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Ian Boyne, Contributor
It was an equal-opportunity week of sorts for the country's two main political parties as far as the corruption focus was concerned. Bruce Golding is either born lucky, has God on his side or some good obeah man somewhere. For just when The Sunday Gleaner made a miserable start to his week, no less a Messianic figure than the contractor general resurrected the Trafigura corpse.
And near the end of the week, with Golding's information minister, Daryl Vaz displaying Damascus-Road type humility and contrition at his post-Cabinet press briefing, Crusader Christie again highlighted other high-profile political opponents of Golding's, raising that alleged sweetheart deal between Omar Davies and Dehring, Bunting and Golding, under the previous People's National Party (PNP) government. It was a well-timed - or providential - deflection for the beleaguered Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) which, gladly, shared headlines with Colin Campbell and Peter Bunting.
But beyond the political theatrics and balancing acts of last week lie some substantial issues for the Jamaican people. 'An issue of trust', blared The Gleaner headline of last Tuesday, focusing on the church's strong questioning of Golding's role in the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips saga. But right below that was, 'Charge him - CG,' with a photo of former PNP minister, Colin Campbell, whose attempt to re-enter politics blew up in his face last week. It's not a good time for politicians overall. And without even drawing any moral equivalence between Trafigura and Manatt, there is undoubtedly an issue of trust affecting the entire political class in Jamaica.
I have frequently chastised our intelligentsia, particularly those most vocal in the media, for crude economic determinism and an economistic focus. We are generally contemptuous of ideology, or any explicit focus on values and mores. Our motto is, "seek first the economic kingdom and all things shall be added." We have not spent time in developing what the father of modern capitalism, philosopher-economist Adam Smith, called the moral sentiments, without which capitalism has no foundation. (The Wall Street crash and other irrational exuberances of turbo-charged capitalism should be enough to vindicate Smith).
Overshadowing everything
Yet, ironically, with the appreciable containment of the effects of the global crisis - the success of the debt exchange; the 32-year record low interest rate; halt to the runaway slide of the Jamaican dollar; successful divestment of Air Jamaica and the sugar factories; the slow rebounding of the bauxite industry etc, the Government has to be trying to get our attention to note the progress being made. Even the welcome decline in murders is not getting the kind of traction it might have because this issue of trust and morality in political life has overshadowed everything else.
We want to know whether we have a prime minister we can trust, a prime minister who won't lie to us. In other words, we want a moral prime minister, not just one who is taking care of the economy and our security.
So morality matters, after all. It is interesting that sophisticated, avant-garde, non-fundamentalist people are so uptight about whether a prime minister lies or not. I thought it was only naive people who believed that their political leaders don't lie expediently. But it turns out that there is an expectation, after all, that political leaders must come clean, even when it can cost them their careers. And it turns out that even sophisticated secularists and deists like Wilmot Perkins and full atheists like Mark Wignall really hold to the notion we can find people committed to absolute truth-telling and absolute, flawless integrity. Without any reference at all to the PM's role in this Manatt issue, perhaps I am too cynical or pessimistic about human nature, but I don't believe the average politician anywhere in any country is committed inexorably to absolute truth-telling. If I were to wager, I would bet that most politicians are situation ethicists rather than absolutists when it comes to truth-telling.
It was an equal-opportunity week of sorts for the country's two main political parties as far as the corruption focus was concerned. Bruce Golding is either born lucky, has God on his side or some good obeah man somewhere. For just when The Sunday Gleaner made a miserable start to his week, no less a Messianic figure than the contractor general resurrected the Trafigura corpse.
And near the end of the week, with Golding's information minister, Daryl Vaz displaying Damascus-Road type humility and contrition at his post-Cabinet press briefing, Crusader Christie again highlighted other high-profile political opponents of Golding's, raising that alleged sweetheart deal between Omar Davies and Dehring, Bunting and Golding, under the previous People's National Party (PNP) government. It was a well-timed - or providential - deflection for the beleaguered Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) which, gladly, shared headlines with Colin Campbell and Peter Bunting.
But beyond the political theatrics and balancing acts of last week lie some substantial issues for the Jamaican people. 'An issue of trust', blared The Gleaner headline of last Tuesday, focusing on the church's strong questioning of Golding's role in the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips saga. But right below that was, 'Charge him - CG,' with a photo of former PNP minister, Colin Campbell, whose attempt to re-enter politics blew up in his face last week. It's not a good time for politicians overall. And without even drawing any moral equivalence between Trafigura and Manatt, there is undoubtedly an issue of trust affecting the entire political class in Jamaica.
I have frequently chastised our intelligentsia, particularly those most vocal in the media, for crude economic determinism and an economistic focus. We are generally contemptuous of ideology, or any explicit focus on values and mores. Our motto is, "seek first the economic kingdom and all things shall be added." We have not spent time in developing what the father of modern capitalism, philosopher-economist Adam Smith, called the moral sentiments, without which capitalism has no foundation. (The Wall Street crash and other irrational exuberances of turbo-charged capitalism should be enough to vindicate Smith).
Overshadowing everything
Yet, ironically, with the appreciable containment of the effects of the global crisis - the success of the debt exchange; the 32-year record low interest rate; halt to the runaway slide of the Jamaican dollar; successful divestment of Air Jamaica and the sugar factories; the slow rebounding of the bauxite industry etc, the Government has to be trying to get our attention to note the progress being made. Even the welcome decline in murders is not getting the kind of traction it might have because this issue of trust and morality in political life has overshadowed everything else.
We want to know whether we have a prime minister we can trust, a prime minister who won't lie to us. In other words, we want a moral prime minister, not just one who is taking care of the economy and our security.
So morality matters, after all. It is interesting that sophisticated, avant-garde, non-fundamentalist people are so uptight about whether a prime minister lies or not. I thought it was only naive people who believed that their political leaders don't lie expediently. But it turns out that there is an expectation, after all, that political leaders must come clean, even when it can cost them their careers. And it turns out that even sophisticated secularists and deists like Wilmot Perkins and full atheists like Mark Wignall really hold to the notion we can find people committed to absolute truth-telling and absolute, flawless integrity. Without any reference at all to the PM's role in this Manatt issue, perhaps I am too cynical or pessimistic about human nature, but I don't believe the average politician anywhere in any country is committed inexorably to absolute truth-telling. If I were to wager, I would bet that most politicians are situation ethicists rather than absolutists when it comes to truth-telling.
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