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Governance and political intrigue
MARK WIGNALL
Thursday, June 02, 2011
ALTHOUGH some believe that we are dangerously close to that tipping point at which we all will be impelled to shout, "Send in the clowns!" there are others who share the view that if an administration is being buffeted by too much negative political intrigue, it matters little how much actual governance is practised; at some stage even that will become impossible.
The Wikileaks arsenal has been unkind to both the JLP and the Opposition PNP and the thought of more to come is highly unsettling to both political parties. First, we must bear in mind that at some level it must be unsettling too for the United States government, for every confidential conversation its diplomats had with individuals/government members in other countries are now being published for all the world to see.
Second, the US, UK and Canadian diplomatic missions in Jamaica are always on fact-finding tours. In this exercise there is no such thing as information overload. Foreign diplomats know that when they host their get-togethers and soirées where food and liquor are in abundance, there will always be some local personality, in government, business, the media or just "connected" who will be only too willing to boast to the foreigners about the levels of their information gathering, or how much they know of some of the others at that same gathering.
In this scenario many truths will come out, but it will reside right alongside significant embellishment. Outside of these cocktail parties, there will always be the more formal gathering - a one-on-one breakfast where the foreigners are likely to host a commissioner of police, a high-ranking member of the Government or Opposition or a member of the media. I ought to know because I have been invited to a few in my time and I would not want the general public to know what my views were at a particular time about a political personality.
Third, as we have seen in a few of the cables published about informal meetings with PNP personalities, at times, if truth and personal opinion must share the same stage, it will appear as if political infighting is the normal order. So far, we have learnt a number of things.
One, we are not highly thought of by these foreigners in terms of our ability to bring corruption into controllable limits. Two, the foreigners are interested only in our business to the extent that it impedes the progress of their countries' objectives. Donor countries to Jamaica or those lending us money will want to know how that money has been utilised, how workable are the structures it brought about and how trustworthy and competent are the local stewards. As long as, say, drug interdiction is going in the right direction, in the immediate period, it matters little to a donor country how many of our children are getting a third-rate education. That is our problem which we must fix.
One of the troubling aspects of the Wikileaks cables/publication is that it leads us to the degree to which we are controlled by the US, the EU missions and Canada. Let us face one fact - we need them more than they need us.
We need their money, which, when translated properly, means that the development surplus of their people is needed by us to assist in the process of dragging us out of our underdevelopment. When corruption creeps in, it creates a natural tendency to raise a flag, and if Wikileaks has done one single good thing for us, it is in the area of raising red flags on us.
At some stage of the publication of these confidential transmittals, it appeared that it was the ruling JLP that was constantly under the gun. Then one or two cables painted the PNP or key players in an unflattering light. When news broke recently about allegations of corruption in the KSAC involving PNP councillors, it dawned on some that we were into a season of political attrition. It was not so much about which political party was better than which, but which of them could amass the least red flags.
Jamaicans have always not seen much in corruption without fully understanding how it affects us. The typical scenario, as we understand it, is the big contractor securing a multi-million dollar contract from the administration he supports. First, knowing that his actual costs will be $200 million, he secures a $300-million contract. At the end of work and collection of the cheque, it is expected that, say, $30 million will be channelled back to certain point people in the administration, the money powerhouses.
Each administration, PNP or JLP, has them.
But corruption operates at a niggling but important level and it touches on direct governance. A few Sundays ago I published a picture I had taken of a man standing in a pothole. The pothole was over five feet deep. I asked the man to stand in it for effect. Well, a few days after the column appeared, a road crew was sent out and I began the foolish process of patting myself on the back.
What actually happened was the pothole which is on a fairly steep incline was crudely filled with marl, barely tamped down and, a few days later when the area experienced a heavy downpour, all of the marl was washed out and we were back to square one.
Corruption was in those men taking marl to the site without heavy stones. Corruption was in not sealing the surface with tar. Then the real corruption was in the payment to those charlatans who gave us worse than nothing - they gave us huge mounds of marl in the middle of what is left of the road and the five-foot pothole still stands.
Corruption will always exist as part of the human condition. Governmental corruption will always flourish, especially where it has grown into the culture of our politics. Many Jamaicans are of the view that governance in Jamaica is impossible without a significant dose of corruption.
Said one man to me recently, "When di PNP was in power, times wasn't so hard. Dem man deh know how fi mek money run." As I pointed out to him that it was unfair (but acceptable) to compare an administration that occupied power for more than 18 years to one three and a half years old, especially when the global recession was factored in, he said, "If PNP was inna power now, dem woulda find a way fi mek money run."
As he explained further, the PNP's corruption was different from the JLP's. "The PNP mek di small man get some a di runnings money but JLP lock it dung 'mongst demselves."
The extent to which the man and woman at street level believe that the time lag in money filtering down to them is shorter under the
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1OBDvmmXZ
MARK WIGNALL
Thursday, June 02, 2011
ALTHOUGH some believe that we are dangerously close to that tipping point at which we all will be impelled to shout, "Send in the clowns!" there are others who share the view that if an administration is being buffeted by too much negative political intrigue, it matters little how much actual governance is practised; at some stage even that will become impossible.
The Wikileaks arsenal has been unkind to both the JLP and the Opposition PNP and the thought of more to come is highly unsettling to both political parties. First, we must bear in mind that at some level it must be unsettling too for the United States government, for every confidential conversation its diplomats had with individuals/government members in other countries are now being published for all the world to see.
Second, the US, UK and Canadian diplomatic missions in Jamaica are always on fact-finding tours. In this exercise there is no such thing as information overload. Foreign diplomats know that when they host their get-togethers and soirées where food and liquor are in abundance, there will always be some local personality, in government, business, the media or just "connected" who will be only too willing to boast to the foreigners about the levels of their information gathering, or how much they know of some of the others at that same gathering.
In this scenario many truths will come out, but it will reside right alongside significant embellishment. Outside of these cocktail parties, there will always be the more formal gathering - a one-on-one breakfast where the foreigners are likely to host a commissioner of police, a high-ranking member of the Government or Opposition or a member of the media. I ought to know because I have been invited to a few in my time and I would not want the general public to know what my views were at a particular time about a political personality.
Third, as we have seen in a few of the cables published about informal meetings with PNP personalities, at times, if truth and personal opinion must share the same stage, it will appear as if political infighting is the normal order. So far, we have learnt a number of things.
One, we are not highly thought of by these foreigners in terms of our ability to bring corruption into controllable limits. Two, the foreigners are interested only in our business to the extent that it impedes the progress of their countries' objectives. Donor countries to Jamaica or those lending us money will want to know how that money has been utilised, how workable are the structures it brought about and how trustworthy and competent are the local stewards. As long as, say, drug interdiction is going in the right direction, in the immediate period, it matters little to a donor country how many of our children are getting a third-rate education. That is our problem which we must fix.
One of the troubling aspects of the Wikileaks cables/publication is that it leads us to the degree to which we are controlled by the US, the EU missions and Canada. Let us face one fact - we need them more than they need us.
We need their money, which, when translated properly, means that the development surplus of their people is needed by us to assist in the process of dragging us out of our underdevelopment. When corruption creeps in, it creates a natural tendency to raise a flag, and if Wikileaks has done one single good thing for us, it is in the area of raising red flags on us.
At some stage of the publication of these confidential transmittals, it appeared that it was the ruling JLP that was constantly under the gun. Then one or two cables painted the PNP or key players in an unflattering light. When news broke recently about allegations of corruption in the KSAC involving PNP councillors, it dawned on some that we were into a season of political attrition. It was not so much about which political party was better than which, but which of them could amass the least red flags.
Jamaicans have always not seen much in corruption without fully understanding how it affects us. The typical scenario, as we understand it, is the big contractor securing a multi-million dollar contract from the administration he supports. First, knowing that his actual costs will be $200 million, he secures a $300-million contract. At the end of work and collection of the cheque, it is expected that, say, $30 million will be channelled back to certain point people in the administration, the money powerhouses.
Each administration, PNP or JLP, has them.
But corruption operates at a niggling but important level and it touches on direct governance. A few Sundays ago I published a picture I had taken of a man standing in a pothole. The pothole was over five feet deep. I asked the man to stand in it for effect. Well, a few days after the column appeared, a road crew was sent out and I began the foolish process of patting myself on the back.
What actually happened was the pothole which is on a fairly steep incline was crudely filled with marl, barely tamped down and, a few days later when the area experienced a heavy downpour, all of the marl was washed out and we were back to square one.
Corruption was in those men taking marl to the site without heavy stones. Corruption was in not sealing the surface with tar. Then the real corruption was in the payment to those charlatans who gave us worse than nothing - they gave us huge mounds of marl in the middle of what is left of the road and the five-foot pothole still stands.
Corruption will always exist as part of the human condition. Governmental corruption will always flourish, especially where it has grown into the culture of our politics. Many Jamaicans are of the view that governance in Jamaica is impossible without a significant dose of corruption.
Said one man to me recently, "When di PNP was in power, times wasn't so hard. Dem man deh know how fi mek money run." As I pointed out to him that it was unfair (but acceptable) to compare an administration that occupied power for more than 18 years to one three and a half years old, especially when the global recession was factored in, he said, "If PNP was inna power now, dem woulda find a way fi mek money run."
As he explained further, the PNP's corruption was different from the JLP's. "The PNP mek di small man get some a di runnings money but JLP lock it dung 'mongst demselves."
The extent to which the man and woman at street level believe that the time lag in money filtering down to them is shorter under the
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1OBDvmmXZ