, November 27, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>If you don't think we need politicians, consider the representatives who have been slogging through St Mary and Portland over the past few days, helping residents to deal with the sudden floods that up to Friday, had taken one life. They are the MPs, caretakers and councillors whose dedication must know no season.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Jean Lowrie-Chin</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Yet they are left to the mercy of friends and well-wishers to obtain party and campaign funding. "It is shocking," said JLP deputy treasurer Daryl Vaz. "In a democratic country politics is big business. it is a struggle, and the response from corporate Jamaica is seasonal."<P class=StoryText align=justify>We were attending a substantial presentation by Independent EAC member, respected veteran attorney-at-law Dorothy Pine-McLarty last Thursday. Her topic was Political Party and Campaign Financing. Mrs Pine-McLarty advocated a more open and supportive system for the operation and funding of political parties and campaigns.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Mrs Pine-McLarty reminded us that, believe it or not, political parties around which our democracy revolves, are not legal entities in Jamaica. While a candidate is recognised by law, a party is not. She observed that:. There are no legal provisions regulating the parties' sources of financing.<P class=StoryText align=justify>. Members' subscriptions are ad hoc and not substantial.
. There are no legal requirements for the disclosure of the parties' financial structure.
. Financing comes largely from politicians' own personal funds, fund-raising, and/or the private sector.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Rev Devon Dick felt that the Jamaican taxpayer was already too burdened to be expected to cough up campaign funds. But National Consumers' League president Carlton Stewart took a totally different perspective. He pointed out that "of the 100 largest entities in the world, 51 are businesses - businesses are becoming larger than countries." Therefore, he argued, to counterbalance this dominance of big business, consumers - in other words, the state - should regulate and finance political parties.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=120 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>EAC Independent member Dorothy Pine-McLarty: advocating a more supportive and open system for political parties. </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Mrs Pine-McLarty shared with us the German and Canadian models. Both countries participated in a conference on party and campaign financing held in Jamaica earlier this year. In Germany, there is a limit to the number of political ads in the media, and the state matches each euro donated with euro 0.36. In Canada, the state reimburses candidates 50 per cent of their campaign spending.<P class=StoryText align=justify>She quoted the Canadian representative at the conference to support the call on limits to campaign spending: "If the system does not contain the money, the money will contain the system."But disclosure has its challenges, and businessman Peter McConnell made it clear that vicitmisation stills exists and that he knows of companies and individuals that had been labelled and victimised. "We live in a tribal society,
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